Operation Brad: Waihi Beach homicide- family statement

Statement read by Murray Wilkinson's son, Dan Wilkinson.

At Waihi Beach in the early hours of New Year's Day, a person unknown to us took our Father, Husband, Grandfather, Brother and worst of all, our mate!
                                                                                   It is impossible to express the complete devastation our family is now going through.  While we appreciate that most of you will sympathise or feel empathy for us, what we need most is to find the person or person's responsible for my Father's murder.

We are desperate to understand who took my Dad from us and why?  If you know anything, anything at all, even if you have photographs that show the crowds and what was happening in and around the area that night, please let the police know…….Somebody has the answer to my Dad's death.

My children and my sister's children have been robbed of their grandfather's love and Lu has lost the love of her life, due to senseless, brutal violence.

My Dad is a selfless, honest and humble man who would be horrified at the attention he is receiving.  We owe it to my Dad to stop this happening to another family, so no one else has to have their life ruined like us.

We appreciate the media's help in getting out our message, however we require privacy at this stage to heal without undue attention.