Konrad Truger

Killed by mother Wendy-May Connon. Konrad had not been strapped into an approved child safety restraint when Wendy-May was driving under the influence of cannabis and is said to have reached speeds of 140kmh to 200kmh. When their car left the road just south of Kahutara School on 16 January 2008 it went into a "barrel roll" for 18m before taking out a concrete post and stopping 71m from the point of impact. Konrad had been thrown through the front windscreen and about 30m and was found in the long-grassed paddock about 20 minutes after the crash. He was taken to Masterton Hospital then flown to Starship Hospital. Scans showed his serious head injuries were not survivable so Konrad was flown to Wellington Hospital so his family could be near him when he died three days following the crash. Source: https://debbiemccauleyauthor.wordpress.com/biographies/new-zealand-....

Konrad Truger was born in a car and he died flying out of one his mother crashed. Cannabis, speed, and no car seat led to her conviction over the 4-year-old's death. On January 16, 2008 she had three children and two dogs in her car. Connon's four-year-old son Konrad Truger was finally found 30 metres away lying still amid the long grass. No-one saw the crash happen. Connon does not remember a thing. When she opened her eyes from a coma five weeks later, it was to her estranged husband's words: "You killed Konrad." She clutches a memory board covered in photos of her son and points to his cheeky smile, his ice-blonde hair - he could write his own name by age 4. But he never made it to school. She has never spoken publicly before about him or the events of that day until now and when she does she calls it "My Crash" - like she owns the words: "I know I'm responsible. I didn't have Konrad in a car seat." It took police six months to charge Connon with her son's manslaughter. She was accused of speeding, having used cannabis before she drove, and not putting Konrad in an approved child safety restraint. She pleaded not guilty and went to trial but a jury convicted her of his manslaughter. Connon has had eight years to reflect. She details a phase of playing private investigator - she was sure they must have got it wrong - but has found some inner peace in accepting her role now. Konrad and his brother were in each other's pockets from the beginning. When they got big enough they zoomed around on a quad bike. The little boy liked to coax his hair into a mohawk, like the characters in the Japanese cartoon the kids devoured, Dragon Ball Z. The family lived in semi-rural Wairarapa, and Konrad was fixated on the bulls that grazed in a neighbouring paddock. The Crown's case centred on the cannabis, the speed, that none of the children including Konrad were in proper child restraints. The case against her was that she reached speeds of up to 140kmh, and a blood sample taken after the crash found 4.5 micrograms of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) per litre of blood was in her system, with one expert suggesting she had smoked a cannabis cigarette about three and a half hours before the sample was taken. Konrad died in hospital three days after the crash from brain injuries. For Konrad's manslaughter Connon was sentenced to six months' community detention, 200 hours' community work, and two years' intensive supervision. When it was handed down, Konrad's father Scott Truger called it a "wet towel" of a sentence and said he was disgusted seeing Connon smiling when she heard it. He did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story. "I don't hate her but I hate what she has done and how she has behaved throughout this," he said, telling the court how Connon had broken into her home and stolen Konrad's ashes, photos and shrine. Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/81855296/faces-...