Come home Karen

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The brother of murdered Scottish backpacker Karen Aim had no doubt where he wanted his sister to be when he made an emotional internet plea to her just after New Year.

"Forget this glass blowing carry on at the other side of the world," Alan Aim, 23, wrote on his sister's page on the Bebo social network website.

"My Orkney road passenger transport ambitions have doubled and could do with a bit of extra resources pulled together!

"Don't reply to this, just get yourself back here."

But instead of flying back to help Alan with his tourist travel business on the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, 26-year-old Karen stayed on in Taupo partying with friends, working in a glass-blowing gallery and settling into the Kiwi summer.

Her decision to remain in New Zealand proved fatal on Thursday morning, when she was bashed to death just 50m from her home. She told police her name with her dying breath.

"I believe she was intending to make a life in New Zealand. She went out and spent some time with her aunt last year," family friend Andrew Drever last night told Sunday News, from Holm on the Orkney Islands.

"She'd gone back out with the intention of making it her home. She had fallen in love with the place.

"Karen was a local lass, full of life, travelling around the world, maybe even starting a new life, and news like this shocks everybody. The whole community is shocked to the core."

Karen's parents Brian and Peggy Aim are said to be "devastated" at the news of their daughter's fatal bashing and hope to have her body returned to Holm as soon as possible for her funeral.

"They are in a severe state of shock complete disbelief that something as tragic as this could have happened," close friend John Muir said. "Everybody is in a state of shock. We all feel for the family at this time. It's something that is so difficult to cope with the thought of losing a daughter so far from home."

Holm church minister Miriam Gross added: "It was so awful, it felt as if my heart had broken.

"Brian and Peggy are such lovely people it's so terrible that something so dreadful should have happened.

"Karen was just such a positive, cheery person. She loved life, enjoying everying she did. That is a big gift that rubbed off on everyone she met."

On Friday more than 200 people gathered in Taupo for a blessing ceremony at the spot where Karen was found.

Karen's parents have asked Taupo authorities to organise a memorial service for Karen's friends in New Zealand. Her aunt from Palmerston North is expected to attend.

School friend Victoria Olsen, 26, saw Karen shortly before she set off for New Zealand in October last year.

"I know she was really looking forward to it. She couldn't wait to get out there and have some fun in a place she really loved," she said. "She was just such a lovely girl, full of life and always smiling and happy.

"Most of our thoughts are with her family. I just don't know how they are going to cope with this."

Police yesterday stepped up their hunt for Karen's killer, saying they are convinced the same person was responsible for a "frenzied" window smashing spree at a college near where her bloodied body was found.

Inquiry head Senior Sergeant Greg Turner said police believed the instrument used to bust 18 windows at Taupo Nui-A-Tia College was the same weapon used to bash Karen.

Karen was found semi-conscious on a street corner a short distance from the school early on Thursday morning and died soon after in Taupo Hospital before being able to reveal details of her attacker to police.

Police asked residents around the school to check back yards for discarded clothes or weapons. Members of the 50-strong inquiry team have questioned patrons at three pubs where Karen had been before walking home.

- © Fairfax NZ News