A PAIR of docs deliberate their “dream” household transfer to New Zealand for 2 years earlier than the spouse allegedly killed their three ladies.
Lauren Dickason, 40, was silent as she was charged with the deaths of her two-year-old twins Karla and Maya and their older sister Liane, six, at Timaru District Court docket in New Zealand.
The medical practitioner appeared earlier than Decide Dominic Dravitzki within the Timaru District Court docket and was remanded with out plea to a safe facility at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch.
Dickason, her husband Graham, and their three ladies arrived in New Zealand final month and had been in Timaru for less than every week.
Associates say the couple had been planning their dream relocation to New Zealand for 2 years, in line with stuff.co.nz.
However this all got here crashing down inside just a few days.
The household had emigrated from Pretoria, South Africa, and settled into their new house in Timaru, on New Zealand’s South Island.
An image posted on-line on August 30 exhibits the smiling ladies clutching toy kiwis after they landed within the nation.
However Graham, an orthopaedic surgeon, got here house about 10pm on Thursday to search out his three kids lifeless.
One neighbour, Chantel Pretorius, mentioned their kids had gone to kindergarten collectively and added: “That information is horrible, we do not know what to make of it.”
“Their emigration took very lengthy, they needed to to migrate earlier than Covid, after which Covid held every thing again.
“Her final message to me was how panicked she was when there was an influence outage at their house through the current looting in South Africa.
“In order that they had been actually able to recover from to New Zealand, it’s what they labored for and deliberate for, it was their dream for 2 years.”
The kids’s grandparents in South Africa mentioned the entire prolonged household was “in a state of shock” since listening to the devastating information.
“The prolonged households are in a state of shock as we attempt to perceive what occurred.
“We ask to your prayers and help throughout this very tough time. We’d additionally request privateness as we battle to return to phrases with what has occurred,” they mentioned.
“In order that they had been actually able to recover from to New Zealand, it’s what they labored for and deliberate for, it was their dream for 2 years.”
Chantel Pretorius, neighbour
Natasja le Roux, a former colleague and neighbour informed the Sunday Instances in South Africa: “I can’t comprehend what occurred – she is a medical physician and he or she wasn’t smug or something like that. She was very humble.
“She was actually only a good particular person, she and her husband.”
In response to the previous neighbour, Dickason and husband Graham had difficulties conceiving their kids and had been devoted and loving dad and mom.
“They waited years for these kids as a result of she had troubles with fertility and stuff, so it truly is a giant shock,” le Roux added.
Mendy Sibanyoni, a household good friend from South Africa, mentioned there was nothing within the couple’s background that prompt they had been troubled.
She mentioned each dad and mom “cherished their children like no one’s enterprise”.
“These kids, that household, are like my very own. I used to be of their home…I went on vacation with them. [The parents] by no means argued. They had been two darlings. What may have gone improper?” she mentioned.
Different former neighbours, who didn’t need to be recognized, mentioned the couple had been very “grateful” for his or her children.
“They completely adored these kids. They had been so grateful for having them as a result of they struggled to get pregnant and once they lastly acquired the youngsters, they cherished them,” the neighbour mentioned.
“One thing simply does not add up. I do not know if it is the stress from New Zealand, transferring there, being quarantined for therefore lengthy and every thing – simply not dealing with that occurring.
“So I feel no matter occurred just isn’t regular, it wasn’t regular circumstances.”
Dickason and her household had moved to New Zealand from South Africa days earlier to start out a brand new life however on Thursday neighbours reportedly heard “haunting wails” and a lady sobbing at their home.
Following the ordeal, neighbours mentioned they heard a bang after which the sounds of sobbing and moaning at about 9.40pm.
FAMILY HORROR
Jade Whaley mentioned: “The primary noise we heard was any person sobbing, after which we heard a loud thud like somebody simply slammed a door.
“We may see somebody by means of our fence wandering behind the home and wailing.”
One other neighbour Karen Cowper described listening to a person crying out “Is that this actually taking place?” simply after 10pm.
Police sealed off the home – which is leased by the native hospital for newly arrived workers – after paramedics tried in useless to avoid wasting the women.
Forensics officers in white overalls spent Friday analyzing the house for proof.
“Police wish to reassure the neighborhood that this was a tragic remoted incident and we’re not looking for anybody else,” mentioned Det Insp Scott Anderson.
“The investigation into this tragedy continues to be in its very early levels, however we are able to verify that no one else is being sought in relation to the deaths of the three kids.”