Selwyn Times: February 01, 2023

Selwyn Times Wednesday February 1 2023
10
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Suspected murder suicide of elderly
Three years after his
parents died in a
suspected murdersuicide,
one question
still haunts their
youngest son. Sam
Sherwood reports
SEAN FEARY was sitting at
home in Washington when his
29-year-old daughter called from
Christchurch. Clearly distressed
she immediately said, “Grandma
and Granddad have been
murdered”.
Feary tried to reassure her
and said she was wrong and that
they were fine. She then told him
about news articles that showed
his parents’ home in Christchurch
and reports that two bodies
had been found.
He told her to head straight to
the scene and talk to the police officers
there. When she arrived, she
called her dad again and he spoke
with a police officer at the scene.
The officer explained how
Feary’s father, Bill Feary, 80, had
called the police about 4am on
September 30, 2019, and told the
operator he had killed his ailing
77-year-old wife Jill, and was
intending on self harming.
A police negotiation team and
armed offenders squad rushed
to the property immediately.
After breaking in they found the
couple dead.
The district’s top police officer
said at the time the deaths were
an “absolute tragedy”.
Feary, speaking to the Herald
on Sunday for the first time,
says he has no doubt the couple
planned their deaths.
“To me it’s like a Romeo and
Juliet story. Mum couldn’t take
anymore and he couldn’t live
without her. She was his whole
life.
“I couldn’t have asked for
better parents.”
Sean Feary was born in
Wellington but the family,
including his older brother,
soon moved to Christchurch.
Bill Feary, who was the boys’
stepfather, raised them from
when Feary was about eight.
“Dad made me the man I am
today, he was awesome,” Feary
says.
“They always took us on little
holidays and things like that,
it was just normal Kiwi life. It
MISSED: Sean Feary (above)
is adamant his parents Jill
and Bill Feary planned their
deaths.
PHOTOS: NZ HERALD
was great.”
Bill Feary spent most of his
career in broadcasting as a rigger,
before moving to Christchurch
and working for a flooring
company and then taking up a
job as a bus driver before retiring.
Jill Feary worked at a local
clothing apparel company until
she retired.
Sean Feary moved to the US
when he was 30, but kept in constant
contact with his parents.
Jill Feary’s retirement was
marred by health issues including
chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease – an inflammatory lung
disease that causes obstructed
airflow from the lungs – as well
as a virus that injured her heart.
This was followed by breast cancer,
which required her to have a
mastectomy in her mid-60s.
Despite the major operation,
she made sure she was able to
travel to see her son and celebrate
his 40th birthday.
However, she never fully healed
from the surgery, with complications
that would continue for the
last 12 years of her life. Near the
end, she had pneumonia.
Feary says his mum was too
stubborn to have someone come
and care for her.
“There was no way that mum
was going to have someone
changing a nappy or bathing her
because she went through it with
my grandmother and there was
no dignity in that,” he says.
“She was definitely suffering,
and I could tell when I spoke to
her she was in a lot of pain.”
Her health issues continued
to worsen and she had to visit
the hospital two or three times a
week.
“She loved the Christchurch
Hospital staff,” her son says.
“They did nothing but take
care of her.”
Sean Feary is adamant his parents
planned their deaths.
Bill Feary, who took on the
role of caring for Jill, became
more protective of his wife as her
condition worsened.
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