Around 9pm on Sunday night, almost two weeks ago, Samara Laverty was at home in Cairns when she received a text message from her 20-year-old son, Declan.
It threw her into a state of panic that still hasn't subsided.
"It said, 'I love you mum, I've been stabbed'," Samara said.
From far north Queensland, the distraught mother called emergency services in Darwin.
But they were already responding to calls from her son's workplace.
Declan Laverty had allegedly been stabbed while working at a bottle shop in Darwin's northern suburbs and there was nothing paramedics could do to save him.
A fortnight since that final message came through, Samara still texts her son's phone every day.
"It gives me that outlet to still talk to him," Samara said, holding back tears.
"I'm messaging him at the end of every day, telling him what I've done that day, for him.
"I've yelled at him a couple of times. He's only 20. This should not have happened."
In Cairns on Friday afternoon, at Declan's funeral, hundreds gathered dressed in the yellow and black of his beloved Richmond Football Club.
Declan's father Damian Crook told the service he and Declan were "father and son, flatmates and best mates".
His mother recalled early morning footy games and evening training sessions, telling the crowd of mourners Declan would always be her "little buddy".
His siblings Bridget, Taylah and Joshua paid tribute to their brother.
Bridget, Declan's little sister, said the support across the Cairns and Darwin communities had been overwhelming.
"It meant a lot that so many people in that short amount of time that we were there came up and gave flowers and hugged us and cried with us," she said.
"They didn't even know him and it means the world to us."
Declan had moved from his hometown of Cairns to Darwin about 18 months before he died to study a certificate in information technology and start his life as a young adult.
Samara said her son had developed a keen interest in rap music in the final months of his life, spending "almost all of his spare time" writing songs and creating music videos with his friends, hopeful that one day he could turn it into a job.
'His face is just there'
Seeing her son's face in news stories is something Samara says she will never get used to.
Declan's death sparked public debate and prompted the Northern Territory parliament to change its bail laws.
A 19-year-old man has been charged with murder, aggravated robbery and a breach of bail in relation to Declan's death.
Samara said she didn't want her son remembered as a "poster boy for crime".
She said she hoped any changes in legislation would mean "kids could go to work and do their job and come home safely at the end of the day".
"I don't want any other mother, ever, to have to receive that sort of message from their child," she said.
"If his legacy can be that no mother has to go through this, then I sort of look at it as his life wasn't in vain.
"It's hard seeing that he's the face of the change. And I hate that it had to be my child, but that's just how it's happened. And now we need to I think we need to grieve his loss."
