Dad’s six year hunt to catch his son’s killer

SIX years after her father Andrew Oake was murdered, Angelina has continued to help her family find his killers.

Andrew Oake and his wife Som.

SIX-year-old Angelina has been carrying around a “special” investigation folder with copies of documents relating to her father Andrew Oake’s murder for months.

She never got to meet her father who was murdered on a family holiday in Thailand while her mother Som was six months pregnant with her. And she wants to know why.

Mr Oake’s father Rory McDonald, also Angelina’s grandfather, said the family had always been honest with the little girl.

“She’s a pretty switched on, smart kid,” Mr McDonald told news.com.au.

“She’s always asking questions about what happened, what’s going to happen and when we were going to catch the man who killed her dad.

“There’s a special folder for the investigation she carries around every day because she wants to know what’s going on.

“We didn’t realise how badly it was on her mind.

“That’s what spurred me to catch this guy and get it over and done with as soon as possible.”

Andrew Oake’s daughter Angelina. The little girl never knew her father.

HUNT FOR A KILLER

Mr McDonald, Som and Angelina are currently in Thailand as their six year mission to track down Mr Oake’s killers draws closer to an end.

Adelaide taxi driver Mr Oake, 28, and Som had been holidaying in Prasat, near Surin in northeastern Thailand, for two months when they travelled between villages and were set upon by three men in a drug-fuelled, racially motivated attack in March 2010.

His attackers had been drinking on the night of the incident near Som’s village of Prasat, 410km northeast from Bangkok. Thai police say the men had also consumed methamphetamines.

Mr Oake was slashed in the head and on his arms with a homemade machete.

He had surgery for severed tendons in his arm but developed an infection. He was trying to return to Australia at his travel insurance company’s urgings when he died on April 11.

A motorbike driver and one of the attackers were soon arrested but a third man fled and remained in hiding for six years. He is reported to have travelled and worked in Macau before returning to Thailand.

Mr McDonald has spent the past six years working to bring his son’s killers to justice. He has followed tip offs to Cambodia and China and made at least 16 trips between Australia and Thailand since his son’s death. The grieving father turned amateur detective told news.com.au he has spent more than $100,000 on his search for justice and answers.

On Tuesday, Mr McDonald, his wife Jane, as well as Som and Angelina, attended a police briefing where it was announced the final suspect had been caught and confessed to being involved.

Rory McDonald, Som and Angelina.

Thai provincial police commander, Police Lieutenant General Tawitchat Palasak, told local media the Thai investigative team “had worked together to find the suspect.”

“(But) it is all thanks to Mr Rory, who never gave up. This arrest had a lot to do with him pushing the case through,” Tawitchat said.

South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, who supported Som and Angelina’s claims for Australian residency, said the arrest marked a vital step for the family.

“It’s very important for the family. These are battlers who sacrificed, who have made enormous sacrifices to track down their son’s assailants,” he said.

Mr McDonald said the arrest had “taken a huge pressure off all of us”.

“Basically our lives have been consumed with bringing these guys to justice since Andrew passed away,” he said. “We’ll never forget about Andrew but now we can try to get on with our lives.”

But there’s still a trial to get through yet.

Mr McDonald and Angelina.

Som and Angelina.

Mr Oake’s family is currently under police protection in Thailand after receiving death threats that warned Som not to give evidence at a pre-trial in a Thai court on Monday, according to Mr McDonald.

“The pre-trial is so Som can give her evidence and return to South Australia with Angelina without having to come back for trial next year,” Mr McDonald told news.com.au.

“Som will be giving evidence to a judge with our lawyer I’ve hired to help.

“There have been threats made to the family that if Som gives evidence they’ll get her and her daughter.

“Police met with us yesterday to make sure Som was safe.

“She’s worried about her daughter’s safety.

“Angelina is our main priority.”

No doubt she would have been Mr Oake’s, too.

In the final days of Mr Oake’s life, when he “wasn’t doing too well”, he helped name Angelina on his death bed.

“The really sad part of the whole thing is that Angelina never got to meet her dad. And Andrew never got to see his daughter,” Mr McDonald said.

“We always tell Angelina stories about how he spoke about her and how he was looking forward to doing things with her.

“We tell her what Andrew used to do. He was a gentle giant. His grandmother was in a nursing home for the last years before she passed away. Andrew, had lots of tattoos and things like that, but he used to go to the nursing home and see his grandmother almost every day. And not only that he’d go and see other residents in nursing home too. He used to go there all the time. If he saw someone struggling across the road, he’d always go and help.”

Mr McDonald said he has seen a change in Angelina since the third suspect was arrested.

“She seems to be a lot happier and has been playing a lot,” he said.

“But we need to finalise things because she still wants to know what’s going to happen to the men who killed her daddy.”