Crimes NZ

In 1960, police discovered the body of a man in a central Auckland apartment, but it is the disappearance of his wife, Cynthia Grierson Jackson that has baffled police for more than half a decade. Neighbours describe one night where there were loud voices coming from the apartment of Cynthia Grierson Jackson and her husband, Michael. Otherwise, there was nothing to suggest the grisly scene police...

Six people were killed and four injured when Stephen Anderson took his father's shotgun and went on a rampage in the sleepy North Island settlement of Raurimu, in 1997. Michael Morrah interviewed Anderson and tells his story. When Stephen Anderson saw his parents and their friends eating breakfast at the family bach in Raurimu, he became convinced they were part of a conspiracy to end the world. H...

In the winter of 1954, two schoolgirls - Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme - murdered Pauline's mother on a remote walking track in Christchurch. Author Peter Graham recounts the events leading to Honora Parker's death. On June 22,1954, Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker went for tea and a walk at Victoria Park in Christchurch's Port Hills with Pauline's mother, Honorah Parker. It was there,...

Barrister Simon Shamy describes the tragic murder of Ruby Knox. He represented Donella Knox who admitted killing her daughter. In May 2016, Donella Knox sedated and then smothered her 21-year-old daughter, Ruby. She was sent to jail for four years. Donella had been the sole carer for her daughter Ruby for 20 years. Ruby was severely autistic and intellectually disabled. She could not speak, was vi...

On New Years Eve, 1976, 36-year-old Heidi Charles vanished without a trace. True crime writer Scott Bainbridge explains how this baffling case has been mixed up with other high-profile disappearances. On New Years' Eve 1976, 36-year-old Heidi Charles was dropped off in central Rotorua to do some shopping. She arranged to meet her husband, Robert, and two sons an hour later at Fenton Park. But...

In 2011, 17 year-old Emily Longley was strangled to death by her boyfriend. Her father, Mark Longley, recounts the battle for justice and the healing process. On the 7th May 2011, Emily Longley was found dead at her boyfriend's house in Bournemouth, England. The 17 year old New Zealand had moved to England to go to college. She had only been there for eight months. Emily's boyfriend, 21...

David McNee was beaten to death in his own home in 2003. His killer was found guilty of manslaughter after using a provocation defence referred to as the 'gay panic' defence. In 2003, Philip Edwards went to David McNee's house to perform a sex show for $120 but ended up killing the well known interior designer. McNee's killer used a partial 'provocation defence' which was at th...

It's one of the most brazen robberies in New Zealand's history. In November 1956, Auckland mobsters made off with the equivalent today of $1 million after breaking into the Waterfront Industry Commission's offices. In 1956, Auckland mobsters might have pulled off the heist of the century, after breaking into the Waterfront Industry Commission offices and making off with the equivalent of a million...

The 1992 murder of English tourist, Margery Hopegood, stunned the country. She was in New Zealand to discover her roots, but was stabbed to death in a Hamilton toilet block. Margery Hopegood was born in New Zealand but had been adopted by a English family and raised there. She had been back in New Zealand just four days when she was brutally murdered. The murder was huge news and the people of Ham...

On August 16, 1980, 6 year-old Alicia O'Reilly was found dead in her bed, in the room she shared with her 8-year-old sister. For years the case has gone unsolved, but police are currently following up new leads Alicia O'Reilly was found dead in her bed in her Avondale home on August 16, 1980. It appears she was killed while her eight-year-old sister slept just metres away. This episode of Cri...

In May 2009, three Napier police officers entered Jan Molenaar's home searching for drugs. The execution of a simple search warrant turned into a three day stand-off and ended with two deaths. Jan Molenaar arrived home to find police searching his home for drugs on May 7, 2009. He was furious and got out a gun, ordering the police officers out of his home. Then he started firing. Constable Len Sne...

Chris and Cru Kahui were just 84 days old when they were fatally injured in their Auckland home. Their father, also Chris, was charged with murder but eventually acquitted of the crime. It was a case that shocked the nation. The deaths of newborn twin boys, Chris and Cru Kahui in 2006. The twins' father Chris was charged with their murder, but he was eventually acquitted. Marie Dyhrberg, lawy...

