EXCLUSIVE
The heartbroken mother of a man who died after running from police and jumping into a crocodile-infested river has been dealt another blow after a council tore down her son’s monument and installed security cameras to prevent it from being destroyed. to replace.
Martin Wheeler, 36, was being chased by officers through central Rockhampton, Central Queensland, on an outstanding warrant when he jumped into the Fitzroy River last October.
Mr Wheeler, who ran his own gardening business, called for help and then disappeared underwater before his body was found after a three-day search by divers and helicopters.
His mother, who wanted to be called ‘Daph, Marty’s mother’, set up a makeshift shrine for him in the Memorial Gardens, run by Rockhampton Regional Council.
She wrapped lights around a tree she called “Marty’s Tree of Life,” along with photos, flowers, messages of love and a cross.
The monument had been in place for six months, but Daph was shocked when she received a call from the council last week saying it had been removed and she had to come and collect the items due to ‘damage to the tree’.
Martin Wheeler, 36, was being chased by officers through central Rockhampton, Central Queensland, on an outstanding warrant when he jumped into the Fitzroy River at the end of October last year.
Mr Wheeler’s mother set up a memorial for her son at a tree in the Memorial Gardens in Rockhampton. The photo shows a friend of Mr. Wheeler with the tree
The monument had been in place for six months, but Mr Wheeler’s mother was shocked when she received a call from the council last week saying it had been removed and she had to come and collect the items due to ‘damage to the tree’.
She said everything was “ripped off,” including the lights and pictures.
‘I’m just heartbroken, it’s all he had. It is not his tree of life now,” Daph told Daily Mail Australia.
Daph said she can no longer visit her son’s memorial after what happened.
Her daughter Lara Ashcroft is also buried there after she was murdered 23 years ago.
Daph’s husband’s ashes are also in Mr Wheeler’s tree of life after he passed away in 2020.
“My family is reeling,” she said.
Daph said she wrapped lights around the tree to honor her son
Surveillance cameras have now been installed on the tree
“I can’t go to Memorial Gardens anymore because of all this nonsense and I’ve been going there for 23 years.”
Daph visited the memorial several times a week and brought Mr Wheeler’s dogs to remember her son.
On Friday evening, in honor of the six-month anniversary of her son’s death, Daph and other loved ones visited the tree and hung temporary decorations.
She removed them on Sunday and the tree is now bare.
This week she was stunned to see that surveillance cameras had also been placed on the tree.
She claims the lights around the tree are not nailed into the bark.
A spokesperson for Rockhampton Regional Council said they recognized it had been a “difficult time” for Daph’s family following the death of her son.
“Objects that could cause damage to the tree were removed, while items at the base of the tree were left in place,” they said.
“All items removed have been returned to the family.”
Daph denies that items at the base of the tree were left there and has criticized the council for their ‘disrespectful’ approach.
The mother had previously told Daily Mail Australia why her son was running from police.
She said authorities had sought him in the weeks before his death over AVOs against him, but he had failed to attend court on any of the cases.
Mr Wheeler’s body was recovered from the Fitzroy River after a three-day search (pictured).
She said the allegations were “all lies” and that Mr Wheeler “never hurt anyone”, but that he would be arrested if officers were called to domestic disputes because “he had a loud voice”.
She said her son was always respectful of officers and would respond with “yes or no sir” when spoken to, but that a recent encounter had left him terrified of police.
“He was just afraid of the police,” she said. ‘The police came into my house a week ago and treated him like a criminal.
‘The police hated him because he would run away. But he was just afraid of them. He drowned while screaming for help. Nobody got it.
‘Why were they chasing him? He was panicking.’
Lara Ashcroft (pictured), Wheeler’s sister, was murdered when she was 23
Mr Wheeler was just 14 when his sister was murdered, with Daph saying he never got over her death.
She believes this was the catalyst for his series of unstable relationships and PTSD diagnosis 18 months ago.
He recently lived in a trailer parked in his mother’s front yard while he ran his tree-trimming business.
Daph said her son was ‘devastated’ as he headed out to get a haircut at the mall on the day he disappeared – where he was spotted and then chased by police.
‘It was just too much for him. He was just beside himself,” she said.
“If he panicked, he would just run away.”
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