Grief beyond words: farewelling a slain family

Margaret Gray says:

08:12am | 10/11/09

What is more disturbing is that now, more than FOUR MONTHS LATER, the NSW police still have not one lead into who the perpetrators of this heinous crime were.

An embarrassing disgrace.

BT says:

08:21am | 10/11/09

I hope the love and support from the community will bring comfort to the Lin family, and I hope in time they manage to find a sense of peace after such tragedy.
I don’t think I would want media coverage if this were my family, however if the Lin family gave their permission and the media are discreet then I don’t see what is wrong with that. I think that many people have become suspicious of the media and perhaps if the media were to conduct itself with a bit more integrity (not a swipe at the author) people would be more willing to engage the media when events occur.

SM says:

08:45am | 10/11/09

@Margaret Gray
Your comment is baseless.  You have no knowledge of what is taking place in terms of this investigation.  Crimes do go unsolved.  If the perpetrator(s) made no mistakes, and left the police nothing to go on, they can’t just create something from thin air. It’s not a magic act. You also have no knowledge as to the amount of resources or effort that are being put into solving this case. Without any of this knowledge, your absurd demand that something should have happened after FOUR MONTHS is worthless, and completely ignorant

Dan says:

08:45am | 10/11/09

It was horrifying what happened. Absolutely terrible.

“However, the event did not only affect one family, but it also shook a whole community.” No, it affected a family. They are more important than the rest of the community, and whilst the photos were obviously sensitivitely shot, if the family did not give their permission, then I don’t think you can justify taking them. For without permission, then you are intruding upon their grief.

I hope the family did give permission, as contrary to what you may think, they are the ONLY people whose views matter in this tragedy.

AJ says:

08:52am | 10/11/09

Ms Gray:

Police investigations take time to be done rigourously and to ensure justice is achieved.  This isn’t Law and Order, where everything can be done in an hour.  More importantly, it’s disgusting to try and take a family’s grief and use it to take a blind partisan stab.  If Mr Turnbull can commendably restrain himself, so should you.

Margaret Gray says:

09:27am | 10/11/09

“...You have no knowledge of what is taking place in terms of this investigation…”

You have no idea how much I know.

“... More importantly, it’s disgusting to try and take a family’s grief and use it to take a blind partisan stab…”

Grow up.

Macca says:

09:33am | 10/11/09

@Margaret Gray

Your comments are disgusting and completely unrepresentative of the great work many of our cops do for our society. I can imagine the officers responsible for the investigation are also struggling personally due to the difficult nature of their job.

Your attitude is disgraceful

@AJ, well said

Julie Coker-Godson says:

10:05am | 10/11/09

@Margaret Gray 10.27am 10/11/09:  I believe you have just lost the debate and should refrain from posting further on this subject.  @Macca and AJ: I’m with you on this one.

Margaret Gray says:

10:23am | 10/11/09

Maybe you could enlighten us by explaining what exactly was being ‘debated’?

On second thoughts spare me your feigned moral indignation.

You could care less that justice and closure is achieved in a timely manner for the remaining daughter and the broader family.

How do you live with yourself?

Zeta says:

10:31am | 10/11/09

Just to play Devil’s Advocate; whislt Margaret’s tone is unsettling, there are without doubt issues concerning unsolved murders in NSW.

It’s not just the Lins, theirs was without doubt one of the most tragic cases, but there remains more than 400 unsolved murders since 1975 that Police have recently reopened, and that number again of murders that won’t be reopened because there simply isn’t any chance of finding new evidence.

We average in this state, off the top of my head, between 70 and 90 murders each year; 2008/09 will be a bumper year, and possibly the first to hit triple figures in a long time.

So my reckoning isn’t exact, and a quick trip to the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research website could confirm this; but murders have a 1 in 8 chance of not being caught by my reasoning.

Thanks to Brad’s moving photographic essay, hopefully the media will have a longer memory for the Lin murders than they have had for the McGurk murder, the Breckenridge murder, the Brooks & Willoughby Murders, the Stacey Lee Kirk murder… the list goes on.

SM says:

10:57am | 10/11/09

@ Zeta
1 in 8 unsolved -  7 out of 8 solved

Off the top of my head, and without any comparitive data from other states or countries to compare it to, that sounds like a pretty good success rate

Liz says:

11:00am | 10/11/09

Your attendance was intrusive and unnecessary.Grief should be left alone, the survivors of this family have suffered enough without seeing their own faces in grief plastered everywhere.have you no sensitivity?

iansand says:

11:15am | 10/11/09

Murder has the highest clear up rate of any crime.

