Family hoping to find answers
‘‘Did he leave a note in the car? Did he leave a message on his laptop or on his phone for us?’’
The family of a man believed to have taken his own life in central Wellington are desperate to find his car which may hold answers.
It’s been more than a month since 27-year-old plasterer Kerrod Robert Horima Tohia was found dead at an inner-city carpark, but neither his family, police or parking enforcement agencies have been able to find a 1994 white Mitsubishi Elite V3000 station wagon with the registration SS2034 that once belonged to him.
While the circumstances surrounding his death are now part of a coronial investigation, Tohia’s stepmum Rozalie Feyen said finding the car could provide details that would help the family.
‘‘Just for closure more than anything. To help. It might have some answers for us as to ... did he leave a note in the car? Did he leave a message on his laptop or on his phone for us?’’
For the past month they had tried every avenue. ‘‘Basically every week we’re down in Wellington trying different things ... it’s just strange. The police haven’t been able to locate his car.’’
His father, Rob Beer, said Tohia was a young father who had been living in the area for about six weeks.
From Palmerston North, his son was a keen musician but had been in trouble with the law and methamphetamine.
He bought the car for his son in February, something to help him get back on track.
‘‘He wasn’t a perfect boy, but his heart was in the right place.
‘‘He was battling substance abuse... and unfortunately we think it’s taken him.’’
Beer had since driven all around central Wellington, Johnsonville, and Porirua - anywhere his son was understood to have frequented in the hope of finding the car.
‘‘It could be innocently parked somewhere.’’
Tohia’s mum, Sharon Mitchell, described her son as caring, loving person’’.
‘‘He was a prolific writer at rap, the dictionary was his bible, where he went that went with him, he had a great understanding of words and their meanings, this spilled over into his music.
‘‘No words can explain the loss of my beautiful boy, [if] I was going to say who he was it would be sinner, saint and angel - just like everyone else.’’
A spokeswoman said police were still looking for the car. ‘‘a kind,