Pauline Hodder vividly remembers driving her 24-year-old daughter, Elise, to her best friend’s house last October. During the drive, Elise turned to her mother and said: “You’re a special woman, Mum, I love you.”

Pauline told a court: “I had no idea this was the last time I would ever see my daughter alive.”

Michael and Pauline Hodder have spoken in court about the effect their daughter’s death has had on them. Credit: Paul Jeffers

Just hours later, Elise was killed by a drunk driver soon after she arrived at a park rave with her friends in Kooyong, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, on October 14, 2024.

Connor Mathiasson, 23, was high and drunk when he got behind the wheel of his Holden Commodore and attempted to leave the Kooyong car park after attending the rave.

He rammed the car

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