For weeks before her daughter Tisha’s body was found buried in Christchurch’s House of Horrors, Tanya Lowry was plagued by a recurring nightmare. She would dream that Tisha (28) was buried in a dark place, her body in a foetal position but with her eyes wide open, looking straight at her mother. The horrific images were so terrifyingly vivid, Tanya often dreaded going to sleep, still hoping that her missing daughter wasn’t dead.
“I would fall asleep for a couple of hours, only to wake from the nightmare,” says Tanya, in an exclusive interview with New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. “oy mind was so active, trying to think where she was or what could have happened, that it started creeping into my dreams.”
Tragically, the 49-year-old would later discover just how accurate her horrific nightmares had been when, a year after she disappeared, Tisha’s ravaged body was found beneath Jason Somerville’s house in Wainoni, Christchurch. Tisha had been buried in a shallow grave under the floorboards of the property, which was dubbed the House of Horrors.
The house was only two doors away from Tanya’s father’s home, where Tisha had been staying and was last seen in September 2008. Beside her in the dark crawlspace lay the body of Somerville’s wife, Rebecca Chamberlain (35), who was killed in the same way almost a year later. Somerville (33) had strangled both women, stuffed their underwear into their mouths then, with unbelievable depravity, had sex with their dead bodies. Last month, he admitted murdering Tisha and Rebecca and was sentenced to 23 years in jail.
The sentence brought some closure for Tisha’s family, something they have waited a long time for. And strangely, it brought an end to the dreams that had tormented Tanya. “There’s a sense of calm in me now,” she says. “We brought Tisha home, gave her a proper send-off, and now she’s at peace. That is really important to me and I certainly sleep a lot better.”
Tanya made a plea through the Weekly when Tisha was missing, hoping someone would come forward with information. Waiting for answers – and then for justice – brought back terrible memories for Tanya, who already knew the pain of losing a loved one to murder. In 1985, her 23-year-old sister, Debbie Paul, was murdered in a brutal stabbing in a Christchurch hotel.
Tanya was close to Debbie and never imagined she would have to go through such a devastating loss again. “oy sister’s murder was yet another instance when someone close to me was taken,” she says quietly. “Now I know how my parents felt all those years ago after losing a daughter in such a horrible way. “Back then, I had to be strong for my parents, and with Tisha I had to be strong for my children. I couldn’t be an emotional wreck because my kids needed their mum.”
Not knowing what had happened to Tisha for a whole year added to the pain. “When my sister died, we brought her home right away. I could go to the cemetery and visit her. But with Tisha, it was different. We didn’t have her for so long.”
Tanya always felt something sinister had happened to Tisha, who was staying with Tanya’s dad the morning she disappeared. “As time passed, what little hope I had vanished and the only thing that kept me going was praying that we would find her body,” she says.
The mum and daughter were extremely close and the year without any sign of the outgoing young woman was a living hell, says Tanya. She felt she couldn’t trust anyone and would look at strangers and wonder if they had anything to do with Tisha’s disappearance. “It was horrible. I had no control over it and I was simply trying to function as best as I could,” she says.
Police offered a $20,000 reward and searched extensively for Tisha with no results. When another woman’s body was found in Christchurch’s Avon River just three months after Tisha went missing, the family thought they might have a tragic end to their torment. But the body was that of sex worker oellory oanning, whose murder is still unsolved. A jawbone that washed up on a beach near Christchurch was also investigated but found not to belong to Tisha.
With no real leads, all Tanya could do was wait, hope and try to sleep. Then, last September, while watching the TV news, Tanya learned that a body had been found in Christchurch and there was a chance it could be Tisha. “Soon after, the police called and asked me to come to the station, and to bring someone with me. That’s when I knew that Tisha had been found,” she says quietly.
Police confirmed to the family that Jason Somerville had confessed to Tisha’s killing, but it wasn’t until some time later that Tanya discovered the full horror of her beloved daughter’s death.
For hours, the family waited outside to be allowed to bring Tisha home from the house where she lay. Emotional scenes erupted when police fi nally carried her body from the crime scene. Flanked by her family, with men performing a heartfelt haka in Tisha’s honour, Tanya felt she had her girl back at last.
“It was such an emotional moment and I was happy we could bring her home and give her a proper tangi,” she says. The family wasn’t able to see Tisha’s body as it was too decomposed after long months in the shallow grave. But that’s a small price to pay for Tanya, who is relieved to know where Tisha lies.
“I would rather have her back in some form than not at all,” she says with sadness. Tanya still finds it hard to understand how it can be possible that, after a year’s wait and extensive searches, her daughter’s body could have been lying so close to her father’s home.
Tanya frequently visited her dad and even caught the bus right outside Jason Somerville’s home, not realising that Tisha lay just metres away. Although she feels the burning of the property helped to cleanse it of evil, she still cannot stand to visit the area. “I can’t bear to go there so my dad has had to move after 25 years,” says Tanya.
Tanya says that to her knowledge, Tisha did not know Somerville. She had certainly never mentioned him to her. Why and how her warm-hearted daughter became the target of Somerville’s sick violence has never been revealed by the killer, but Tanya has her own theories about what may have happened. “Tisha was friendly and outgoing – I think he was able to spark up a conversation with her. Then he invited her in and she went inside.”
At Somerville’s sentencing last month, Tanya, along with her son Jacob and members of Rebecca’s family, read out her victim impact statement. Tanya was determined to look her daughter’s killer in the eye to see if he felt any remorse.
“I had to find out if he had any emotion, but there was nothing. He was an empty shell,” she says. “All I could think was, ‘You are the person who murdered my daughter.’ How could anyone be capable of such an act? He took a wonderful person away from me and my family and I’ll be angry with him for as long as I live.”
This year has already brought new hope and happiness to the family after so much grief. Two days after Somerville was sentenced, Tanya’s daughter Leanne, who also read out an emotional victim impact statement in court, gave birth to a son named Taj. Tanya is also expecting another grandchild later in the year. “Holding my grandson in my arms was a lovely feeling. This is a new start for us all,” she says. “We have lost a life, but now we’ve also gained a life. After so much sadness, we fi nally have some happiness.”
Tanya is also moving on to a new chapter in her own personal life. Two years ago, she became engaged to her partner of four years, Dave Roberts, and excitedly phoned Tisha straight away to ask her to be the maid-of-honour.
The wedding was planned for March last year but, after Tisha disappeared, the couple postponed the ceremony to concentrate on finding her. Now Tanya and Dave have decided that it’s time to get married, and they will finally exchange vows later this year.
“Although Tisha cannot be here for my special day, her daughter onyx will be our fl ower girl, so there will be a little bit of her there at our wedding,” says Tanya. As she speaks, Tanya looks over at the black-and-white photo of Tisha she keeps in her living room. It reminds her of the very last time she saw her daughter.
“Tisha held my hand and told me she loved me. I’m so blessed that those were the last words my daughter said to me. I cherish those words so much,” she says, emotion overcoming her. “Somerville has taken my daughter from me, but he can’t take away my precious memories.”
*
*