Five years on, Blessie Gotingco's murder will 'never leave the community'

Friday, 24 May 2019

Blessie Gotingco was murdered while walking home after work on May 24, 2014.

It's been five years since Blessie Gotingco was raped and murdered, and members of the community say they still haven't recovered.

The 56-year-old mother had been returning to her family home in Auckland's Birkdale when the unprovoked attack took place just 100 metres away from her home. Her body was later dumped in the Birkenhead Cemetery.

Following the news of her death, local woman Te Clarks decided to visit the Gotingco home with a hamper filled with food for her husband Antonio Gotingco and their three children.

While Clarks didn't have the pleasure of knowing Gotingco during her life, her visit to the home that day started a relationship with the family.

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'I'm in almost daily contact with Blessie's family. The day I went round there with a hamper I was going to just leave it at the door but they invited me inside, and by the time I left I felt as though I had known the family forever.'

Blessie Gotingco had been returning from her job at Tower Insurance in Auckland's CBD on the night she was killed.

Gotingco's husband spoke to Clark and asked her how his family could go about 'getting justice for Blessie in New Zealand', she said.

'I told him 'leave it with me'. I ended up leading protests outside the Auckland High Court with placards calling for justice. I attended everyday of the trial and heard all the details about what that awful man did.

The Gotingco family, from left, son Vincent, daughter Bea and husband Antonio and brother John at a press conference three weeks after Blessie Gotingco's body was found.

'It feels like only yesterday it happened. I think of Blessie and her family every single solitary day. It rocked the whole of New Zealand.'

The Gotingco family's Catholic faith had helped them deal with the situation, Clarks said

Antonio Gotingco comforted by his tearful son at the memorial service holding the ashes of his wife, Blessie Gotingco.

'Antonio is always so calm and together, I'm in awe of the way [the family] looked at it all. Their faith really got them through this.'

Antonio Gotingo had now left New Zealand and was living with his parents in California, Clarks said.

Iulia Naititi's niece was a friend of Gotingco's daughter.

Naititi knew Gotingco only in passing, but she said her death had affected her emotionally and mentally for a very long time.

'I attended all the services remembering her at the time – the way that she left this world had a big impact on me for years. I just hope her husband and children are feeling better these days.'

Naititi lives near Salisbury Rd where Gotingco was run down by her killer, Tony Robertson.

Robertson had been released from prison five months earlier for abducting and indecently assaulting a 5-year-old girl and was subject to an extended supervision order, which included 24-hour GPS tracking.

'It's still raw,' Clarks said. 'Things are supposed to get easier with time but Blessie's murder has never gotten easier – I feel anger when I pass the spot where she was hit and I feel anger when I pass the cemetery.

'I promised the family I would go to the spot and place some flowers for closure – I've never done that yet, it's hard, it's raw.'

Crime Scene Cleaners general manager Carl Loader, who was in charge of the clean-up at Robertson's flat, said he thought about Gotingco often.

'Whenever I see a bus saying 'Birkenhead' go past I think about her … how something so horrible could happen in these times.

'A lady going home on the bus – it could have been my wife, my mother, it just shouldn't happen.'

Loader said he often found himself wondering how her family was doing.

'My thoughts and love are with them and I'm sure all of New Zealand would agree, it's just horrible, but let's not forget her and let's not let this happen again.'

Clarks said she believed justice had been delivered with Robertson's sentence of life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 24 years for murder and preventive detention for rape.

However, the North Shore community had changed on the day of Gotingco's death, she said.

'Blessie is still spoken of and remembered here. People are more cautious about walking around in the afternoons and evenings. It's something that will never leave the community.

'It's comforting to know the man responsible will be in prison for a very very long time.'