Dad accused of murdering tot
Angry over a relationship break-up, Tewi Daniel Savage stripped off his clothes and took his 2-year-old daughter into a Bay of Plenty river where she was later found dead a court has heard.
Savage, 34, was discovered naked in the blackberry bushes saying he’d ‘‘f ..... up’’ upstream from where daughter Arnica Savage’s body was found snagged in trees in the Rangitaiki River in July 2018.
Savage is currently on trial in the High Court at Hamilton after pleading not guilty to the murder of his two year old daughter.
During opening addresses before Justice Paul Davison, defence counsel Shane Tait said Savage wasn’t thinking like a ‘‘reasonable person’’ that night. He was not responsible for his daughter’s drowning and the defence would show that he was insane or suffering mental impairment at the time.
Crown Prosecutor Richard Jenson told the jury of four men and eight women that Savage was in turmoil over the separation with his estranged partner and walked down to the river where he decided to ‘‘end it all’’.
He took off his clothes, grabbed Arnica and took her into the river where she was asphyxiated – either by constricting her breathing, being held under the water or simply by letting her go into the fast flowing chilly waters.
Savage, an electrician, and Arnica’s mother, Santana Moses, had been together for 14 years and had five children together. Arnica was the second youngest. The pair had separated and Moses was living in Whakatane and in the early stages of a new relationship.
The pair had shared custody of the children. In the days leading up to July 1, Savage had found out about the new relationship and was struggling to cope. On the afternoon of Sunday, July 1 the pair, along with Savage’s parents, gathered for a meeting to discuss the separation with the children. Savage told Moses he was going to ‘‘earn her heart back’’. But she told him she didn’t want him to, Jenson said. Savage became angry, saying he was not afraid to hurt her.
His mother told him to go for a walk and cool off. He put Arnica in a pram, took a book and headed off towards the river. Moses left back to Whakatane. It was getting dark and family back at Te Mahoe village began to get worried.
Savage’s mother and two of his boys started to search. Near the river they found clothes and the push chair. Then they heard Savage’s voice from the blackberry bushes – crying and yelling ‘‘he’d f ..... up’’.
‘‘She’s drowned, she’s dead, I drowned her,’’ Jenson told the jury.
Police arrived about 7pm and were taken to a maize paddock where Savage was ‘‘screaming and yelling’’.
He told police he ‘‘needed to be cleansed. He knew he was in the water naked with his baby. He saw her face under the water and he went under with her. He let her go and saw her float away.’’
The trial is set down for two weeks.