Heartbroken parents of Elise Hodder ‘desperately’ trying to focus on positive memories after daughter’s fatal crash
Young Melbourne model Elise Hodder was celebrating her friend’s birthday when she was killed by an alleged drunk driver in Kooyong. Her final words were typical, her heartbroken mother reveals.
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“You’re a wonderful woman and you’re so special,” Elise Hodder reassured her mum.
“I love you,” Elise added soon after, in her last words to her as she headed off to a friend’s party.
That was typical of Elise – always loving, kind, encouraging – her mother Pauline remembers.
The 24-year-old’s heartbroken parents Pauline and husband Michael are desperately trying to focus on positive memories of their daughter.
But the cruel truth of her death at the hands of an allegedly drunk and drugged driver is overwhelming.
“That person in question will at some point likely have a partner, have babies, have a house, travel, and have a lot of fun, he has the ability to do whatever. That’s been taken from Elise and from us and that’s really hard,” Pauline said.
Budding model Elise was full of hope as Pauline drove her to a friend’s birthday celebrations from the Clifton Hill home she still lived in with her parents on October 12.
She had just appeared in a spread for Vanguard magazine, but still she was focusing on others.
“I was telling her about some little personal issue that was going on, and she turned to me, looked me straight in the eye, and said, ‘Mum, you’re a wonderful woman and you’re so special’,” Pauline said.
“Then when I actually dropped her off, she turned to look me in the eye (again) and said, ‘I love you’.
“It’s so special, because of what happened, because she passed away after that.”
Elise also shared a special moment with one of her brothers the night before she died.
“She spent some time with her dad Michael and one of her brothers who had had a setback with something,” Pauline said.
“She told her brother how proud she was of him and how special he is, and that he would be all right, and that’s now very, very meaningful for him.”
For Michael, his last memory is of things both said and unsaid.
“I remember she came in through the door looking stunning,” he said.
“I guess as a dad, you can’t keep telling your daughter that she looks stunning, they don’t like it. She’d usually say ‘stop it dad’.
“So, I just looked at her, and she gave me a cheeky smile, as if to say ‘don’t you say a thing’. Sometimes you can have a conversation without having a conversation, you know.
“The memory will probably diminish over time, unfortunately, but I will always picture her in that doorway with that smile.”
Nearly every inch of space in the couple’s beautiful Clifton Hill home is occupied by bouquets of flowers.
Hundreds of photos of Elise – the baby, the toddler, the schoolgirl, the emerging model – cover the dining room table.
Pauline talks about Elise’s career trajectory and wonders what she could have achieved.
“She was just on the cusp, her modelling career was just starting,” she said. “We don’t know where her life would have headed. She was really happy now, but who was she going to be when she was older and grown up? She didn’t have a partner, she didn’t have children. It’s those questions that will now stay unanswered forever.”
That is when her thoughts return to Connor Matthiasson.
Elise died in a carpark in Kooyong’s Sir Zelman Cowen Park, about 1.10am on October 13, when it is alleged Mr Matthiasson ran her over.
Police allege the 23-year-old was unlicensed, drunk and under the influence of cannabis when he got behind the wheel of his car as police arrived to break up a rave party.
He was charged with culpable driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and negligently causing serious injury, but was bailed two days after the tragedy, with his father putting up a $100,000 surety to secure his son’s release.
Magistrate Donna Bakos said Mr Matthiasson had allegedly “accelerated heavily” while attempting to reverse his Holden Commodore out of the carpark, striking Ms Hodder and another person.
He allegedly recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.178.
The Melbourne Magistrates Court was told Mr Matthiasson had underlying mental health issues that he was trying to address.
“We all know about drinking and driving,” Pauline said.
“I don’t want to hear excuses. I don’t want to hear ‘we’re traumatised’, lots of people are struggling.
“If someone’s sorry, I want them to be sorry for our daughter and not for their own self and their own situation.”
Michael said: “You know, the whole thing is just tragic, and there’s a familiar story here. A male, alcohol, drugs …”
The Hodders are now planning their daughter’s funeral, surrounded by reminders of her – her muesli bars in the pantry, her watch now adorning Michael’s wrist, her Subaru still parked out the front.
It’s hard and will be for a long time.
“There’s no playbook for something like this,” Michael said.
Mr Matthiasson will return to court in February.
Originally published as Heartbroken parents of Elise Hodder ‘desperately’ trying to focus on positive memories after daughter’s fatal crash
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