Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Stop-go killing: 'There's so much to miss so you just keep missing him'

David Fisher
By David Fisher
Senior writer·NZ Herald·
10 Sep, 2016 01:01 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

An explanation of the evidence in the case against Quinton Winders.

"Really appreciate the people in your life - right there, right then," says Rochai Taiaroa. "Live in the moment. You don't know what's around the corner."

Her father George Taiaroa was murdered on March 19, 2013, and his killer has now been found to be Quinton Paul Winders.

As Rochai speaks - along with her sisters Melanie and Chanel and brother Chad - it becomes clear, if it were not obvious already, the enormous absence created by a father taken suddenly.

George Taiaroa's family say he was a man who loved life. Photo / Supplied
George Taiaroa's family say he was a man who loved life. Photo / Supplied

They speak of a man who loved life and loved the life he had created with wife Dr Helen Taiaroa. In the aftermath of his death he was called "roadworker", as if that explained his position in life. His children will tell you that what a man does - and there's nothing wrong with whatever that might be - doesn't explain who a man is.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The importance of the distinction became clear as they sat in court through the five week trial, absorbing evidence and hearing the defence extoll the virtues of the man found to have killed him rather than the qualities of the father they had lost.

Rochai: "What? Road wokers don't have value in New Zealand any more?"

Melanie adds: "That roadworker was a hard-working man and that's what he taught us to be - hard working. You don't hear about how he brought up four children who went to university."

Somehow, as they listened to Winder's defence case, the jury was meant to juxtapose the father they knew with his convicted killer - described as educated at Kings College in Auckland and then Massey University.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

What's that got to do with anything, they asked. Instead, they focused on evidence which supported the extraordinary motive their father was killed over a minor road accident costing $989.58.

Quinton Paul Winders was found guilty of the murder of George Taiaroa. Photo / Stephen Parker
Quinton Paul Winders was found guilty of the murder of George Taiaroa. Photo / Stephen Parker

"(Winders) was brought up to believe money was everything, and staus," says Melanie.
"Dad was everything Winders is not. He didn't care about money. You couldn't have two more polar opposite personalities."

Generous, loving, warm - they describe their father amid smiles and tears. The friends he made and those he helped with bills, a wedding of whatever they might need.

"I used to get upset when he got money stolen," says Melanie. "He would go 'obviously someone needed it more than me'."

Discover more

New Zealand|crime

Stop-go murder: 'The dead have no voice'

08 Sep 12:09 AM
New Zealand|crime

Stop-go murder: Quinton Winders guilty

09 Sep 03:54 AM
New Zealand|crime

Winders 'obsessed' with money - widow

09 Sep 04:18 AM
New Zealand|crime

Killer a recluse who shut out the world

09 Sep 05:00 PM

The death of George Taiaroa was also an attack on his family. "For me, Dad was the glue," says Rochai. "In families, some people are the glue and the magnets.

"Dad made it easy to be a family and now we have to work hard. He made it so easy to see each other and be with each other."

Melanie speaks of him just turning up, surprising his children with his presence and turning it into a "social event" simply because they were together. And Rochai doesn't get woken early to go fishing anymore - "being woken up at 4am by someone shaking my toe".

"There's so much to miss so you just keep missing him," she says.

Melanie has been building into her life things which she associates with her father - camping trips with her children ("I hate going camping"), a house on the coast because he loved the sea ("the best diver and fisherman") with a deck because he loved a deck on a house.

She says: "I feel cheated for my children." She's due to have her third next year. "The baby I'm going to have is never going to meet the grandfather."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Not long before George Taiaroa was killed, he said to Melanie: "Mels, if I die, I've had a good life and seen some cool things."

Well, she says: "I know he's all good. But we're not."

The prosecution was around circumstantial evidence and the detail was important to the Taiaroa family. Chad says: "You took the evidence as it was given and break it down from there."

They would take it back to their accommodation at night and debate it, testing it with logic and wanting not just a conviction but one which was justified. "The evidence - that's all I listened to," says Chanel. Rochai: "I approach it as if I was in the jury."

As the jury deliberated, the Taiaroa family had already reached their verdict. Quinton Winders had been judged guilty by the children of the man he killed.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Mixed verdicts delivered for Tribesmen accused of murdering one of their own

11 Jul 05:00 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Pair deny charges over death of Paige Johnson in alleged hit-and-run

11 Jul 12:26 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

10 Jul 11:07 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Mixed verdicts delivered for Tribesmen accused of murdering one of their own

Mixed verdicts delivered for Tribesmen accused of murdering one of their own

11 Jul 05:00 AM

Mark 'Shark' Hohua died in June 2022 after a violent assault over money.

Pair deny charges over death of Paige Johnson in alleged hit-and-run

Pair deny charges over death of Paige Johnson in alleged hit-and-run

11 Jul 12:26 AM
Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

10 Jul 11:07 PM
Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

10 Jul 10:57 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP