The partner of the Napier man who
shot and killed Constable Len Snee and wounded three others during a
siege last month says Jan Molenaar wasn't a monster.
A 51-hour siege began after Molenaar arrived home on May 7 to
find police carrying out a routine search warrant, and ended with
Molenaar being found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a
bedroom of his Chaucer Rd home.
Speaking to Maori TV, his partner of 11 years Delwyn Keefe said
she didn't think Molenaar was a bad person, and would always love
him.
"Jan was a person who just wanted to be loved and cared for and
respected and all those things and that's the great life that him
and I had together.
"We could talk about anything together and I'm really gonna miss
all that."
When it was put to her that Molenaar was mentally unstable or on
steroids or drugs, Ms Keefe said
: "He never had a mental health issue. Jan was not on medication,
he was not on medication. He wasn't a monster."
Ms Keefe said her heart went out to Mr Snee's family who, like
her, were victims.
"I'm very sorry about what's happened because I'm the one that's
got to carry on...
"I don't think any worse of Jan. I don't think he's a bad
person, what he's done and that.
"I know that what he's done was wrong but I still love him and I
will always love him and now I've gotta carry on my life without
him."
Ms Keefe said she did not know where Molenaar got his cache of
guns.
"He never spoke to me about that. No, no, no I did not know
about those, no."
The last time she spoke to Molenaar was when she assisted police
negotiators the day before his body was discovered.
She said she told him to give himself up, but he said he had
"gone too far".
He had apologised for killing Mr Snee before starting to cry, she
said.
"I said, 'Jan just give yourself up mate', he says 'I can't
bub', and then he started crying on the phone, he broke down, and he
says 'I love you' and I says 'I love you forever'. Then the phone
clicked off."
Ms Keefe showed Maori TV where police gas canisters had damaged
property in the home she and Molenaar shared, and where his body was
found - in the room where she still sleeps.
On staying in the house where the siege took place and Molenaar
died, she said "my life and all my memories are here".
"[It was] nice to hop back in the bed. I got a container of his
ashes, I just put them in the bed beside me and it feels like he's
still here."
NZPA