From Black Sheep: In 1892 a masked figure in a bizarre uniform began a 15 month crime spree, robbing people at gunpoint in and around New Plymouth. When he was finally arrested and unmasked, residents were dumbfounded to discovered the perpetrator was mild-mannered Robert Wallath - the teenage son of a local farmer and carpenter. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
A suitcase was found floating in the Waitematā Harbour in 1966. Its contents kicked off an international manhunt and one of Aotearoa's biggest fraudsters. Joseph Sheehan BEM was a detective on the case. In 1966, the captain of the Salvation Army barge was heading up the Waitematā Harbour when he spotted a mysterious suitcase floating in the water. He fished it out and discovered documents from the cosmetics company Leidrum and Hartnell. A company which turned out to be a sham. The man behind it,...
Michael Blowers was a police officer, family man and pillar of the community. He was also stealing drugs from the police exhibit room and giving them to his mistress to sell. RNZ's Charlie Dreaver describes Blowers downfall. In 2014, former police detective Michael Blowers was sent to prison for five years on a raft of drug-related offences. For years he had been stealing drugs from the Whangarei police exhibits room and giving them to his mistress to sell. RNZ reporter Charlie Dreaver was in th...
True crime writer Scott Bainbridge takes us through the unsolved murder of pharmacist Arthur Blomfield, who was bludgeoned to death in his Auckland store, Mackay's Dispensary, in 1931. In 1931, just before closing time, pharmacist Arthur Blomfield was bludgeoned to death at the back of Mackay's dispensary on Wellesley Street in central Auckland. His killer has never been found. True crime author Scott Bainbridge talks us through the details of this case and shares who the prime suspect might be....
Alan Hall spent nearly two decades in jail for the 1985 murder of Arthur Easton. In 2022 his convictions were quashed. Stuff journalist Mike White explains the flaws in the case against Hall and Geoff Hall talks about his brother's life after prison. In 1985, Arthur Easton was murdered by a bayonet wielding intruder, in his Papakura home. His two sons were also injured trying to fight off the attacker. In 1986, Alan Hall was convicted of the crime and spent 19 years in jail. But he has always pr...
Stuff's senior crime reporter tells Jesse Mulligan about his ongoing hunt for one of Aotearoa's most prolific conmen. For two decades Wayne Eaglesome has committed hundreds of crimes across the country. He has used 40 different aliases and has been convicted of 250 offences, for both fraud and sexual crimes. Stuff senior crime reporter Sam Sherwood came across Eaglesome several years ago and has followed his nefarious career both in Aotearoa and now, across the world. Go to this episode on rnz.c...
In this episode we hear about one of our country's most sensational trials - that of headhunters gang member Pedro Cleven. Through the late 90s and into the early 2000s police ran operation Mexico in a strike a blow at the Headhunters gang. They nabbed Peter 'Pedro' Cleven on cannabis and methamphetamine charges and what followed as a trial like no other. Patrick Gower talks to Jesse Mulligan about covering the sensational trial of headhunters gang member Pedro Cleven. Journalist Patrick Gower w...
It was a case that shocked the world. A 3-year-old abandoned in an Australian train station, her mother murdered in New Zealand and her father on the run in America. In September 2007 a three-year-old girl was found abandoned at Melbourne's Southern Cross railway station. Initially authorities were unable to verify her identity, so they gave her the nickname "Pumpkin" after the Pumpkin Patch branded clothing she was wearing. But "Pumpkin" was actually Qian Xun Xue and her father Nai Yin Xue aban...
In January 2008, Gil Elliott received the worst news possible. His 22-year-old daughter Sophie had been stabbed to death. He talks to Jesse Mulligan about those moments, the horror that followed and his fight for change. In 2008, Sophie Elliot was stabbed to death by her former partner, Clayton Weatherston. Since her death, her family have been tirelessly campaigning for changes to prevent another case like hers. Gil Elliott talks to Jesse about the dreadful events of January 2008 and the fight ...
The 1928 murder of Elsie Walker is one of New Zealand's oldest cold cases. She disappeared from the Bay of Plenty and her body was discovered by schoolboys, days later, in Auckland. Elsie Walker went missing from the Bay of Plenty and was found dead in Auckland days later. She was discovered by some young boys and was still wearing her maid's uniform. Crime author, Scott Bainbridge wrote about this mysterious case in his book Shot in the Dark. He talks to Charlotte Ryan about the details of Elsi...
In 2009, Taito Phillip Field was convicted of bribery and corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. Lockwood Smith was an opposition MP and recalls keeping the pressure on in parliament, to ensure Field was held to account. Taito Phillip Field was a minister in the Labour government when he was accused of using his position for personal gain. The Right Honourable Sir Lockwood Smith was Opposition spokesperson on Immigration when the allegations first came to light and maintained continued...
