By Dan Parker
The not guilty verdict in the trial of Ewen Macdonald for the murder of Scott Guy has been met with shock, dismay and relief in Feilding, the small town near where Mr Guy lived and died.
Many know the families involved, and many more had opinions on the case.
For a small rural town, Feilding has suffered a huge amount of anguish.
“Many of the witnesses in the trial live in the town and many residents know someone involved and have followed the case,” says Feilding Mayor Margaret Kouvelis.
Moving on will be tough but they're used to it. Since the beginning of 2010, Feilding has had a run of horrific tragedies.
In January 2010, local pilot Nick Cree was killed practising aerobatics.
In July, just a few days after Mr Guy was murdered, a mid-air collision claimed two lives. Then just weeks after that three people were killed in a murder-suicide.
In August that same year, local lad Tim O'Donnell was killed in Afghanistan, and in January this year two men were killed when they crashed their plane into a Feilding park.
“We are just probably more unlucky than most communities, really," says pub owner Phil Etuale. "All these things are happening to us, or people that these are happening to we know in our community here.
“But at the end of the day, these are things that are beyond our control.”
With that in mind, these tragedies have been far from a fatal blow to community spirit. Mr Etuale says the Guy murder has been more of a talking point than a flashpoint.
“We haven't noticed it causing division amongst people. We have noticed people discussing it. We have noticed people referring to what they have just seen on the news the night before or whatever. But it's all just an opinion they are voicing over a beer they are having with mates,” he says.
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