Suspected homicide victim Sheena Fairfield’s husband, Mick Fairfield, opens up on horror of losing ‘best friend’

The heartbroken husband of a woman brutally killed in a suspected homicide in front of their five-year-old daughter has opened up about his horrific ordeal and the loss of his “best friend”. Warning: Confronting.

Tears are streaming down Mick Fairfield’s face.

His cigarette-stained fingers tap on his twitching leg as he recounts the horror of finding the “love of his life”, Sheena Fairfield, dead outside their Leanyer home after what police are treating as a homicide.

The couple met in Warrnambool where they worked together as butchers before they began dating and didn’t leave each other’s sides for the next decade and a half.

“We were best friends,” he told the NT News just four days after his wife’s shocking death.

“I treasured her.

“We couldn’t be separated.

Mick Fairfield was left heartbroken after his wife was killed in a suspected homicide last Thursday. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

“We really just stuck together.

“I loved her a lot.”

Less than half an hour after Ms Fairfield, 39, kissed her husband and told him she loved him before leaving the family business at 2.20pm on Thursday to pick up their five-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, who witnessed her mother’s death, she was likely dead.

When Mr Fairfield, 45, arrived home three hours later after trying to call his wife twice about 4pm, he found her in the yard of their family home with horrific injuries, including several stab wounds and cut wrists.

Sheena Fairfield was the love of Mick’s life. Picture: Supplied

“It was just one big blur,” he said.

“I just seen her there in a pool of blood.

“There was blood sprayed on the walls.”

Initially he thought she had fallen from the balcony of their home or been attacked by a dog because her injuries were so severe.

The Fairfield home in Leanyer remained a crime scene on Monday. Picture: Glenn Campbell

He tried desperately to revive Ms Fairfield but knew deep down it was too late from the moment he saw her.

“I knew she was dead,” Mr Fairfield said.

“I knew she was gone because there was so much blood.

“She was covered in flies.

“Her eyes were open and she was looking at the gate. I think she tried to get to the gate.”

Emergency services arrived seven minutes later and told Mr Fairfield his wife could not be saved.

“It felt like a lifetime to me,” he said.

Panic then set in and he started searching for Brooklyn, who was on the property when her mother was killed.

“I don’t know how she’s going to be,” Mr Fairfield said.

Mick and Sheena’s daughter Brooklyn was on the property when her mother died in what police are treating as a suspected homicide. Picture: Supplied

“It destroyed her.”

Mr Fairfield found the five-year-old in a room upstairs under a blanket and covered in sweat with a terrified look on her face.

“She’d been under there for hours,” Mr Fairfield said with tears again rolling down his face.

“She had a look of relief when she seen me.”

Mr Fairfield said if it wasn’t for Brooklyn he didn’t know what he would have done.

“She’s been so brave,” he said.

“She hasn’t shed a tear.”

Brooklyn has undergone counselling since the horrific incident but Mr Fairfield said he had tried to let his daughter feel as normal as possible.

Mick Fairfield said his daughter had the same smile as her mother. Picture: Supplied

Less than a week after his wife’s death, the 45-year-old has not yet come to terms with his loss.

“It’s real but it doesn’t feel real,” he said.

“It’s just hard to accept … it turns your life upside down.”

Just a day before the suspected homicide, Mr Fairfield and his wife went shopping for Christmas presents that they will never get to give their daughter together.

“They’re still in the back of Sheena’s car,” he said.

Within hours of a crime scene being established at the Fairfield home, heavily armed police officers descended on a Rosebery property about 20km from the Fairfield home where they arrested a 56-year-old man in relation to Ms Fairfield’s death, which they continue to treat as a homicide.

Mick and Sheena Fairfield met 13 years ago and “couldn’t be separated”. Picture: Supplied

After being arrested he was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital with injuries police said he sustained before they arrived.

Police said the man remained under police guard and had not been interviewed yet.

Mr Fairfield has returned to the family home once since Thursday but is unsure if he can keep living there.

Mick Fairfield found his five-year-old daughter under a blanket after her mother died in a suspected homicide. Picture: Supplied

“I want to stick it out because that’s Sheena’s house,” he said.

“There are too many good things there.”

Mr Fairfield said he had struggled to sleep or eat since Thursday afternoon and the image of his wife’s lifeless body had not left his thoughts.

Mick Fairfield’s lasting memory of his wife will be her smile. Picture: Supplied

“I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking,” he said.

“It’s like I sleep with my eyes open.

“The only thing I can think of is her lying right there.

“I just want her back.”

But his lasting memory was of the smile Ms Fairfield and her daughter share.

“The smile wins my heart,” Mr Fairfield said looking at a photo of his family.

“She was always sweet.

“You fall in love with her because she smiles.”