Sixteen-year-old Trinity Oliver was found dead near a Manurewa train station in September 2021.
Sixteen-year-old Trinity Oliver was found dead near a Manurewa train station in September 2021.
A devastated father whose daughter was violently strangled to death says parents should always tell their children they love them.
Trinity Oliver’s unclothed lifeless body was found near a Manurewa train station during Auckland’s 2021 Covid-19 lockdown.
Todayher killer, 24-year-old Vikhil Krishna, was found guilty of murder— with jurors rejecting the notion he should instead be found guilty of manslaughter because he was too out of it to foresee the death.
Trinity’s father, Mathew Oliver, had been at the court proceedings since day one of the three-week trial, and said the verdict had brought some closure to the family.
“It was pretty much what our family was hoping for. It doesn’t bring her back but for us it partly brings closure, I guess,” said Oliver.
Vikhil Krishna appears in the Auckland High Court charged with the murder of 16-year-old Trinity Oliver. Photo / Jason Oxenham
He said he constantly thinks about what he could have done differently the night before Trinity was found dead on September 11, 2021.
“So many scenarios run through my mind.”
He said the last moments he shared with her were on that night. He had taken food out to her cabin and they had chatted about their days and her siblings while she played on her PlayStation.
As he left for work the next morning he said he had heard her television still on but presumed she had just fallen asleep and forgotten to turn it off.
“I didn’t think anything of it.”
Asked what helps him get through losing Trinity in such a violent way, he said “I can’t.”
Oliver said at the time of her death, Trinity had been training to be a kōhanga reo teacher.
He said she had also been very close to her three younger siblings, and loved animals.
“She was an angel,” he said.
“She had a future ahead of her.”
Through tears, Oliver relayed some important advice for other parents.
“One of my mates at work, who has children, I said to him, every day that you wake up you remind your children of how much you love them. Every time you see them, you let them know how much you love them,” he said.
“Don’t ever drop your guard when it comes to your children, be aware of what they’re doing and where they are as much as you can.”
Sixteen-year-old Trinity Oliver was found dead near a Manurewa train station in September 2021.
Oliver said he would like to know from Krishna what exactly happened that night and why he killed Trinity.
“I don’t think I’d get an honest answer out of him.”
He said he also felt for Krishna’s parents.
“They’ve lost as well.”
Krishna stood in the dock with a newly acquired black eye this morning as jurors in the High Court at Auckland returned the verdict after roughly five hours of deliberation spanning two days.
More than a dozen relatives of Trinity filled one side of the courtroom gallery — as they had for much of the three-week trial. Some wiped away tears as the verdict was read.
Justice Peter Andrew set a sentencing date for May.
There was a 12-minute period on the morning of Trinity’s death between when she was photographed by Krishna engaged in a sexual act — her face showing no signs of trauma — and when CCTV cameras from the nearby train station showed him hastily driving away. Her unclothed body, found in the same spot roughly 13 hours later, showed multiple signs of blunt-force trauma to her head, a large bite mark on her arm and multiple injuries to her neck — including a straight, thin 12cm red line stretching across the front of her neck.
