KEY POINTS:
The grief-stricken husband of a woman left for dead for seven hours after a hit-and-run says his wife believes she was deliberately run down.
"She saw the car coming at her. She thinks it was deliberate," said Nigel Rowthorne, who has been communicating with badly-injured Melissa in Auckland Hospital "via a system of blinks".
Looking drawn and pale, Rowthorne relived the moment he found his wife in a ditch on a country road near Matakana, north of Auckland.
She was undiscovered for seven hours after being knocked down around midnight during a late-night walk just a few hundred metres from her home.
"I will never forget the look on her face," said Rowthorne.
"Her beautiful blue eyes had gone smoky grey, she was staring at me, gurgling my name, in absolute fear and pain."
The 41-year-old mother-of-two was so badly injured the neighbours who found her could not recognise her.
"The smell of death was close," said Rowthorne, with tears welling in his eyes.
The music promoter, who is behind the Music Mountain Matakana event, said his anger over the hit-and-run was "just starting to brew".
Melissa was picked up by a rescue helicopter and flown to Auckland Hospital, where she is in a serious condition with a fractured vertebra, fractured skull, a tracheotomy and severe bruising over much of her body.
Rowthorne said he had been forced to consider the possibility that the hit-and-run was deliberate.
He took the Herald on Sunday to the scene in Govan Wilson Rd, and pointed out where the grass verge was flattened by a vehicle veering off the unsealed road.
There was no sign of skid marks or any indication the vehicle went out of control. "It's pretty spooky," he said.
Rowthorne's anger is also directed at the police, who he said were slow to react to the incident. He believed if the dead-end road had been closed off immediately the culprit could have been caught.
Rowthorne described his wife, a psychologist and Buddhist, as a "selfless and talented professional". He said she could have pursued a high-paying career but preferred to travel to Auckland's North Shore to help treat people with mental health problems one on one.
"Melissa is the kind of lady who would forgive this driver - and probably offer him free counselling," said Rowthorne. He is not so forgiving. "If she had slipped into unconsciousness she would have died. If they had put her in the ambulance and bumped her down that road, she would have died.
"If this car deliberately hit her, that's attempted murder. How could you go to bed or have another beer if you knew you had done it? You wouldn't treat a dog like that."
Rowthorne is exhausted preparing for the festival, featuring Fat Freddy's Drop on February 23-24, looking after their 8-year-old son Ollie, and travelling to and from the hospital daily.
He expected Melissa to be in hospital for weeks. He said he found himself checking passing cars for damage and considering who could be responsible for his wife's injuries.
"The options are a joyrider, somebody who lives here or somebody visiting. It's a possibility the person didn't know they had hit somebody. Maybe we will never know." He said there were some "dodgy" types in the area but most of his neighbours were extremely supportive.
Detective Kevin Blackman, of Warkworth CIB, said it was "99 per cent certain" that whoever was behind the wheel of the hit-and-run vehicle knew he or she had struck something.
"The vehicle has left the road. They would have felt something. They would have had their lights on."
Blackman said police still had to finish canvassing homes in the area.
"It's in the middle of nowhere. If it's not someone on the street, it's someone who knows the area.
"You either go there to visit someone or you live there. It's probably someone from the wider Warkworth area. We still want to hear from anyone driving in the area that night."
Blackman said the driver would probably be showing some signs of the stress he or she was under and the vehicle could be damaged.
Police had still not been able to talk to Melissa. "It will still be a number of days before we can talk to her."
Anyone with information can ring Blackman at the Warkworth Police Station on (09) 425-0836.
