Friend said a prayer over dying mate

AN OLD school friend of slain Mt Garnet man Mark Miller has described how she prayed over his body in the moments before his death.

Margaret Lowah was with her partner David when they heard a car screech to a stop outside the Mt Garnet Ambulance Station just before 10pm on May 23.

Two men – brothers, Mark and Robert Miller – were down on the footpath. There was blood everywhere.

David banged on the door of the ambulance station.

The lone paramedic, hearing the noise, came out. He was confronted with the grisly scene on the street.

He swung into action, doing everything he could to save two lives.

Margaret, 32, had been to school at Mt Garnet with both of the brothers. They were “good boys” she said.

Mark’s reputation told another story. A friend said he had lived and died by the sword. He had not long been out of Mareeba’s Lotus Glen Correctional Centre.

Now, out there on the footpath, his lifeblood was running MARGARET LOWAH across the cement.

Margaret bent over Mark and asked him if she could pray for his soul.

“Mark, can I pray for you?” She asked. He was unable to speak. His glassy eyes rolled towards hers. He nodded faintly, “Yes”.

He had stab wounds to the top of his head, one side of his face was laid open at the cheek bone. There was a large wound in his side below one armpit, pumping blood. There was another puncture to his lower stomach and at least six stab wounds to the back.

As Mark lay dying on the cement, Margaret prayed.

“I prayed, ‘Heavenly father I commit Mark into your hands’. I kept telling Mark that Jesus loved him. Even when he was unconscious I kept calling out his name and telling him Jesus loved him,” she said.

Mt Garnet used to be a ring- er’s town. Saturday night used to be fight night at the town’s two pubs, Mt Garnet and The Royal. On any Saturday there was a good chance ringers would be in town from at least two or three large stations.

Now on weekdays, teenagers wander the streets, seemingly with nothing much else to do. What happens in some of the houses out in the nearby bush is nobody’s business.

Once prosperous, the tiny town is now down at heel.

Last month it all came into sharp focus with the alleged stabbing of the Miller brothers.

That night, all hell broke loose at a house made from shipping containers on deadend Dunmall Rd.

It was at this house at the end of a dirt track that the two men were allegedly stabbed.

After the attack, Rob spent several days in Cairns Hospital, where his injuries were treated. Two people have been charged with Mark’s murder.

I KEPT TELLING MARK THAT JESUS LOVED HIM ... EVEN WHEN HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS I KEPT CALLING OUT HIS NAME

Read the full story at www.cairnspost.com.au