Bianca Girven (pictured) was choked to death by her boyfriend in Mt Gravatt in 2010
A heart-broken mother is fighting to save a makeshift memorial created in honour of her daughter who was strangled to death by her boyfriend.
Sonia Anderson’s daughter Bianca Girven, 22, was choked to death by her boyfriend Rhys Austin, then 22, at a park near the Mount Gravatt lookout in Brisbane, in 2010.
A colourfully decorated memorial tree set up at the lookout, is now at the centre of a dispute Ms Anderson has refused to back down on.
Eight years after Bianca’s death, the Brisbane City Council told Ms Anderson the makeshift memorial needed to be taken down.
Sonia Anderson (pictured) is fighting to save the memorial tree built in her murdered daughter’s honour
‘Cr Krista Adams wants us to remove all items from Bianca’s memorial tree… I visit Bianca’s tree on average twice a week,’ Sonia Anderson wrote on Facebook
The colourfully decorated memorial tree (pictured) was set up at the lookout in Bianca’s honour, is now at the centre of a dispute Ms Anderson refused to back down on
‘Cr Krista Adams wants us to remove all items from Bianca’s memorial tree… I visit Bianca’s tree on average twice a week,’ she wrote this week.
‘I emotionally can’t lose this.’
Cr Adams admitted it was a very difficult, and emotional issue.
‘I will be working with Bianca Girven’s family to arrange a more permanent memorial,’ Cr Adams told Nine News.
Cr Adams said the request to take down the memorial was prompted by complaints sent in by the local community.
She said the council was looking at designs for a park bench featuring Bianca’s artwork.
‘Whenever we look at these memorials we look at them on a case-by-case basis and we sit down with the family and talk to them about what designs may be better suited for a permanent memorial in a public park,’ she said.
Cr Adams said the request to take down the memorial (pictured) was prompted by complaints sent in by the local community
‘I am pleased to tell you all that Cr Krista Adams and I have agreed to discuss a compromise,’ she said
Cr Krista Adams (pictured) said the council was looking at designs for a park bench featuring Bianca’s artwork
Ms Anderson welcomed the idea of a park bench in her daughter’s name, but would not trade in the tree memorial.
Since her plea to save the memorial, Ms Anderson took to Facebook to announce she received some good news.
‘I am pleased to tell you all that Cr Krista Adams and I have agreed to discuss a compromise,’ she said.
‘The yarn bombing is staying. We will work out how to secure Bianca’s trinkets and also work out a long term memorial.’
Rhys Blake Austin (pictured), then 22, admitting to killing 22-year-old mother Bianca Faith Girven in 2010 by strangling her for more than 10 minutes inside a van at Mt Gravatt
Ms Anderson went on to say ‘thank you’ to her friends for lending their support to the cause.
Rhys Blake Austin, then 22, admitting to killing 22-year-old mother Bianca Faith Girven in 2010 by strangling her for more than 10 minutes inside a van at Mt Gravatt.
The motivation for the attack, he said, was fueled by a belief that a computer god told him to kill his girlfriend so that he could too progress along the path of becoming a god.
The admissions, made months after her death, lead a Mental Court Hearing to throw out the murder charge against him on the basis he exhibited severe psychotic symptoms.
The court found he was of unsound mind, accepted he was in a concealed delusional state and that there was a psychotic explanation for the killing.