Amber, ‘the light of their life’
Amber Lundy was a busy 7-year-old girl. She especially loved to dance. Jono Galuszka reports on the little girl betrayed by her father.
Amber Grace Lundy was not supposed to be the only child of Mark and Christine.
Her grandmother Helen Weggery said the couple desperately wanted to give their daughter a sibling, but doctors said it was not to be after Christine Lundy suffered a miscarriage.
But their one daughter, born on July 9, 1993, after a 20-hour labour which ended with a caesarean section, kept everyone busy.
Mark and Christine Lundy seemed to thrive on being busy. They ran a small business which was growing at a steady rate, were involved in two wine clubs, active members of Scouts and Girl Guides – they met at a show the two groups put on – and were working on a vineyard investment project in August 2000.
Amber was also busy. Friends, family, school, and hobbies. Tuesdays were especially busy. She would head to Roslyn School, get changed in the car on the way to Rocket Dance Studios, have a quick bite to eat, then make her way to Pippins.
Dance studio owner Dean Mckerras said Christine Lundy had a favourite seat there, while Amber had a favourite outfit – a pink and orange leotard with blue tights and black dance shoes.
Mark Lundy said she would do concerts for her parents.
‘‘We would be watching TV and she would appear in a pair of plastic shoes, and dressed up with a little feather boa around her neck, and do a little dance.’’
Amber had more in common with her parents than busyness.
She obviously shared her parents’ love of food. Amber weighed 44.7 kilograms in August 2000, giving her a body-mass index of about 31 – firmly in the obese camp. Family photos show her parents could share the same tag.
Her mother was not a flash cook. Family friend Deborah Malcolm said she was content to reheat fast food.
But Mark Lundy was a dab hand in the kitchen. Amber’s godmother Caroline Durham said he would sometimes cook threecourse meals when people went to their Palmerston North home.
Amber loved Mcdonald’s. She had to ask her dad if she could eat it for dinner on what ended up being her last night alive. Dad, away on business in Wellington, said yes.
He kept himself entertained on his trips by reading books. Wilbur Smith and Robert Ludlum were among his favourite authors. His wife would read lighter fare – gossip magazines and Mills & Boon.
Amber was also a reader. She would have a bedtime story, and perhaps listen to music, when put in bed at 7.30pm.
The Lundys’ home was a bit messy at times. But it was a home full of love. Mark Lundy’s father Bill Lundy said his son and daughter-in-law had a ‘‘close and loving relationship’’.
‘‘I never recall them arguing. Christine and Mark lived for each other.’’
They both loved Amber too. Friends and family described her as ‘‘the light of their life’’.
One said she was ‘‘the apple of [Mark Lundy’s] eye’’.
And that, really, is what makes her death so tragic. It’s said she died because she saw the man that killed her mother. Two juries say that man is her father.
All information for this article was drawn from statements made during Mark Lundy’s 2015 retrial, where he was found guilty of murdering his wife and daughter. He is appealing the convictions.