It’s been a year since the murder of Corey Power rocked Young, but for his family, time has healed few wounds.
Answers and closure lie behind a wall of red tape, as progress in the case against the man wanted for his murder rests in the hands of the Queensland Government.
While Corey’s murder no longer dominates talk around town and the headlines of the region’s media, the nightmare lives on for the Power family.
“The legal system is just a joke,” Corey’s sister Phia Power said.
“It’s just ridiculous…you can’t even start to grieve because there’s still so many questions and so much anger and everything is out of your control.”
The hope the family felt when the primary suspect in the murder was arrested in November in Queensland, has given way to frustration.
After being sentenced to three years’ jail in May, the suspect is yet to be charged with the murder as proceedings to extradite him to NSW drag on.
While praising the efforts of police, Phia said the legal system had left the family in the dark.
“We have no timeframe, every day… we wonder if we’re going to get a phone call,” she said.
“We still don’t know a lot of the circumstances of Corey’s death.
“The Queensland Government has a lot to answer for. If they can have a person sitting in prison for armed robbery… you would think a murder charge would be more significant.”
So now more than ever, Phia Power wants the town to remember her brother and keep talking about the brutal crime that took his life.
“Because there has been no arrest it sometimes feels like people have forgotten about him, but we have to relive it every single day,” she said.
“It’s just ridiculous…you can’t even start to grieve because there’s still so many questions and so much anger and everything is out of your control.”
- Phia Power
“It just feels like it was just a weekly newspaper article and that’s it.
“But this was my brother, my mum’s only son, and a father.
“He deserves better than just being the person who was murdered in the streets of Young - the people responsible need to be accountable.”
Corey had just moved back to Young from Canberra when he was murdered.
He wanted to be closer to his daughter Jaela, a daughter he had been waiting for his whole life.
“He always wanted to be a father,” Phia said.
“His daughter was his entire world, everyone says that about their kids I know that, but he would have dropped everything for her… the last message I got from him was, ‘you need to ring so you could talk to Jaela”.
“She was the absolute light of his life... the day that baby was born… that was his whole world.
“Day and night, we still can’t believe he’s gone.”
Corey’s death has left a gaping hole in the life of his mother, Suzi McKenzie, who is struggling to move on.
“She can’t even talk to the media but unfortunately she’s just had to go back to work and try to live, it’s very, very hard to watch,” Phia said
“A mother shouldn’t have to live to see her son die.
“All our lives are just on hold, especially for mum, it’s just changed her.
“She’s struggling to deal with losing him, he was her only son and they were very, very close.”
