Picking up the pieces after mum's murder
20.12.1997
By: KOCH A
WADE Nash faces his third bleak and lonely Christmas after his mother was murdered at Coolum in 1995.
Wade, 15, at least has the company of his maternal grandparents, Ron and Pat Nash, with whom he is holidaying at Caloundra.
Wade's mother, Christine, was strangled and kicked to death by Ross Farrah, who left her battered body in the Coolum State School grounds.
He confessed to the murder and, after a hearing before the Mental Health Tribunal, was found to have been of unsound mind at the time.
He did not, and will never, face trial for the murder, and is being treated as a patient at the John Oxley Memorial Hospital.
But since being put away, Farrah has been allowed out to play indoor cricket, and two months ago escaped when he was allowed to attend a Sunnybank cinema.
When that information was passed on to Wade, who now lives with his uncle in New Zealand, he was upset.
He wrote a letter to The Courier-Mail which spelt out exactly how a child feels when his mother is callously murdered and the perpetrator is not put behind bars.
The letter said: ``I met Ross Farrah about three years ago. Some of you might remember seeing me on television or in the newspaper after I rescued him from a fall on Mt Coolum.
``One year later he repaid me for saving his life by beating my mother to death and leaving her body on the school ground.
``I had just had my 13th birthday and my little sister was nine. The week after Mum's funeral I came to live in New Zealand with relatives.
``So in one week Ross Farrah not only took my mother away from me and caused me and my sister to be separated, but I also had to move to a new country.
``I am happy here now. I am an average student and love sports.
``It has taken a long time to settle in and it has been hard. I used to cry myself to sleep every night.
``I still miss my Mum. (When he escaped) Mrs Farrah said Ross Farrah didn't do anything wrong _ that he only wanted to see his dad. She and everyone else should remember that he did do something wrong _ he murdered my mum.
``I would love to just see her again but he made sure that will never happen.
``He should have stood trial and gone to jail for life. That is justice _ not going to movie theatres where there are innocent children.
``He is dangerous. How would those doctors who decided he didn't have to stand trial like their children or grandchildren sitting beside Farrah at a picture theatre?
``I would love to see my mum and go to the movies with her.
``I'm glad I live in New Zealand, far away from him.''