In 2007, 20-year-old Emma Agnew put a sign up in her car advertising it for sale. A man answered the ad, but he wasn't interested in buying the car. As Stuff senior reporter Martin Van Beynan describes his intentions were far more sinister. 20-year-old Emma Agnew disappeared in November 2007. Emma and her entire immediate family were deaf and well-known within New Zealand's deaf community. The alarm was raised almost immediately, but it would be 12 days before her body would be found in forest n...
Emma Ferris loaned $300,000 to her boyfriend only to discover he was conning her. In this episode of Crimes NZ, Emma describes the battle for her life-savings and her future. In 2018 Emma Ferris began relationship with Andrew Thomson, an entrepreneur with colourful stories about his past and future ventures. Emma loaned a large sum to the conman believing it was destined for legitimate investment. The very next day she found out he wasn't who he said he was. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for m...
In 1886 the bustling town of Timaru was stunned when society darling Thomas Hall was arrested for the attempted murder of his wife, Kitty. Author Peter Graham outlines one of the most sensational cases of 19th century New Zealand. In 1886, as he sentenced Thomas Hall to life in prison for the attempted poisoning of his wife Kitty Hall, the presiding judge said: "You have achieved in the annals of crime the position of being the vilest criminal ever tried in New Zealand." Tom Hall was part of a r...
David Bain spent 13 years in prison after being found guilty of killing his family in 1994 - however he always maintained his innocence and he was acquitted in a retrial in 2009. On the 24th of June, 1994, Robin (58) and Margaret Bain (50) and three of their children, Arawa (19), Laniet (18) and Stephen (14), were found dead in their Dunedin home. Four days later, the only surviving family member - 22 year-old David Bain - was arrested for their murders. Martin van Beynan's written extensively o...
The presiding judge described the death of Delcelia Witika as one of the most disturbing cases of child abuse to come before the High Court. David Mcloughlin covered the case. Delcelia Witika's mother and stepfather were both were sentenced to 16 years in jail, for her manslaughter. A judge described this case as the most disturbing to come before the High Court. Delcelia was just two years old when she died as a result of peritonitis, caused by blows to her stomach. Former Herald journalist, Da...
In November 1990, thirteen people were shot and killed in the seaside village of Aramoana. Tim Ashton was a member of the anti-terrorism squad that was sent in to stop the gunman. Thirty-three year-old David Gray began shooting after a confrontation with one of his neighbours over a dog. By the end of his rampage, 13 people were dead and several others were injured. The police's anti-terrorism squad was sent in to stop David Gray's shooting rampage. It is New Zealand's second deadliest mass shoo...
David Ross was jailed in 2013 for running a ponzi scheme that resulted in thousands of New Zealand investors losing millions of dollars. David Ross, the former director of the failed company Ross Asset Management, was jailed in November 2013 for 10 years and 10 months, with a minimum non-parole period of half that time. The ponzi scheme he'd been running collapsed in 2012, owing investors $115 million. Ross's fraudulent scheme was frozen in 2012 with 200 investors who had made money and 600 who ...
In 1987, pig hunters stumbled upon the body of Robert Gawith kicking off a murder inquiry with links to the infamous Mr Asia drug syndicate. It was a case that sparked headlines like 'NZ's Bonnie and Clyde' or 'Lawless Lovers' when it was discovered that a couple with links to the Mr Asia crime syndicate were behind the murder of 23 year-old Robert Gawith. Robert Gawith was celebrating a hefty payout when he was brutally murdered by couple Patrick and Jennifer Norton-Bennett. Former police offic...
In the early hours of July 8, 2010, Scott Guy was gunned down at his farm gate. Police suspected his brother-in-law, but he was found not-guilty and no one else has been held accountable for the killing. Thirty-one year old Scott Guy was on his way to work, it was just a regular day, when he was murdered in his driveway. He had no known enemies and there were very few clues to point to who might have wanted him dead. Eventually, police discovered there had been tensions between Guy and his broth...
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 would discover a couple of days later. Scott Bainbridge, author of Without a Trace, investigated the...
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. His actions led to one of the worst massacre's in New Zealand's history. Stephen Anderson was found n...
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, on one of the park's remote walking tracks, that the teenage girls brutally killed Pauline's mother. True crim...
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 violent and needed constant care. Mr Shamy said mother and daughter loved each other very much, and ha...
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 she never turned up. It was one of the busiest days of the year in the holiday hotspot, but no one has c...
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 year-old Elliot Turner, was eventually charged with her murder and his parents were charged with covering up t...
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 the time referred to as the 'gay panic' defence. He was eventually found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 9 years i...
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 dollars. In his book The Great New Zealand Robbery, Scott Bainbridge tells the rollicking story of ...
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 Hamilton turned out in their hundreds to a memorial service for a woman none of them know. Wellington p...
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 Crimes NZ is a crime against a young child and is not suitable for younger listeners. If you or someone you ...
