Victim’s wha¯nau wait for justice
A Taranaki wha¯nau are demanding answers and an apology from police as they wait for someone to be held accountable for causing the death of a beloved daughter, sister and mother.
In May 2017, Cherie Bidois was killed after a car crash near Gore, as she and travelling companion Kura Wijnschenk headed to the Bluff Oyster and Food Festival.
The mother-of-two’s death shook her close-knit family and rocked the Waitara community, where the social worker was well known.
Wijnschenk was charged with causing the fatal crash six months later. She also faced a charge of careless driving causing injury to another motorist.
Bidois’ brother, Joe Thompson, said the family were shocked by this development. ‘‘We were quite floored by it actually. It wasn’t the direction we thought it was going to go in at all.’’
Fully aware there was a sixmonth statute of limitation in place for police to lay charges, Thompson, along with wife Aroha, were constantly pushing for news on the case.
‘‘We didn’t know what was happening and why it was taking so long,’’ he said.
From what they knew of the details of the crash, they were confident Wijnschenk was not to blame so the wha¯nau rallied around her to ensure she had legal representation to fight the charges and to also obtain an independent crash report.
The court later heard this report, which was peer reviewed, concluded Wijnschenk had not caused the crash. This finding was also backed up by an independent witness to the crash.
Last month, police withdrew the charges against her without any explanation in open court.
Thompson said police had not contacted the family to explain why the charges had been dropped either. However, he was happy Wijnschenk’s prosecution had come to an end.
‘‘She can move on with her life now but it should never have happened in the first place.’’
It still stung deeply that ‘‘the right person’’ had not been held accountable.
‘‘We feel robbed. We feel cheated. No justice has been done at all,’’ he said.
After the final court hearing, Southland acting area commander Inspector Mike Bowman said there was ‘‘currently insufficient evidence’’ to charge anyone and the matter had been referred to the coroner.
But for Thompson and his wha¯ nau, their quest for answers is not over.
He said a meeting would be held shortly to discuss the matter, but the family want to know how it got to this point and how the system can be fixed so no-one else had to experience what they had.
Thompson said an apology was ‘‘definitely’’ something the family expect from police, but they had yet to fully consider other options, including filing a formal complaint.
However, one thing Thompson wanted to ensure was that his sister’s legacy was not overshadowed by the court controversy. ‘‘She’s left a huge hole not just in this family, but in the community.’’
The 52-year-old was the main provider for her family, including sons Mawene and Mata. She was also the primary carer of her father, Patrick Bidois.
Thompson said news of his sister’s death took a ‘‘huge toll’’ on his father’s health. He died in July, aged 90.
Bidois was always someone who would ‘‘fight tooth and nail’’ if she believed strongly in a cause and Thompson said it was that spirit which would help spur them on to find justice.
‘‘Now it’s up to us to see how much fight we have in us.’’