Shock over tragic end to family’s Kiwi dream

Ex-colleagues and neighbours are in shock over a case making headlines worldwide. Mia Spies and Martin van Beynen report.

AS the pale drawn figure of Lauren Dickason stood in the dock accused of murdering her three young daughters, flowers and soft toys piled up at the address where the girls died.

Dickason, 40, a medical practitioner, appeared before Judge Dominic Dravitzki in the Timaru District Court yesterday and was remanded without plea to a secure facility at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch.

Police continued to guard the Queen St house as flowers and soft toys piled up, dropped off by Timaru people marking the tragic deaths of Liane, 6, and twins Maya and Karla, 2.

Escorted by two police officers, Dickason arrived in court in a hooded sweatshirt, soft shoes and black trousers. She looked calm and kept her arms folded, staring at the floor for much of her appearance.

Dickason, her husband Graham, and their three daughters arrived in New Zealand last month and had been in Timaru for only a week.

Friends say they had been planning their dream relocation to New Zealand for two years. But the dream was shattered after one short week.

Graham, an orthopaedic surgeon employed by Timaru Hospital, came home about 10pm on Thursday to find his three children dead.

Officials say they are working on facilitating urgent overseas travel for family to join him in New Zealand.

Back home in South Africa, friends and family are struggling to comprehend the enormity of the tragedy.

A woman who worked with the couple at Pretoria East Hospital and also lived in the same security estate for seven years (the Mooikloof Heights Estate in Pretoria East) said everyone liked them.

‘‘They were a perfect normal family, they had the prettiest and neatest house in the estate, there was nothing strange, even when they spoke to each other it was calm and kind.’’

She had worked with both of them in the operating theatre where Graham was the orthopaedic surgeon and Lauren always assisted him.

‘‘He is what you would call a genuine nice guy . . . she was more of an introvert; quiet, but very humble, It wasn’t strange that she didn’t speak much, it was just her nature.

‘‘I want to share the good side

about her, because all you hear now are terrible things . . . and she does not deserve that at all.’’

She said the children were a regular sight on the estate.

‘‘Before they sold their house, you would always find the nanny walking in the estate with the twins, it was as if there was a routine, for example between 5 and 6, the nanny would walk with the twins so that she could probably, I presume, have time to give some attention to the eldest.’’

Life in New Zealand would have been very different.

‘‘Here she had a nanny, a domestic worker and a gardener who all helped in and around the house.

‘‘She isn’t an evil person, she was pushed outside her limits . . . Her mom isn’t there, her family isn’t there . . . who will know, we

weren’t there, not one of us . . . . perhaps they didn’t anticipate what it would mean to leave everything behind and go.’’

The woman said it had been terrible to witness how people reacted to the tragedy. ‘‘It is so sad to see people make horrible comments, some saying she must burn in hell and why didn’t she just kill herself, I mean she is in hell on earth now and the rest of her life.

‘‘As far as I know they had fertility treatment, she struggled to fall pregnant with all of them, so it was precious babies all of them.’’

Chantel Pretorius said their children had gone to kindergarten together.

‘‘Their emigration took very long, they wanted to emigrate before Covid, and then Covid

held everything back. Her last message to me was how panicked she was when there was a power outage at their home during the recent looting in South Africa. So they were really ready to get over to New Zealand, it’s what they worked for and planned for, it was their dream for two years.’’

Mendy Sibanyoni worked for the Dickason family as the children’s caregiver, from 2018 to 2020. She said she was not coping with the news, and hadn’t slept since she heard.

She said Karla, one of the twins, had a tough time, needing several surgeries for a cleft palate: ‘‘She was supposed to do the last one when she was five . . . But she was perfect now. She was perfectly normal, just like her sister, a strong lovely girl.’’

She had followed the court proceedings, and heard Lauren didn’t talk; ‘‘ I am asking myself over and over: What did go

wrong, Lauren. That family was most awesome family that I have ever come across, I am torn apart really, torn apart . . . ’’

She had joined the family when the twins were just days out of hospital. ‘‘It was such an awesome family, such a good family. I used to spend most of my time there, sometimes weekends when they were busy with something or when they wanted to go out I will be there with the kids. They were happy, I never saw the wrong side of them, I don’t know what happened now.’’

Through tears, Sibanyona said she had expected that the next time she heard from the family would be when they came to visit from New Zealand.

‘‘I was expecting when they came to visit from New Zealand . . . calling me and say:

Come see us Mendy . . . never, never, never did I expect this.

‘‘ ... I would share my things with Lauren, if I ever had a problem I would talk to Lauren, and we will sit down and try to figure out how we will solve that, and usually she would invite my kids in her house and everything.’’

She had seen no sign of depression or anything out of the ordinary.

Doctors, staff and management of Netcare Pretoria East Hospital expressed their shock at the tragedy.

Commenting on the tragic circumstances, hospital general manager Pieter Louw said, ‘‘We are deeply saddened by what has taken place. Our hearts go out to our former colleagues, their families and loved ones to whom we offer our unconditional support at this very difficult time for them.’’

‘They were a perfect normal family... even when they spoke to each other it was calm and kind.’ NEIGHBOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA