‘Reformed’ killer struck again
‘‘central aspects’’ of the offending and complete a comprehensive release prevention plan.
As they did for each of his parole applications, Kim’s parents, joined by Nigel Schroder and Keogan, went to the 2008 parole hearing to reinforce their written submissions.
Gary and Nancy, in statements to the board, said: ‘‘We all live in fear of what we still believe Wilson is capable of, and the only peace of mind any of us have had until now is knowing that he is behind bars and unable to be living in our community.’’
As the board dealt with another application by Wilson in 2009, they told the board the loss of their daughter ‘‘doesn’t get any easier’’.
‘‘How is it possible to have someone of this evilness walking our streets a free man? He hasn’t shown any remorse. He is a sly, cunning liar who will do anything to have people believe he has changed.
‘‘Our greatest fears now are that, if and when released, this psychopath will have an opportunity no doubt to enter into new relationships and we honestly believe he will do it again and destroy someone else’s family as he had done to ours.’’
‘HE WILL REOFFEND’
The board, in its 2009 decision, noted Wilson was apparently contrite and accepted full responsibility. They referred to expert opinion he was at low risk of violent or general offending and, if such offending did reoccur, ‘‘it would most likely be in the context of relationship difficulties leading to an escalation in his attempts to influence and control his partner’’.
Despite his progress, the board was not satisfied it was safe to release him. ‘‘This has to do with many factors, including the appalling nature of the offending, the impact of it on his victims and whether he has learnt the lessons and made the changes asked of him.’’
It also ordered a further psychological assessment of his risk, including a consideration of whether he was a psychopath.
Wilson’s application in 2010 soon came around. The Schroders repeated their earlier warnings.
In its decision the Parole Board reminded itself that three psychologists had reported a low risk of reoffending, with the high-risk situation residing in close or intimate relationships.
The latest report, the board noted, discounted psychopathic personality traits. Wilson had a safety plan to prevent ‘‘it happening again’’ and was said to have made considerable gains in treatment.
The board denied Wilson parole but supported day releases.
It reviewed the decision in December 2010 and finally released him, subject to conditions over his workplace, residence and associates. The first year of parole was to be based in a residential treatment facility in Christchurch.
‘‘We are satisfied that Mr Wilson is aware of his high-risk situations and has appropriate strategies to address them.’’
In their last submission, Kim’s parents said: ‘‘He may have ticked all the right boxes in the psychiatric reports, but that is his way to convince people he is changed and on his way to a crime-free life. We know this is absolute rubbish. He will reoffend.’’
NICOLE TUXFORD
Nicole Tuxford wanted to help people on their spiritual journeys. Described by her family as funny and bubbly and as someone who could light up a room, she was employed by logistics company Royal Wolf and loved her job.
In her spare time she did courses put on by the Phoenix Light Foundation to become a spiritual life coach.
She met Wilson at a scrap metal firm, where he had worked as a labourer since 2015 and where Tuxford worked in administration.
She was friendly and understanding and Wilson became infatuated. If he recognised the danger signals and the need to activate his safety plan, he didn’t do much to avert the impending disaster.
He had led a quiet life outside work, living in a tidy Aranui complex of flats where his neighbours were elderly and where he was desperate to stay. People didn’t ask too many questions and he was polite, respectful and friendly.
He used an electric bike to get to work, then bought a car that he proudly showed off to fellow residents.
It’s understood Tuxford knew his criminal background and, although sympathetic, was in no way interested in a relationship with the former prison inmate nearly 30 years her senior. When she left the scrap metal firm, they kept in touch. She had him over for dinner one night in the weeks leading up to her death.
ANOTHER MURDER
Clay Saunders watched Tuxford set off from his house early on April 7. They had been together for nearly four years and Tuxford spent most of her time at his house in Woolston, while keeping her flat in Merivale.
They had met through work and were planning to buy a house together. ‘‘She took people for the way they were. She saw the good in people,’’ Saunders says.
He heard her speak of Wilson only once and believes she thought him reformed.
If Tuxford believed she could help Wilson, it was from a spiritual life coach point of view, not in a professional way, he says. ‘‘She was looking at positive thinking. ‘Hey, look, what has happened has happened. You’ve got me as a friend, you’ve got these friends. Push forward.’ She wanted to find the best in people.’’
Tuxford drove to her Merivale flat to meet an electrician who was due to do some work on the switchboard on the exterior of the house.
She parked in her driveway about 7.40am, and, once inside, was confronted by Wilson. Neighbours heard her scream.
Wilson overpowered her and held her in a spare bedroom. About 8am the electrician knocked on the door. Wilson restrained Tuxford to stop her raising the alarm. She bit him and tried to fight him off, suffering cuts to her hand and a punch to the face.
