Church bells of joy give thanks

By ANGELA GREGORY

As news of the return of baby Kahu spread, the bells of the Anglican Church in Woburn Rd, Lower Hutt, began to toll out joyfully.

In a community which had felt itself under a pall after the abduction of the eight-month-old daughter of lawyer Donna Hall and High Court judge Eddie Durie, the bells were a sudden burst of release.

One neighbour told the Herald as the bells tolled through the warm night: "They are the bells of joy ...

"They are like a release valve."

He said: "When I spoke to my wife on the phone, I said can you hear those bells going off.

"They tell the whole story."

To him, the bells showed the village atmosphere of a community that had faced despair, and now rejoiced.

"The bells sounded happy."

Just moments earlier, the Anglican minister of St James Church had left the house of Donna Hall and Eddie Durie, all lit up in the dark street, with the good news.

Their nine-day vigil was at an end.

Vicar Frank Nelson said he had immediately gone to the church to ring out the news.

"I rang them out to give thanks."

Neighbours felt a huge sense of relief.

One young man said his family were pleased the baby was returned. He had a 13-year-old sister and the idea of a child abduction had scared the family.

They got the news flash watching television or listening to the radio.

Even the three policemen guarding the Hall and Durie hosue were not immune. They rushed inside to watch the televised press conference announcing the baby's return on the 10.30pm television news.

Another woman in the niehbourhood, answering the door in her nightie, said she had always felt confident that the baby would come home.

One man, who did not want to be named, had just returned from Sydney, where he lived in a community where a child had been abducted from a school.

The pain of never knowing what had happened had hung over the community like a pall.

The man, who has two young children under 12, was moved by the sound of the bells.

A newcomer to the area, he had got to know his neighbours by talking over the fence about the awfulness of the abduction, as people in the area shared their shock.

People often did not know Donna Hall and Eddie Durie but they had imagined their pain and prayed for the safe return of their daughter.

The area is an affluent one. Its quiet leafy streets, with large parks, are dotted with immaculate two storey houses.

The peace of the neighbourhood was shattered with the gunpoint abduction of Baby Kahu eight days ago. Since then residents were anxious and scared but also protective of the family.

The focus of the inquiry that has gripped the country remained partly on Lower Hutt last night. Police found the car used in the kidnapping in the suburb earlier in the evening.

Policealso said they could not discount a link between the abduction and the killing of Kate Alkema, who was strangled as she walked, in Lower Hutt the same day.

While they did not have evidence to link the two events, they could not discount it.

Detective Superintendent Larry Reid asked people to think of the Alkema family and their pain.

But last night, joy was in the air in Lower Hutt as the sound of the bells tolled out.

Full coverage: Baby Kahu kidnapping


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