Killing like a tidal wave
Eric McIsaac’s guilty plea to murdering his half-brother Alex Fisher yesterday leaves in its wake many months of speculation, innuendo and rumour.
What was never in doubt was that Alex, a 10-year-old boy just a few weeks shy of turning 11, was killed, his body left in the dunes and tussock beside Waitarere Beach.
For Sandra Fisher, Eric and Alex’s mother, the evil that unfolded last October has an impact also beyond doubt.
‘‘The mother effectively loses two sons,’’ says family friend Chuck Wareham.
That sentence, echoed by many others in Waitarere, sums up a sense of unimaginable pain. But in the darkness, hope surfaces.
Wareham, one of several locals who helped organise a gathering at Waitarere Domain on the Sunday after Alex’s death, said the tragedy led many people in the community to wonder if they were safe.
The vigil, the passage of time, and the knowledge no other people were wanted for Alex’s death had allayed those fears.
‘‘It’s really gone back to the way it was.
‘‘The kids are out on the streets, they’re playing, on their scooters or bikes or whatever.
‘‘The community just felt that something had happened that was alien to what was a relatively peaceful community.’’
He speaks highly of Sandra Fisher: ‘‘She’s a strong person, even through this.’’
Wareham said he asked Sandra at the funeral if there was anything more the community could do.
‘‘She said no, they’ll reach out when they want to.’’
Stuart Crotty, a longtime resident who spoke at the vigil, said the neighbourhood responded as any small New Zealand town would.
Alex’s death was like something ‘‘that would happen if a tidal wave came through’’.
A woman acquainted with McIsaac’s family said Eric was one of four boys Peter McIsaac had with Sandra.
The family lived in various places including Masterton, Waitarere, Hawke’s Bay and Cambridge. One of the boys returned home from Australia in late 2015.
Peter McIsaac was on an invalid benefit following a motorbike accident years ago, she said. He also had a sister in Masterton.
After the marriage to McIsaac ended, Sandra married Mike Fisher. They had Alex in 2004.
The family acquaintance said trespass orders were taken out against Eric by his mother’s new family.
‘‘He was troubled growing up in Hamilton, and he did all that damage up there . . . I think now that he’s come out [of prison] he’s making her pay,’’ the acquaintance said. Although the Fishers and McIsaacs moved around, and Eric had a troubled past, few people in Waitarere had a bad word to say about Sandra and her new husband Mike. Mike was involved in the search effort during October, but kept a low profile. Eric’s 2012 arson attack on the house of his biological father Peter McIsaac in Masterton is well-known to Waitarere locals. In the early hours of a December morning in 2012, Eric McIsaac set alight the house where Peter was living – though he was not there on the night, apparently concerned at Eric’s behaviour. The fire gutted the home, and that of a neighbour, who was inside the property but escaped uninjured.
Eric was arrested shortly after, and served two years and seven months in jail.
Questions remain: How could Alex’s death happen? Why? What, if anything, could have saved him?
It may be, Wareham says, that only Eric can provide these answers.
‘‘I don’t think you get closure,’’ says Deborah Nichol at Hydrabad Holiday Park in Levin.
‘‘You can learn to deal with it and move on with your life, but I don’t think you could get closure on that,’’
Despite the anger many locals feel towards Eric, some prefer to focus instead on his younger brother Alex’s short, cherished life.
One young woman said she always said ‘‘hi’’ to Alex when passing a tree planted in the boy’s honour in Waitarere Domain during the October vigil.
A newer memorial is on the dunes near the spot Alex’s body was found.
A home-made bench sits beside ornaments at the shrine.
On the bench, Alex’s loved ones wrote messages to the boy.
‘‘Fly high,’’ the biggest message reads.