REMEMBERING SCOTT GUY
Ten years on from the killing of Scott Guy, his parents are determined to keep his memory alive while not dwelling on the unsolved crime.
Bryan and Jo Guymeasure time in two phases – before their son Scottwas killed and after. In the early hours of July 8, 2010, Scott Guywas shot dead at the end of his rural driveway as he prepared for a day’s work on the family farm near Feilding.
The 31-year-old husband to Kylee was a father to one young son, Hunter, with another, Drover, on the way. The shooting remains unsolved.
Speaking from their home of four years near Colyton, in rural Manawatu¯, Scott’s parents say a lot has changed in the decade since.
‘‘We don’t really look at it as an anniversary, because every day we think of Scott,’’ Bryan says.
‘‘There’s not a day gone past in that 10 years that we haven’t thought of him. Not thatwe think of him all day long, but it still comes into our mind.
‘‘Our whole lives have changed. We measure time before Scott was killed and after Scott was killed.’’
Jo says she likes to think she and Bryan are more empathetic since losing Scott, one of their four children alongside Anna, Nikki and Callum.
‘‘It’s never going to go away, that kind of story and what’s happened. Scott didn’t die of cancer so that we could say goodbye.
‘‘It was quite a big issue to face, but it’s moving forward all theway along and some days are better than others.’’
Life can spiral when she looks back at what happened, so Jo has to stop and think about what she can focus on, a mantra that keeps her and Bryan going.
It’s part of their determination not to become bitter about the hand dealt to them and to, as Jo puts it, live alongside their grief.
‘‘Sometimes it hurts more, some days it doesn’t, but 10 years doesn’t really mean anything because a piece of us has gone. Scottwas part of us. It’s like this piece of your heart is missing.’’
Bryan says some memories from 2010 are clear, but others have faded.
‘‘And sometimes things will jog your memory. At the time it was pretty traumatic of coursewhen Scottwas killed. I still had the farm to run so there’s no choice. You couldn’t just curl up into a ball and feel sorry for yourself. We still had the farm to run.’’
Scott’s death quickly became national news and his family made public appeals for information.
The trickle of information to the police slowed and in early 2011 the team investigating the murder was downsized.
Then, in early February that year, police revealed a new house being built for Scott and Kylee had been vandalised in 2009, its interior destroyed, and the outside walls plasteredwith offensive graffiti.
It was later found Scott’s brother-in-law Ewen Macdonald, Anna’s husband, and farm worker Callum
Boe were responsible.
In April 2011 Macdonald was arrested for Scott’s murder, of which he was acquitted at a high-profile trial in Wellington the year after. The trial heard about a rift between Macdonald and Scott over how the farm was run, as the Guys’ family life was laid bare.
Macdonald was jailed for the vandalism and other crimes.
Police say the homicide case file remains open, although ‘‘no specific staff are currently dedicated to the investigation’’.
Bryan and Jo say they can’t dwell on nobody being brought to justice for killing Scott.
Tragically, they can look to their own family for a comparison.
Scott’s cousin Andy Marshallwas pushed out a secondstorey window of a Perth pub in 2011 by Stefan Schmidt, who was found guilty ofmanslaughter and jailed.
‘‘With Jo’s sister and husband, Alan and Wendy, when they had a trial they knew who pushed their son out the window, and he was found guilty, and they didn’t feel any better than what we felt. It doesn’t bring Scott back,’’ Bryan says.
‘‘Sometimes it would be good to see it finished,’’ Jo adds. The pair have no interest in reinvestigating the homicide case themselves.
‘‘I think it would screw us up because you become caught up in that world of trying to figure it out. You can’t go there for mental health [reasons].’’
Jo says she and her husband like to think there is away through trying times. It’s family.
‘‘For a long time it was a fairly dark place. Your stomach’s in knots. You can’t eat. It was physically and emotionally, everything combined was very difficult, and you think: ‘How am I going to get through this? I can’t. It’s too big. I give up.’
‘‘But then you can’t because our children and our grandchildren are relying on us to show them the way, because they’ve got to have a good life.’’
The pair remain resolute in their focus on family, especially their 14 grandchildren, which includes Elsie, daughter of Nikki and her partner James, who died aged just two weeks in 2013.
Remembering Elsie, like remembering Scott, is important, the Guys say, because talking about someone keeps a part of them alive.
Bryan says he and Jo talk about Scott a lot. His picture and a cowboy hat hang in the living room, a visual reminder of a country boy’s passion and his time in Outback Australia.
‘‘He’s still part of our family of course, still part of our lives, butwe have him now asmemories rather than being with us in the skin.’’
Sometimes it’s sad mentioning an absent son, but mostly it’s phrases such as, ‘‘Wouldn’t Scott love that?’’
‘‘When you stop talking about someone who’s died,’’ Jo says, ‘‘then their memory goes, so it’s important for everybody who has lost someone to keep talking about that person, because otherwise they fade away and they’re forgotten, but he’s never forgotten in our family.’’
Around their grandchildren, the Guys answer questions about Scott, but don’t bring up what happened in conversation.
Grandson Finn, 16, is living with them, away from Auckland, wheremumanna and her partner live. Finn is studying at Feilding High School and working on the farm managed by Nikki and James.
Callum and his family live in Feilding now, too, somost of the family is close by and those who can make it will gather at the Guy house for an afternoon tea on Wednesday.
Bryan and Jo moved to their 3-acre section in 2016 when Bryan retired from decades of farming, but it’s not something he misses.
He’s involved in community group and trusts, and has plenty of garden to keep him occupied.
Jo has turned her hand to writing children’s books, with which she tours schools, and has a third in the works.
The pair also speak and write about grief and sometimes even act as de facto counsellors for complete strangers who tell them their stories.
The Guys themselves seek guidance through their
‘‘Sometimes it hurts more, some days it doesn’t, but 10 years doesn’t really mean anything because a piece of us has gone. Scott was part of us. It’s like this piece of your heart is missing.’’
Jo Guy
Anglican faith and solace in the huge support they’ve had for a decade.
There have been trying times, including the deaths of Andy Marshall and baby Elsie.
And Bryan’s father Grahame died three months after Scottwas killed.
‘‘We say he died of a broken heart, but he did actually get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is what killed him, but before that there was no sign of it,’’ Bryan says.
One of the pair’s close friends also died of cancer about that time.
The past few months have been hard too. Bryan’smum Winifred died last year, aged 91, and his sistermarilyn Thompson was this year diagnosed with cancer and died in the UK, where she lived.
Unable to travel there, Bryan and Jo watched her funeral over the internet, with only about six mourners allowed to be physically present because of coronavirus concerns.
Bryan says what he and Jo have learned about death in recent years, including the need to talk about it, has helped them persevere and remember Scott, an outgoing and gregarious man, who loved farming and looking after animals. ‘‘One of things he loved the most was being a father, and he absolutely adored Hunter and was looking forward of course to seeing Drover. They were pretty special to him.’’
If Scott Guy were alive he would be 41.