“DON’T DO THIS TO YOUR FAMILY”
Melissa McGuinness is petite, but today she looks especially small and vulnerable, standing alone on a vast stage between towering blue curtains that threaten to swallow her up. It’s Ash Wednesday, which feels somehow weighted with significance, as she fronts 400 teenage boys at a Sydney Catholic school and recounts for them the most horrific day of her life.
“It was a Saturday morning, 8 December 2012,” the 50-year-old mother of three begins. “My husband, Peter, and I were sitting, enjoying our morning cup of tea and watching the sun rise, as we did every single morning. Funnily enough, we were talking about how proud we were of my son, Jordan, who had graduated from high school and was four and a half months into a carpentry apprenticeship.
“As we spoke, our doorbell buzzed and my immediate thought was, ‘Jordan’s home early’.” He was living in Brisbane in a share house during the week but came home to the Gold Coast on weekends to see family and friends, and to surf. “But then I thought, ‘Jordan has a key.’”
Melissa answered the buzzer and two police officers asked if they could have a word with her.
“I did a quick stocktake of my life,” she says, “as I wondered