As the attack continued, the electrician walked around the house, knocking on a spare bedroom window. To stop Tuxford alerting him, Wilson tied a scarf around her mouth and secured it with tape, which he also used to bind her wrists.
MUFFLED SOUNDS
The electrician heard muffled noises from inside the house, probably Tuxford stomping on the floor.
Wilson raped and then strangled her, breaking her thyroid cartilage. He used a knife to cut her throat several times.
He removed the scarf and tape, placed her arms across her body, and covered the lower half of her body with her trousers and his jacket.
Having taken her car, he crashed it in Bealey Ave after having a seizure. Emergency services found him unresponsive and he was taken to Christchurch Hospital. Police found him there and he admitted murdering Tuxford.
Still feeling uneasy, the electrician returned to the house about 11.40am. He banged on the doors and windows, then climbed through a window and found her body.
Wilson had waited eight hours in Tuxford’s flat before attacking her. Police stopped him the previous evening at a drink-drive checkpoint in Bealey Ave and confiscated two knives.
He had been drinking at his local bar for several hours and tested three times over the limit. Police processed him and confiscated his car. He then took a taxi to Tuxford’s flat, arriving about 11pm.
Tuxford previously told her life coach that Wilson wanted a sexual relationship and she was trying to help him by meeting him for coffee. She felt sorry for him, she said. She told her mother she was helping him with counselling and life coaching.
Two weeks before her death, she invited him by text for a drink at her house for 90 minutes, but he told her he wanted more time with her. She made it clear it would be only for 90 minutes.
A few days later he found out Tuxford was in a steady relationship and he sent her a text saying he hated being lied to.
Two days before the killing, he told an associate he was worried if he went out drinking he would ‘‘do something crazy’’. Later he told an associate he had been kicked in the guts by someone he trusted and wanted to lock himself away.
FATHER INCONSOLABLE
Police told the Schroders about Tuxford’s killing the day after her death. They took it hard.
They rang Keogan straight after the detectives called. The couple were devastated, she says.
‘‘Gary knew the fight we’d put up, he knew how hard we had tried. He was absolutely inconsolable. We’d been there, we’d gone through that whole horrendous grief process. Gary
. . . had so much empathy for this family . . . and what they were going to go through.’’
Gary had overcome a cancer scare earlier in the year, but Tuxford’s killing was unbearable. Three days after Tuxford was killed, the man described as a big teddy bear and a lovely, kind-hearted man, died. It is thought he took his own life.
Nigel Schroder, a carpenter for the Department of Conservation, was also soon aware of Wilson’s latest victim and was angry, particularly at the Parole Board. ‘‘We always thought if he got in a relationship with a girl, the same thing would happen. I wasn’t surprised.’’
He regrets he didn’t go to see his brother before going to work on Monday for a stint in the bush. When Gary died, it was days before he could be reached.
Former detective Rob Nicholl, who led the investigation into Schroder’s murder before becoming a private detective, also reeled when Nancy Schroder told him about Tuxford’s death.
‘‘I was bloody shocked. I was stunned. While I knew it was a possibility, I don’t know that I thought it would have ever actually come to pass.’’ Less than 24 hours later a friend visited to tell him Gary Schroder had died. ‘‘I thought I had compartmentalised pretty well until I heard of Gary’s death, and it blew my socks off. Gary taking his life has been tough.
‘‘There’s an undeniable, close bond between the officer-incharge of a murder inquiry and the family because they look to you to see justice for their loved one that’s been taken. Wilson’s latest act, it would seem to me, it was the thing that broke the camel’s back.’’
He believes Wilson fooled everyone. ‘‘I’m not critical of the justice system or the Parole Board. He presented a face that you’d probably accept he had rehabilitated, but plainly that wasn’t the case. He presented one face, but beneath was another beast and that was hidden with everyone.
‘‘The whole thing is the most tragic bloody set of circumstances I’ve seen in New Zealand’s criminal history.’’
SHRINE TO NICOLE
Saunders’ small house is full of reminders of Nicole Tuxford. He looks after her two ‘‘handbag’’ dogs who boss his big rottweiler, Crunch. Her crystals are on the coffee table and a collage of photos adorns one wall.
He has attended each hearing leading up to Wilson’s guilty plea. At Wilson’s first appearance in the High Court in Christchurch by video link, he cried.
‘‘I never looked him up online. When I saw what he looked like – I thought, a person like yourself could do that? I thought he would be more scummish looking.’’
After police had finished with Tuxford’s flat, he spent days cleaning it and packing her things and tidying up. Her family offered to help, but he suggested they stay in Dunedin. He felt it was his job.
‘‘It was the least I could have done. It gave me a sense of closure I suppose.’’
He has only one request. ‘‘If you are going to write about Nicole, make it beautiful, because that is what she was.’’