On September 1, 1983 Kirsa Jensen saddled up her horse for a ride along Awatoto beach, near her home in Napier and was never seen again. Kirsa Jensen's body has never been found and no one has ever been charged with her murder. The 14-year-old disappeared on September 1, 1983. Retired Detective Inspector Ian Holyoake headed the investigation into Kirsa's disappearance. Go to this episode...

Lorraine Cohen and her son Aaron spent much of the 80's locked up in a Malaysia prison facing the death penalty. In 1984, Lorraine Cohen and her son Aaron were arrested at a Malaysian airport and charged with drug trafficking, a charge that carried a death penalty. Journalist Tim Donoghue spent much of his career covering the story and eventually wrote about book called The Tiger Who Smiled about...

It was the biggest white collar crime New Zealand had ever seen, totalling $1.5 billion dollars, and at the centre of it all was South Canterbury Finance. South Canterbury Finance went into voluntary receivership in 2010, claiming a $1.5 billion dollar government bailout. Four years later, the company director was dead and three other board members were charged with the largest fraud New Zealand h...

Philip Nisbet was found dead in his Christchurch home on May 4, 2009. Four years later his wife was found guilty of murder. In 2013, Helen Milner was found guilty of drugging her husband in order to get the life insurance payout. Four years earlier, she had convinced police her husband killed himself. But Lee-Anne Cartier, the victim's sister, felt something was off and began her own investig...

The disappearance of Jane Furlong is a mystery that has gripped the nation for nearly thirty years. In 1993, 17-year-old Jane Furlong disappeared from Auckland's Karangahape Road. Nineteen years later her remains were found on a beach at Port Waikato. Her killer has never been brought to justice. Stuff journalist Kelly Dennett wrote The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Jane Furlong, a book...

In 2002, an armed stranger snatched Baby Kahu from her stroller and held her for ransom for nine long days. Wellington lawyer Donna Hall was walking her dog with two nieces and eight-month-old baby Kahu, when a stranger brandishing a gun grabbed the baby and drove off. The next day the family was sent a ransom note demanding $3 million dollars. For nine terrifying days the family had no idea where...

The 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior is described as the first act of terrorism against New Zealand. An assault which claimed the life of Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. On 10 July 1985 the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, was sunk at an Auckland wharf. Two French agents planted two explosives on the ship while it was berthed at Marsden wharf, the second explosion killed Greenpea...

The details of the 1977 murder of Betty Benning were so bizarre, movie producer Philly De Lacey turned it into a black comedy. In 1977 on a quiet Karori street, Alf Benning brutally murdered his wife Betty. Her body parts were discovered buried beneath a freshly planted apple tree in the backyard. Alf had copies of books borrowed from the local library about getting away with murder. The killing i...

Coral-Ellen Burrows was reported missing on September 9th, 2003. She was six years old. Former detective John Gualter worked on the case, known as Operation Reef. On September 9 2003, six-year-old Featherston girl Coral Ellen Burrows was reported missing. Police were alerted when her mother went to pick her up from school, and found out that she hadn't attended class that day. Ten days later,...

In 2002, Mark Lundy was found guilty of killing his wife Christine and 7-year old daughter Amber, but investigative journalist Mike White has some questions about the prosecution's case. Christine Lundy and her seven-year old daughter Amber were brutally killed in their own home in August, 2000. Two years later, Mark Lundy, Christine's husband and Amber's father, was convicted of their m...

Six-year old Teresa Cormack went missing in 1987. Her body was found 10 days later. For 15 years her murder remained unsolved, until investigators got the breakthrough of the century. In 1987, on the 19th of June, the body of Teresa Cormack was found half buried under a tree on Whirinaki Beach, in Hawke's Bay. It took 15 years for find her killer. She left for school, but never arrived in cla...

On a Sunday afternoon in Christchurch in 1996, scrap metal dealer John Reynolds failed to return home for lunch. Later that evening, his brother found the 55-year-old lying in a pool of blood at the scrap yard. Fifty-five year old John Reynolds was discovered lying in a pool of blood at this scrap metal yard in 1996. He had been hit repeatedly around the head with a blunt instrument. More than two...

Canterbury plant scientist David Lloyd fell severely ill in suspicious circumstances in 1992. The ensuing investigation became known as the 'poisoned professor case'. When Canterbury scientist David Lloyd fell ill in 1992, suspicious immediately fell on his former lover. Dr Vicky Calder was arrested in 1994 and stood trial twice for attempted murder, or alternatively poisoning with intent. Lady De...