Channel Seven
The only surviving member of the Lin family, who were brutally murdered at their Sydney home in 2009, has broken her silence and described the horror moment she realised what her uncle had done.
Brenda Lin was 15 and in New Caledonia on a school trip when her uncle, Robert Xie, murdered her father, Min “Norman” Lin, her mother Yun Li “Lily” Lin, her aunt Yun Bin “Irene” Lin and her two brothers, Henry, 11, and Terry, 9.
“He was someone that I trusted … as a person who isn’t a murderer,” she told Seven’s Sunday Night.
“I would give anything to have my family back.”
Up until recently, Ms Lin’s identity has been withheld, however she has now decided to speak out about the horror ordeal after delivering a powerful victim impact statement at her uncle’s sentencing hearing.
“It’s been seven and a half years since I lost my family — that is seven and a half years without a loving mother, seven and a half years without a loving father, seven and a half years without two exuberant brothers who were my best and closest friends and seven and a half years without an extremely kind aunt,” she said in her statement according to The Australian.
“In this time I have finished my HSC, was accepted into uni, got my first part-time job and learnt to drive. But I have achieved all these things without my family beside me,” she said.
“These inherently happy moments are now at most bittersweet, they have now become a painful reminder of the family I have lost and I will never see again.”
Ms Lin also heartbreakingly described her biggest regret as, like most typical teenagers do, did not hug her father when he dropped her off for her school trip.
“Being a prideful teenager I did not say anything to my father, I just stood there awkwardly and thought to myself ‘It is just going to be a week, I am going to see them again really soon’,” she said.
“The pain of losing loved ones that never goes away and does not get any easier with time — as time goes on others may forget but I will have to live with the aftermath of the crime for the rest of my life.”
Xie was found guilty in January and at his sentence hearing Justice Elizabeth Fullerton sentenced Xie to five life sentences for each family member he killed reports News Corp.
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