Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon’s family express grief over alleged highway hit and run

‘If they hadn’t found the leg’: Family’s grief over ‘cheeky’ grandmother struck in fatal alleged hit and run.

The NT News was given permission by her family to use images of the deceased.

KUMANJAYI Napurrurla Dixon is not a potential missing person. She is not a road statistic. She is not a gruesome court case.

At least not to her family.

To them, the 50-year-old Anmatyerre woman will always be the “bubbly”, “cheeky” mother, grandmother and Aunty whose voice carried the language and stories of their community.

The family of Ms Dixon have expressed their giref as a mother-and-son duo accused of conspiring to bury her in a shallow grave following a fatal alleged hit and run.

Carol Dixon cries as she thought about how close her sister came to being another missing person.

“If they hadn’t found the leg,” she said.

From her Newcastle home on the New South Wales coast, Carol watched the footage of NT Police blocking off a Darwin highway after a human leg was found on the side of the road.

“It startled me,” she said.

Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon, 50, was fatally struck in an alleged hit and run on the Stuart Highway, Coolalinga on May 30, 2022. Her severed leg was later spotted by motorists.

“Your heart goes out for the family, but when I got the call … I was in disbelief.”

“I saw flashes of the images on TV and thought ‘how could that possibly be her?’.”

“It broke my heart.”

Carol said Ms Dixon was on her way to see family on the outskirts of Darwin, “but she never made it”.

NT Police alleged 23-year-old Joshua Gary Mason fatally struck Ms Dixon while driving down the Stuart Hwy, near Coolalinga, on Monday May 30.

Police alleged his mother, Deborah Karen Mason, helped him drag her body into the back of a ute and dumped her on a nearby rural road.

It was alleged that neither Mason called the police, even after Ms Dixon’s disembodied leg was spotted by motorists by the side of the road.

The duo appeared in Darwin Local Court facing charges including hit and run, misconduct to a corpse and destroying evidence.

Both have indicated to Darwin Local that they are likely to plead guilty.

Carol started to weep as she thought about her sister.

“It’s a horrendous way to pass,” she said.

“It breaks my heart.”

NT Police have reported six pedestrian deaths since the beginning of the year, including four alleged hit and runs.

Carol said her sister would not become another road statistic.

She said her most vivid memory of Ms Dixon was while she was visiting her Central Desert family.

“All of a sudden she’s there holding my hand,” she said.

“(it was clear) how excited she was to see us.

“She was like a little kid. So proud of me and my kids.

“She laughed at me. She had this big cheeky smile.”

Kalarnna Hardy, left, Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon, 50, and Carol Dixon.

Carol reminisced about her childhood holidays to Central Australia at her Nan and Pop’s home.

“She was always there when we went there,” she said.

“Playing as kids we were always getting roused at by our grandparents.”

On the same Country they played on as children, Carol said she watched Ms Dixon share traditional stories in language with her own grandchildren.

“I’ve got to keep these memories alive,” she said.

Pink, red, white and yellow flowers now bloom in the place where the 50-year-old woman’s body was found.

Janita Dixon, the daughter of alleged hit and run victim Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon, at her mother's roadside memorial.

Carol said her family had set up a roadside memorial on the rural road after they were unable to build it where she was fatally stuck.

The Newcastle-based woman said she was now pushing for a coronial report to be published, and to gain access to any CCTV footage connected to the crash.

Carol called for more scrutiny of the Territory’s high road toll, particularly for pedestrians.

“There’s been a (fatal crash) case, then everyone says ‘OK that’s done, let’s move on’.”

“(But) this is family. I have to keep fighting.”

Originally published as Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon’s family express grief over alleged highway hit and run