South African doctor Lauren Anne Dickason (40), charged with murdering her three young daughters just weeks after the family immigrated to New Zealand from South Africa, appeared in court this past weekend.

Dickason, from Pretoria in SA, appeared in a NZ court in the port city of Timaru, and a judge remanded her to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. She is charged with killing her 2-year-old twins and their 6-year-old sister. Their bodies were found last Thursday at a property where the family stayed.

“Police would like to reassure the community that this was a tragic isolated incident and we are not seeking anyone else,” the police said in a statement late on Friday.

The family came to Timaru, a city of 29 000 on New Zealand’s South Island, at the end of August. They left the compulsory two-week managed isolation last week.

Facebook posts

At the time Dickason shared a Facebook post congratulating her husband Graham on their 15th wedding anniversary. The post read: “Happy 15th wedding anniversary Graham Dickason. What an adventure. We have truly created a beautiful family and had many good times together.

“May the next years be more blessed, more happy and may the kids let us sleep. Thank you for everything you do for us and your unwavering dedication to loving and providing for us. You are my everything.”

Shocked grandparents

The children’s grandparents, in South Africa, said the whole extended family was “in a state of shock” since hearing the news, according the New Zealand Herald.

“[We] were devastated when we heard of the terrible tragedy. The wider family is in shock as we attempt to understand what happened.”

Dickson is believed to have strangled the 3 children with cable ties.

Tragic

@TMKsouth
Mentally unstable mother murdered her three kids.

Don't blame quarantine.

ivolt:
@TMKsouth
Mentally unstable mother murdered her three kids.

Don't blame quarantine.

Check my post below . The quarantine was mentioned in the headline screenshot I provided - it was not necessarily my opinion.

"Traumatic Quarantine"

The family had immigrated to New Zealand in August and had just come out of strict quarantine. They had only been in their new home in Timaru in the Canterbury area of New Zealand for a week when the tragedy occurred.

A local media report said that Lauren had been on chronic medication but stopped taking it because she feared it would affect their immigration application.

New Zealand has strict requirements and potential immigrants can be turned down on the basis of a chronic illness, or if they do not meet “an acceptable standard of health”.

During the two weeks mandatory Covid-19 quarantine period that New Zealand imposes on people entering the country, one cannot leave their hotel room except for an hour of exercise in a courtyard per day.

“The immigration process for New Zealand is extremely traumatic,” the former colleague, also a doctor said.

“I understand the place where the Dickason family had to spend their quarantine was basically like a prison. You don’t see anyone, your food is delivered to your door and you are only let out for about an hour a day.”

Accused "was off her medication"

The doctor friend said that the stress combined with Lauren not taking her medication could have led to the tragic murders of the children.

Meanwhile, a woman who also worked at the Pretoria East Hospital and lived in the same complex as the couple back in SA, told a New Zealand news website that life in the new country would have been very different for them.

“Here (in SA) she had a nanny, a domestic worker and a gardener who all helped in and around the house.

"She isn't an evil person, she was pushed outside her limits...but I think it might have been the extreme circumstances. Her mum isn't there, her family isn't there...who will know, we weren't there, not one of us. Perhaps they didn't anticipate what it would mean to leave everything behind and go."

Others r disapoint da killa is not black South African naw they hev nothing to say ;

What a loss. PTS is a b*tch...

Black they say r criminal...whites they say is PTSD ;;;

TjoBATHONG:
Black they say r criminal...whites they say is PTSD ;;;

Black people in SA have gone through a lifetime of trauma, I agree with u.

SA women don't have sense, na only yansh dey get

stunnert:
SA women don't have sense, na only yansh dey get

Trauma isn’t something good