Eighteen months after his wife was murdered by a violent mental health patient on community leave as she walked home from work, Nemani Tunidau has heard nothing from the health board responsible for her killer’s care. Herald senior crime reporter Sam Sherwood reports.
Nemani Tunidau sits in the living room of his Christchurch home about a 10-minute walk from where he had lived with his wife, Laisa Waka Tunidau.
He vividly recalls dropping her off at work and saying goodbye for the last time on June 25, 2022, before he drove to Waimate for a day trip.
Laisa was on her way home that afternoon when she was murdered by a stranger, Zakariye Mohamed Hussein.
The killer was an inpatient at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch and had 10 years earlier been jailed for a stabbing rampage, nearly killing a man.
Following Laisa’s murder, both Te Whatu Ora, and the Ministry of Health announced reviews - one into Hussein’s care, the other into the secure unit at Hillmorton.
Eighteen months on, Tunidau told the Herald he’d received no correspondence from either agency.
“Nothing. Not one word.”
He feels his family has been “forgotten”.
“I feel helpless,” he says.
“I want to ask them why in the first place did they release this guy out? They haven’t done anything. They haven’t come and said sorry for what has happened, nothing.”
‘Pray for mum’
Hussein was granted community leave from the hospital at about 2.30pm on June 25, 2022. He then took a bus to Sockburn and started walking to his family home.
On the way, he became angry about some issues arising at the hospital. Earlier that day he was frustrated with hospital staff, in particular, because they removed staples from a newspaper supplement advertising real estate that he had been examining and circling properties he was going to purchase.
He believed God was going to give him money so he could buy houses and marry staff.
While walking to his family home he saw a man mowing his lawns and decided to stab him. At his family’s house, he took a steak knife from the kitchen drawer and put it in his pocket.
Once he went outside towards his intended victim he saw two men washing a car and considered stabbing them. However, he thought it was too close to home and did not want his own family to witness anything.
As he walked down Cheyenne St, he saw a woman walking. He took out the knife and stabbed Laisa repeatedly as she tried to protect herself.
He then threw away the knife and walked away from the scene.
“If they kept that guy on the facility nothing would’ve happened. They should be the ones who get charged … they’re the ones whose responsibility this is. They let him out.”
Tunidau pauses to compose himself, as tears begin to fall when he talks about the moment he received a text from his son asking him to “please pray for mum”.
The 11-year-old had heard the sirens and seen emergency services arrive, unaware it was his mother who lay injured.
A police officer then knocked on the door and spoke with him. A relative was arranged to pick him up and take him to their address. He asked him what happened, and was told his mum was hurt and was on her way to the hospital.
Tunidau had to break the news that evening to the little boy that his mum was dead. He then had to tell their other three children.
Hussein was jailed for life, with a minimum non-parole period of at least 13 years in September 2022 after pleading guilty to murder.
He also pleaded guilty to injuring a nurse with a pen several months before the killing.
‘I feel helpless’
In the days after Laisa’s murder then Canterbury District Health Board chief executive Peter Bramley said a serious event review would look into the care Hussein was provided.
“I can assure the public that if there are recommendations for changes to be made as a result of our own, or any external review, these will be actioned.”
However, 18 months on, Tunidau heard nothing from anyone at Te Whatu Ora, or the Ministry of Health.
“I feel helpless. I’m in a foreign land, if I was in Fiji I could just go to every department,” he says.
“Everybody is silent, nobody is talking.”
He also feels “forgotten”.
“They just forgot about me, about what has happened. He’s in jail, she’s dead, and the family is struggling.”
The unanswered questions are always in the back of his mind, often making him angry as he asks himself why it has taken so long.
“If they kept that guy on the facility nothing would’ve happened. They should be the ones who get charged… they’re the ones whose responsibility this is. They let him out.”
Te Whatu Ora Waitaha group director of operations Jo Gibbs said in a statement to the Herald on Sunday she wanted to express her condolences to Tunidau for his loss and the “continuing delays he has experienced”, waiting to hear more about what happened.
“On behalf of the team here in Waitaha, I am extremely sorry that a patient in our care killed Mr Tunidau’s wife, and caused so much grief, loss, and distress.”
She said the former DHB CEO wrote to Tunidau soon after the murder to express his sympathies and offered to meet him once reports were made public.
Gibbs said that offer still stood, however she would now be the person to share the findings with him.
The coroner’s inquiry was ongoing and the external review was “also being progressed”.
“At this stage, we don’t have a date when the review will be finalised. This was an extremely serious event and it’s important that all relevant information is collected, interviews are carried out and facts checked as part of the review process. This takes time and will help ensure the findings are meaningful, provide answers to all those impacted by this tragic event and identify opportunities to improve the way we work in future.”
Gibbs said she, along with the senior clinical team, would be “very happy” to meet with Tunidau at any point if it was helpful for him and his family.
Gibbs called Tunidau on Friday after getting his phone number from the Herald. Tunidau said she apologised that no one had come forward to say sorry to the family and was going to call him again next week to arrange to see him in person. He could not recall having received anything from the former DHB CEO at the time as it was “not a happy time”, and he met a large number of people.
A Ministry of Health spokesman said the Director of Mental Health’s inspection of Canterbury’s Mental Health Services was ongoing, pending the findings of Te Whatu Ora’s review.
High-profile victim advocate Ruth Money told the Herald the lack of communication was “absolutely not good enough”.
“That exacerbates the harm this delay is causing. There’s absolutely no reason why Te Whatu Ora haven’t reached out to the family,” she said.
“There’s been nothing health-like in their response whatsoever.”
She said Te Whatu Ora’s comments were “too little too late and has only eventuated after the Herald contacted them”.
“They should be ashamed of how they are treating, or in fact ignoring and revictimising this poor family.”
Money said there was “absolutely no reason” why the review could not have been completed and with the family by now.
“How can Te Whatu Ora claim to have learned or improved anything if for 18 months the report has not been completed?”
Money, who has been advocating for the family, said they were the “epitome of humanity”.
“What they’re experiencing is the absolutely other end of that scale.”
‘She’s my wife’
Tunidau is still coming to terms with his dual role of mother and father since Laisa’s death. He says he tries to be strong for their four children, but admits it has taken a toll on his health with the stress of losing her and trying to provide for the family.
He’s grateful for all the support the family has received and says their faith has helped them in their grief.
He says the children seem to be getting better, but the memories and sadness just pop up at any moment and bring it all back.
“It’s so hard to believe that it’s happened. You can’t just take it out of your mind.”
Tunidau wants to “stand strong” for their children and plans to continue working until they have their own jobs and are set up for their own futures in New Zealand. He says he will likely then go back to Fiji to live, not wanting to be a burden to his children.
He constantly misses his wife, whom he married in 1998.
“The more I think about it, it makes me weaker.”
On a cabinet in the living room is some artwork bearing Laisa’s name. Behind it is a picture of Laisa taken on her youngest son’s first school trip around Fiji, with some wild orchard flowers resting just behind.
It’s a tribute to the woman the family miss so dearly.
“She was so lovely,” Tunidau says as he recalls the smiling face in the picture.
“She’s my wife. I don’t know if I’d ever find another woman like that in my life.”
Sam Sherwood is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers crime. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2022, and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.