The police may be pretty sure that they know who did it, and be using electronic and physical surveillance to stitch the case up.  I don’t know and Margaret Gray won’t know because the cops as sure as hell won’t let anyone else know what they are doing unless they decide a release is useful for their investigation.

Hannah says:

11:18am | 10/11/09

margaret i dont think the fact that the killers havent been found is MORE disturbing than the fact that a whole family were murdered its not like the coppers are just sitting around not even trying to find out what happened, these people planned it so they wouldnt be caught.

Sympathy and Strength to the family.

SM says:

11:27am | 10/11/09

@Liz

Why?  Because that’s how you’d feel in the same situation?  Perhaps the family and friends in some way take some solace from a tribute like this.  It’s not about your views Liz.

RT says:

11:52am | 10/11/09

I think we can safely assume that Margaret Gray is not a member of the NSW Homicide Squad. No doubt, if Margaret headed up that squad it would have a perpetual 100% clear-up rate, which in itself would eventually become a totally effective deterrent to muder. So effective, that the Homicide Squad could be disbanded, leaving only Margaret at her desk, and plenty of time to continuing to enlighten us all at The Punch with her wise views, expressed with such a pleasant tone.

Dan says:

12:42pm | 10/11/09

RT, hear hear. SM, I made a similar point to Liz which was that it’s not ANYBODY’s views but the family. The only thing that matters is if they approved the photos, and if the did not, then it was intrusive.

Kathleen says:

01:14pm | 10/11/09

Thanks Brad, for your beautiful photos and for a glimpse into tragedy from the perspective of someone who works in the much-maligned `media’.
For myself, and every other journalist and photographer I’ve worked with, being called on to do a so-called `death knock’ is the most dreaded task in the newsroom. Contrary to popular opinion, journalists do not bang on grieving families’ doors, shove microphones in their faces and ask `So how do you feel?’
What actually happens is you pick up the phone to call the family, knowing you are likely to be butting in on the worst day of their lives. You know they will be crying and in shock, and it’s the last thing you want to do.
You expect to be told to piss off, mind your business and you expect to be abused for even suggesting they speak publicly about their loved one and the loss they are experiencing. But that has never happened to me, or any other reporter I know, in fact the opposite is often true.
In my experience, family members are grateful for the chance to talk about the person they have lost, and they appreciate that people are interested and thinking of them. Some ask for a few days to gather input from other relatives, or to think about what they want to say.
When I write these articles, I labour over every word, aware of just how much the story will affect those fragile people I have been speaking to, and often crying with.
I have spoken to mothers of teenage boys who have died in car accidents and done stories with parents of toddlers who have drowned - I see my own son’s face in every sad photo those parents give us to publish.
Call it scummy self justification if you like, but I can write - that’s what I can do to help - and if I can help a family express their grief or highlight a community danger then I have no trouble sleeping. Trust me, we don’t do it for the pay.
Reporters, particularly in smaller community papers, often personally know the victims or their families. We have families of our own and people in our lives have died too.
I hope when I die, someone will think I was important enough to call my family and ask about me.

SM says:

01:37pm | 10/11/09

@Dan

Good point.  I (quite possibly mistakenly) assumed that the photography must have been approved.  It’s impossible to believe he’d have the hide to attend and snap away to his hearts content if that wasn’t the case.  Perhaps the photographer could clear that up for us.

Notwithstanding that, for a bloke who cops a lot of flak, I find the image of Mr Turnbull pretty moving.  And even though it certainly isn’t about me or what I want, if I was in the shoes of this poor family, I think that photo might somehow help me

M says:

01:59pm | 10/11/09

The family specifically invited the public, including the media to attend the funeral. Camera crews were welcome, as well as photographers, and media were formally invited. The family were gracious with the media, and wanted to share the day with the public who has supported them. However the Lin family then had their own private memorial, which camera crews were not invited to.

Dan says:

07:03pm | 10/11/09

Thanks SM for the compliment. M, thanks for the clarification. It’s great to finally clear that up.

AM says:

10:43am | 11/11/09

I personally think its comforting to have pictures of a funeral. Private or public.  As a family they have something that signifies the closure that it brought.  It gives a beautiful goodbye to what was a horrible end for these souls.  Pictures respectfully and honestly taken have the ability to capture a moment we might otherwise miss but come to rely on in our time of grieving and closure.  As the media were invited to attend, I think they did a wonderful job of showing the true grace and emotion of the day.

Evelyn says:

05:20pm | 25/02/12

Tony Lin was my friend.. we went to same academies. Its an distraught to see him not coming to academy for three weeks and later realizing that he had died. Rest in Peace and stay well.