Walcha farmer Mathew Dunbar’s mother reveals her grief and disbelief
THE mother of a NSW grazier who died in mysterious circumstances says she wishes she could speak to her son one more time, hug him and explain how much she loves him.
NSW
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THE mother of a NSW grazier who died in mysterious circumstances says she wishes she could speak to her son one more time, hug him and explain how much she loves him.
Kind and gentle soul Mathew Dunbar was found dead on his Merino sheep farm “Pandora” at Walcha in the early hours of August 2 this year.
Police are investigating whether the death was suspicious. His partner Natasha Beth Crossman believes Mr Dunbar committed suicide after suffering depression.
Almost everyone in the small town of Walcha knew all Mr Dunbar ever wanted was to be loved.
His mother Janet Dunbar, 74, believes her son was desperate to have family because he had been adopted and wanted to feel like he belonged.
“He just wanted to belong, he just wanted to belong to a family and be loved,” Ms Dunbar said.
Ms Dunbar’s relationship broke down with her son 20 years ago after she divorced his father John.
► Daily Telegraph Page 1: The grazier and the widow of Walcha
But she says she never stopped loving him, sending him birthday and Christmas cards and writing him piles of letters.
“I just love him so much and (if I could) I’d hug him and say, ‘Mathew all these years we’ve lost — I know we can never make them up but let’s stay in touch and help each other,’” she said, as tears welled in her eyes in the living room of her Walcha home.
She said she struggled to accept her son had killed himself.
“Mathew never struck me as that sort of a person — that he would get himself in a situation that he thought the only way out was … I think he would go and talk to somebody,” she said.
Mr Dunbar’s partner Ms Crossman — who was made the sole beneficiary of his estate earlier this year — told The Daily Telegraph that she had found her partner dead.
“I was there — I know he killed himself. But I mean (the police) have to investigate,” Ms Crossman said earlier this week.
“I’m dealing with post-traumatic stress because I was the one that found him.”
Ms Crossman has previously been convicted of setting fire to a house where her former husband Colin Crossman was sleeping and had served jail time for several other offences.
In a strange twist Mr Crossman was one of the paramedics called out to Mr Dunbar’s property, Pandora Thunderbolts Way, on the night Mr Dunbar died.
Ms Dunbar said when her brother called her to tell her Mathew had died she could not believe it.
“I said, ‘What do you mean he’s dead’? I couldn’t grasp what he was saying to be honest. It wouldn’t sink in. I just didn’t believe it.”
Ms Dunbar said she could not accept her son was dead until she saw him at the funeral parlour and placed his blue, childhood teddy bear in his coffin.
She said her son was adopted in Newcastle three weeks after he was born and his biological mother had dressed him in a white and blue top with embroidered rosebuds and blue pants.
So Ms Dunbar placed the outfit next to her son when she said her final goodbye.
“I thought I would leave him with a bit of her and a bit of me,” she said.
She last saw him in the main street of Walcha in April and said hello when he was manning a poultry club stall outside the visitor information centre where she volunteers.
“I caught myself a month ago standing there, looking out the visitor information centre and I thought, I’ll keep an eye out because I thought I might see Mathew go into Richardsons, the hardware store. And then I caught myself and I said, ‘Janet — wake-up’.”
She described her son as being a computer wizard, when he attended The Armidale School (TAS), who enjoyed playing guitar and soccer.
NSW Police said their investigations in relation to Mr Dunbar’s death were ongoing.