Tania Simshauser’s tribute to her murdered daughter Emerald Wardle

Emmy Wardle should be remembered for her vivacious, happy and caring nature — not as a murder victim. Her grieving mum has broken her silence to pay tribute to her daughter.

It is an image of a teen’s rite of passage – Emmy Wardle crouching next to her car the moment she gets her P-plates and her new-found freedom.

It is one of countless images Tania Simshauser still has on her phone of her ever-smiling and vivacious daughter.

It is also the last photograph Ms Simshauser ever took of her daughter on the last day she ever saw her – less than three days later, Emmy would be murdered by her boyfriend Jordan Miller in a psychotic rage brought on by constant use of cannabis and LSD.

The last picture that Tania Simshauser took of her daughter after Emmy got her P-plates. It was taken less than three days before Emmy was murdered by her boyfriend Jordan Miller. Picture: Supplied.

“She was just excited. She was always just excited. For everything,” Ms Simshauser said of that Wednesday when Emmy passed her driving test at her third attempt.

“Especially in the last few months of her life, she had grown into herself and was just so excited and happy, really happy with life.

“She just accepted ups and downs and it didn‘t really faze her that much. She just went with the flow and would do things in her own time.”

In her only interview following the murder of her daughter more than two years ago, Ms Simshauser has spoken openly about the unfathomable loss, the unspeakable grief, the cold justice system, and her daughter’s killer.

Emmy Wardle with her mum Tania Simshauser on Mother‘s Day in 2020 – the last Mother‘s Day they spent together. Picture: Supplied.

She has spoken out because early on that Saturday morning in June 2020, Emmy – or Emerald as she has been splashed across the news – not only had her life taken away but also her identity.

For nearly 28 months, she has been cast as the “demon” who was “sucking the life out of” Miller – at least in his psychotic mind.

He would tell authorities that he believed the only way out of the “matrix” he believed he had found himself in was to kill himself or his 18-year-old girlfriend of two years.

But Emmy Wardle was so much more than a victim.

Emmy Wardle

“She had an aura about her, she threw a vibe,” Ms Simshauser said.

”Everybody – children, young children, women, men – would just stop and look. It was just about the way that she looked. It was just about her spirit.”

Emmy’s great aunt, Jeanette Petrie, added: “Her physical beauty was the first thing that obviously you see because she‘s just a stunning woman but it certainly took second place because once her warmth radiated in the room, it at least matched the physical’’.

A soul-sapping court process ended for Emmy’s family on Thursday when Miller was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years’ jail for her murder.

With time already served, he could be out in less than 11 years after NSW Supreme Court Justice Richard Cavanagh set a non-parole period of 13 years.

Emmy Wardle and Jordan Miller. Picture: Supplied.

And the entire process has not only stopped Emmy’s family from grieving, it has also made their private lives very public.

The only light was the unwavering support from detectives and the prosecutors, something her entire family are grateful for.

“There was the day that I had to give my evidence and that was a very difficult time. I had not laid eyes on the person that had done this [since Emmy died],” Ms Simshauser said.

“I had gone through this process and I was broken, I still am broken.

“And I had to walk into a room that‘s unfamiliar to me, and talk about my last moments with my child. In front of the person that did this.

“There’s a lot of emotion involved in that. So it was traumatic. It was very traumatic.’’

Tania Simshauser and Emmy. Photograph: Supplied.

Ms Simshauser later added: “It‘s a hurt that you can’t put it into words. It’s painful, extremely painful, and she wouldn’t want any of us to have this in our lives and I strongly believe that she wouldn’t have wanted this for Jordan either.

“For any of us, it just wasn’t in her.’’

Ms Simshauser sat through the entire trial and sentencing process and knew Miller had written a one-page letter to the court which the sentencing judge accepted showed that the now 22-year-old was remorseful.

But she has her doubts.

“I don‘t see remorse. I understand that he’s probably been instructed to act a certain way while he was in that box [in court], but emotions are emotions,” Ms Simshauser said.

“And if you’re sad, and you’re hurt, you can’t not show that.

“It’s never going to change the way I feel about him but he doesn’t look sorry.

“He might regret what he’s done. But who wouldn’t when you’re in prison? Regret and sorrow are two very different things.

“I trusted him. And more importantly, she trusted him.”

She later added: “It‘s not closure or anything for me and I’m not happy about the sentence. Not at all, but I don’t have to look at him again.

“And that’s big, because he has taken up so much time and my thoughts and I don’t have to do that anymore. I can just think about Emmy and although nothing will ever bring it back, I believe that my daughter would not want me to sit in a corner and rock.

“ She would want me to keep going. And that‘s what I will do.”

Murder victim Emmy Wardle, 18. Source: Facebook.

Part of doing that is thinking of the happier times, of the memories of her “best friend” Emmy.

And Ms Simshauser is determined to continue to honour her daughter and what she stood for.

“I don‘t think that I’ve properly grieved her because my whole attention hasn’t just been on Emmy,” Ms Simshauser said.

“But from here on in it will be. It won’t be about what happened to Emmy, it will be about Emmy.

“And although it saddens me when I think of her, I still smile because she makes me smile, because she was funny. Really funny.

“Some of the things she says come to me all the time. Some really vivid things.”