Crimes NZ

In 1989, two Swedish tourists, Sven Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen, went missing in the Coromandel. Mr Höglin's body was discovered by pig hunters in 1991, but Ms Paakkonen has not been seen since. David Tamihere spent 21 years in prison for the 1989 murders of Sven Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen. The Swedish tourists and had gone tramping in bush near Thames in April. They were reported missi...

15-year-old Canterbury teenager, Kirsty Bentley from Ashburton went missing after taking her dog for a walk on New Year's Eve in 1998 - her body was found just over two weeks later. Stuff journalists Blair Ensor and Martin van Beynen recently completed an investigative piece on the unsolved case. It's one of the most high-profile cold cases in New Zealand's history - the murder of Canter...

In October 2016, a group of women gathered in West Auckland for a pamper party. It ended with the death of Carly Stewart. Defence lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg QC was involved in the case. In October 2016, a group of women gathered in West Auckland for what was supposed to be a fun social event - a chance to do their nails, catch up with friends, and have a few drinks. But the party took a bizarre and vi...

It's one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in New Zealand history. In 1984, a bomb went off on the Trades Hall in Wellington killing caretaker Ernie Abbott. Former Secretary Graeme Clark remembers that day and the confusion that followed. On the 27th of March, 1984 at the Trades Hall in Wellington, caretaker Ernie Abbott bent over to pick up a suitcase left behind earlier in the day. It contai...

The case that brought the word "bondage" to dinner tables around the nation. Renee Chignall was a teenage dominatrix who was tried three times for the murder of Peter Plumley-Walker in January 1989. Peter Plumley-Walker died during a bondage session at the Remuera home of Renee Chignall and Neville Walker in January, 1989. The couple dumped his body over the Huka Falls. Renee Chignall was a teenag...

Investigative journalist and presenter David Lomas began covering the Mr Asia drug ring case when he was a crime reporter at the Dominion newspaper in Wellington in 1978. He has followed the story ever since. The Mr Asia drug ring imported large quantities of drugs into New Zealand and Australia through the 70s. The drug ring, one of the largest New Zealand has ever seen, was led by Marty Johnston...

David Dougherty was convicted for the rape and abduction of an 11 year old girl in 1993. But he wasn't guilty of the crime. Donna Chisholm was the journalist at the centre of the campaign to free him and have him compensated. In 1993, David Dougherty was convicted of abducting and raping an 11-year-old girl in Auckland. He spent more than three years in prison before being acquitted at a retrial i...

Deane Fuller-Sandys went missing on 21 August, 1989 after setting off to go fishing at the rough West Auckland beach Whatipu and for nearly a decade he was presumed drowned. Deane Fuller-Sandys went missing on 21 August,1989 after setting off to go fishing at the rough West Auckland beach Whatipu and for nearly a decade he was presumed drowned. In February 1997, police began investigating tips whi...

Teina Pora was wrongly imprisoned for 20 years for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett, brutally attacked in her Papatoetoe home in March 1992. Investigative journalist Eugene Bingham joins Jesse to us through the case. On Monday 23 March, 1992, Susan Burdett was raped and beaten to death with a softball bat. What followed would become one of this country's most prominent miscarriages of jus...

Olivia Hope and Ben Smart disappeared in the Marlborough Sounds in the early hours of New Year's Day in 1998. Investigative journalist and author, Mike White, has covered this case through all its twists and turns over two decades. Ben Smart and Olivia Hope were last seen about 4am on January 1 1998 when they were dropped off to a yacht by a water taxi. Ben and Olivia were planning to sleep on the...