WE’RE HEARTBROKEN

Nearly a year after the deaths of three little girls in New Zealand, their loved ones back in SA are still struggling to come to terms with their loss

- MEGHAN LAWRENCE

IT WOULD be hard to find a more picturesque spot. With its rosebushes, trees full of birdsong and sweeping views of majestic snow-capped mountains, the garden on the outskirts of Timaru in New Zealand is spectacular.

But it’s also home to a multitude of sorrows.

Next to a pink flowering shrub and a tree in the memorial garden at Salisbury Park Crematorium is a plaque. “Gone too soon,” reads the message inscribed on it, which is accompanied by a picture of three young girls on a slide.

Their faces would be instantly recognisable to many South Africans: they’re the three Dickason children who died last year in a horrific family tragedy that sent shockwaves across two countries (YOU, 30 September 2021).

When Dr Graham Dickason’s heart-rending pleas for help rang out at around 10pm on 16 September 2021, neighbours immediately called the police and emergency services. 

At that point they had no idea about the reason for the commotion: the three girls who’d moved with their parents into the quiet neighbourhood of the port city on New Zealand’s South Island after emigrating from Pretoria just weeks before had been murdered.

Within hours their mother, Dr Lauren Dickason, was arrested in connection with the deaths of six-year-old Liané and two-year-old twins Maya and Karla, who were all reportedly strangled.

Lauren has been in custody ever since at Hillmorton Hospital, a mental-health clinic in Christchurch, where she’s due to stay until her first court appearance in July 2023.