'You never get over it'

By Jan Corbett

When the police rang David and Beth Merryweather at their home in rural Auckland 12 years ago, to tell them their son's belongings had been found strewn down a bank near Picton, they were naturally alarmed.

But the police said not to worry - burglary was rife on the interisland ferries and Craig had probably had his backpack stolen on board.

It was August 1987 and a trip to Queenstown had been a spur-of-the-moment decision for 20-year-old Craig, a business studies student at Massey University.

He had intended a skiing at Mt Ruapehu, but snow was scarce that winter and he decided instead to thumb a ride south, even though his father had often told him never to hitchhike.

Craig phoned from a family friend's place in Wellington to tell his parents of his change of plan.

For days, then weeks, the Merryweathers waited for Craig to telephone and tell them he'd been robbed and needed money to get home.

When the call didn't come, David Merryweather, a farmer and chartered accountant, "feared the worst, but hoped for the best."

The police suggested Craig was missing, had had an accident, committed suicide or, least likely of all, been murdered.

The Merryweathers advertised for Craig in newspapers all over the country. They stored the bottle of champagne bought for his upcoming 21st birthday.

It was another two agonising years before they learned the truth.

After seeing the story on Crimewatch, owners of a camping ground near Para

paraumu came forward with a story of three Pakeha teenagers heard boasting about "wasting" a hitchhiker in the South Island around that time.

The police raided the home of one of the teenagers and found Craig Merryweather's backpack and sleeping bag. The teenager's two accomplices were rounded up (one, Tony Wilkins, was already in prison for murder).

Eventually the Merryweathers were told the full story.

The blond, blue-eyed Wilkins and his two mates, Duncan Mitchell and Jason Dermer, were heading south in a stolen car, running from the police. As they were driving off the ferry in Picton they saw a tall, good-looking hitchhiker about to enter a backpackers' hostel. They suggested he ride with them and share petrol costs.

At Blenheim, Craig used his Eftpos card to buy petrol. By Lindis Pass the trio had decided he must be a wealthy university student and they could use his bank account but they could do without him.

"He had less money than they did on the dole," his father says bitterly, reasoning that they were too stupid to know a student had more debt than cash.

When Craig got out of the car to check what they said was an overheated engine, they produced two stolen .22 rifles and executed him, stopping to reload between bullets.

They shot him repeatedly - "using him for target practice," says his father - and buried him in a shallow grave while he was still breathing.

Friends told David and Beth Merryweather they were lucky to have each other.

"But you don't have each other. You're alone," says David. "Your grief is so intense that really you're on your own. You argue, you fight, you hate at times. It's like two people pulling a cart and one weakens and falls and the other one takes the load and blames the one who has fallen.

"You never get over it, especially with murder. If you lose a parent you still have the past to remember. If you lose a child you lose the future. There's a difference between losing someone from an accident or illness and from the deliberate extinction of life."

August 17 was the 12th anniversary of Craig's death. Next month, after 10 years inside, the first of his killers will be released from jail.

Ten years, says David Merryweather, is not enough for the ultimate crime.

"You can never forgive them," he says. "They took away all the innocence we had."