Lee-Anne Tozer to dedicate her life to helping others following death of husband Mark Tozer
Lee-Anne Tozer has spoken of her own frantic search for ‘gentle, kind’ husband Mark in the hours after he was allegedly murdered in a suspected road rage attack.
Mid-North Coast
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The wife of a man who was allegedly murdered at South West Rocks following a suspected road-rage incident has vowed to use his memory to help others as she comes to term with the 61 year olds death.
While Lee-Anne Tozer, 53, said the death of husband Mark has “ripped her apart” – that hasn’t stopped her vowing to support other victims, like her, manage the mental scars that come with losing a loved one.
“I want to be able to support other victims like me and my family,” she said, in the wake of his death.
“I am going to be a fighter for justice and caring for others and caring for other victims like us.
“His life won’t be wasted.”
Emergency services were called to reports of an assault at Albert Harrower Crescent, where they found Mr Tozer with serious head injuries. He was treated by police and NSW Ambulance paramedics, before being flown to John Hunter Hospital where he later died.
Connor Fuller, 27, has been charged with his murder, and his currently before the courts.
He will appear in Kempsey Local Court in September.
Mark‘s death has shocked the tight-knit community of South West Rocks, where he worked at a local bottle shop.
Holding back tears, Mrs Tozer said his death will leave an indelible imprint on people’s lives.
“Mark was a gentle, kind person,“ she said.
“He was getting more and more frail because he had prostate cancer last year, and he was in a lot of pain.
“But I looked after him, and he looked after me … this is ripping me apart.
“I’m holding on to a photo here of our honeymoon where we painted a rock on the rock wall [in Nambucca].
Mrs Tozer, 53, met Mark after the death of his first wife. It was a moment they shared at the same doctor’s surgery where Lee-Anne told Mark how deeply sorry she was for his loss.
“I just said, oh my God … I‘m so sorry for you. I was just like ‘this man’s got to bring up these children by himself.’
“It was a terrible thing to happen.”
“One day at Christmas I dropped off some presents at his door … I didn’t know him, but many months later he tried to contact me.”
And the rest is history.
“We got married and we were married for 17-and-a-half years,“ Mrs Tozer said.
“Because we didn’t have much money, we went on our honeymoon to Nambucca, and because we said it was destiny that we had met, we stayed at the Destiny Motel there and we got the words destiny inscribed on our rings.
“He loved the Newcastle Knights, he was quiet … he just wanted to be with his family, he was a homebody.
“He loved motorbikes and he loved his cars.
“When I went to see his Dad [after his death] I saw baby photos of him sitting on all these cars from the 1950s, he was just into cars … he got his first car when he was nine.
“He liked reading, he liked fishing and he’d just had a new job for the last six months.
Lee-Anne and Mark didn’t have any children with one another, but shared time together with Lee-Anne’s son and Mark’s two daughters.
The avid motorbike enthusiast once took Lee-Anne “around the paddock”, but she admitted that her time on the back spooked her.
Much to her regret now, she says she wishes she rode with him more.
“He was just so passionate about cars and motorbikes … one of my regrets, and I told him the other day when I went to see him, was that I was too scared to ride motorbikes with him on the road,“ she said.
She fondly remembers a holiday the pair took to Lightning Ridge, a memory she says she’ll treasure forever.
“Last year after Mark got prostate cancer we went to Lightning Ridge, because of the heat, we love it there.
“I wouldn’t live there but Lightning Ridge is great.”
Sadly, she says she can still hear the sirens of the emergency services from that tragic night ringing loudly.
She was worried for Mark that day because as “creature of habit”, he didn’t return home on time.
Understandably, she said she felt panicked.
“My biggest regret is, I was looking for Mark and he didn’t come home from work and I knew something was wrong,” she said.
“I was on the verandah for like two hours … I went to his workplace looking for him, I went and pushed the button at the police station … I said to him there’s an ambulance that’s gone where are you, and he was in it and I didn’t even know. It was terrible.”
Police are still investigating Mr Tozer’s death, and anyone with any information that might be able to assist, are urged to call Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.
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