The sound of the crash in the early hours of Sunday morning may not have been heard by a lot of people, but the ramifications of the incident were felt far and wide.

About 4.30am June 7, 2020, an allegedly stolen Kia clipped a roundabout, got airborne, and hit a traffic light pole.

Four teenagers were instantly killed. The driver survived and will face a judge over their deaths in the coming months.

A year on from their deaths and not a lot has changed: stolen cars still speed through the city, children barely old enough to see over the steering wheel still risk arrest, innocent drivers have their lives put at risk daily.

To most the five kids in that car are just seen as kiddie crims, a number in the growing epidemic that has plagued Townsville.

But to those that knew them it’s not so simple.

For the first time the grandmother of Lucius Hure-Hill talks about the young man she knew, what led up to his death, the trauma he’d suffered and the boy who just wanted to be part of a family.

A BOY WITH A PAST

Sanaa Liddle will never forget the moment she realised her grandson, Lucius, had died.

No-one called about the Garbutt crash, there was no knock at the door at 4.30am, but she instead had an intense feeling that he had suddenly left this world.

Sitting in her house, the feeling overwhelmed her and was confirmed when two boys knocked on her door with the news that would change her life forever.

“He was my soulmate,” Ms Liddle told the Townsville Bulletin, on the one-year anniversary of the horrific crash.

Lucius was among four children, aged between 13 and 17, who were killed when the alleged stolen car they were in clipped a roundabout at high speed, rolled and smashed into a pole on Duckworth St.

The alleged driver, 14, was the sole survivor, and has been charged over their deaths. He is due to learn his fate soon.

Ms Liddle said she could feel his spirit in the early hours of June 7, 2020, and she knew he had gone.

She had raised Lucius full-time from when he was six years old.

His mother, Lesley-Lee Hill, was 14 when she fell pregnant with her first son and Ms Liddle insisted on helping her daughter raise him while she kept going to school.

Lucius’ father, Ezekiel Vernon Baira, was 16 years old when his son was born, but he never acted like a father, according to Ms Liddle.

She recounted his childhood of trauma which the Townsville Bulletin cannot fully explain for legal reasons.

Ms Liddle eventually took full-time custody of her grandson when he was six years old, but by then the damage was done.

“I had enough, I said ‘the boy is coming with me and they’re never coming back’

For the next seven years, Ms Liddle raised Lucius, taught him respect, got him into footy, and shuffled him off to school.

“He was a brilliant little footy player.

“He was confident, he had courage and was a leader. He spoke up; he knew respect and working for your money.

“I was trying to teach him values and morals, not to mention culture.”

He was smart, funny, full of potential and loved birthdays.

But Lucius still loved his parents and pined for their love, which Ms Liddle said was often not returned.

He’d wait for them on the weekends, only for no-one to show.

He’d watch them get involved on the wrong side of the law and make bad decisions, unable to provide him with a steady, loving home for the most important years of his life.

“He was let down time and time again by the failure and disappointment of his parents.

“What I’d teach him would be undone within five minutes of him being around them.

“All he wanted was to be a family.”

WHEN THINGS CHANGED

Things started to snowball when Lucius was 11.

He got repeatedly suspended from school for “sticking up for people”, and was put on a restricted school plan, which Ms Liddle loathed.

“It was denying my grandson an education.

She eventually started to home school Lucius, but faced even more struggles when she found it impossible to enrol him in any cultural programs they were either full, not operating, or his enrolment was too late.

One afternoon about six months before the crash, Ms Liddle found out Lucius had visited the house of the boy that would allegedly drive the car he died in.

“I was concerned. I knew the history of that boy. I told him not to go there.

“Lucius got careless, he had a no-care attitude, thought he was invincible.

“I told him not to get in stolen cars, or he would die.

Lucius then started to get involved in petty crime.

“I taught him better than that.

“It started a change. It’s not how I brought him up.”

Ms Liddle thinks Lucius wanted the freedom his mates were getting from parents who weren’t like her.

“He saw how those kids were living and wanted that. He thought his home was restrictive and we started to struggle.

“You think your kid is safe, I warned him, but it wasn’t enough.”

GONE IN A BLINK

The day before Lucius died was a normal day.

Lucius asked to have a sleepover at his aunty’s house on June 5, so Ms Liddle called him a cab, gave him $50, and waved him off.

“I said ‘be there to pick you up tomorrow. I love you’

He was feeling down because his mum had been arrested a few days earlier after being spotted in a stolen car, missing out on a visit from her just two days before his death.

“He was heartbroken. I think he liked being around kids that came from the same broken homes and who were also hurting.

“He must have felt a connection there.”

Lucius woke up on June 6 and his aunty took him out for lunch and dropped him at a mate’s place that Ms Liddle knew.

In the early hours of June 7, Lucius died.

“I knew he had passed away. I could feel his spirit.

“My daughter rang up and said there’s been a bad crash … not long later two boys came to my door and said Lucius was in the car.

“I just knew it.”

Lucius’ mum, who was in the watch house, found out about her son’s death when officers asked for a DNA sample to try and identify his body.

Ms Liddle said despite her heartache, she had to keep it together for her family.

“I was so lucky to have 13 years with a beautiful boy.

“Considering the factors that played in his life, he tried to be a good boy.”

To this day, she doesn’t understand why her beloved boy got in that car.

“As to why he thought it was okay to take part in a criminal act … it’s unacceptable to me. I instilled him with the knowledge and the values that hopefully he could make the right decisions.

“He didn’t make the right decision … he paid a high price. Why he made that decision, and not put a seatbelt on, I don’t know.”

ALLEGED FUNERAL FRAUD

At a time when Lucius should have been laid to rest peacefully, shocking allegations emerged that his mother and father had used his funeral money on themselves.

Lucius’ photo was again splashed around media outlets as his parents were arrested and charged with mishandling about $5000 raised in a Go Fund Me that was meant to pay for his funeral.

Ms Liddle was mortified when she saw the fundraising page, considering she had paid for his funeral in full.

So, she called the cops.

“They didn’t give me one cent for that boy’s funeral.”

Lesley-Lee Hill was sentenced for spending a share of the money on the pokies and alcohol, while Ezekiel Vernon Baira’s case is still processing through the courts.

Before the funeral, Ms Liddle got to hold Lucius. It was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to see a relative or a loved one after a car crash. It’s hard to see your own laying there.”

Ms Liddle saw nothing else tying her to Townsville, so picked up her life and moved to Bathurst with Lucius’ younger brother, Tristan, who is disabled.

“Every day since he has gone he asks where Lucius is.

“I’m lost without him.”

FORGIVENESS

A year on from the crash, Ms Liddle has forgiven the boy charged over Lucius’ death, but has a warning for young people still risking their lives, and the lives of others.

“Lucius jumped in a car. He didn’t plan on killing him. They were in a weapon.

“I don’t blame him (the driver). I forgive him. Lucius’ burden is mine, not the driver’s.

“That boy has to live with what he has done, and that’s enough punishment for me.”

Ms Liddle had a message for those children who continue to steal cars.

“Stop the violence. I tried to say it to my own.

“People lost a friend last year, it’s pointless. I don’t know what they’re trying to prove. It’s not going to bring Lucius back or anyone else.

“I don’t think these kids realise what they’re doing and what it causes.

“The pain will never go away, but the way I look at it, I got 13 beautiful years with him.”

shayla.bulloch@news.com.au