PLEASE DON’T TAKE OUR SUNSHINE AWAY
Grace’s brother in heartbreaking tribute as Brit’s body is found and murder suspect charged
THE brother of backpacker Grace Millane has written a heartbreaking tribute to his sister after investigators found a body at a remote beauty spot in New Zealand.
Declan Millane yesterday shared a picture on Instagram of himself and Grace, 22, with the lyrics to the song You Are My Sunshine.
He wrote: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”
A 26-year-old man was due to appear at Auckland District Court yesterday after being charged with Grace’s murder.
Detectives have called off the search for her, although formal identification is yet to take place.
Investigators made the discovery while scouring a location of interest on Scenic Drive, a beauty spot about 12 miles west of Auckland city centre, where Grace was staying at a hostel.
The body was found 10 metres from the road on Saturday night.
Speaking at the scene yesterday, Det Insp Scott Beard said: “The formal identification process will now take place, however based on the evidence we have gathered we expect that this is Grace. Obviously this brings the search for Grace to an end.”
He added: “It is an unbearable time for the Millane family and our hearts go out to them.”
A stretch of the road was closed on Sunday as forensics officers scoured the area. Two large blue and white tents had been erected and investigators wearing white overalls were seen nearby.
Scenic Drive snakes through dense rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges.
The spot where police found the body is in near the Waitakere reservoir and dam, a beauty spot with hiking trails.
Det Insp Beard also revealed a red Toyota Corolla hire car was being analysed as part the investigation. The car was rented the day after the backpacker was last seen alive.
Grace from Wickford, Essex, was last seen at 9.41pm on December 1 while meeting a male companion at the CityLife hotel in Auckland.
She was visiting New Zealand on the second leg of a trip of a lifetime abroad, after getting a degree in marketing from the University of Lincoln in September.
Her family raised the alarm from back in the UK after she stopped replying to messages and failed to make contact with them on her 22nd birthday. She had not returned to her hostel. Her father David, 60, flew to Auckland and made a public appeal for help finding his daughter.
He tearfully described Grace as “lovely, outgoing, fun-loving [and] family-orientated”.
It is an unbearable time for the Millane family and our hearts go out to them DET INSP SCOTT BEARD WHO IS LEADING THE INVESTIGATION