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 Snee was killed and the two other police officers there were injured, along with Lenny Holmwood, a frie...
Oct 03, 2021•17 min•Season 5Ep. 25
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, lawyer for the twins' mother, Macsyna King, said she was vilified in the media and it wasn't until the coroni...
Sep 26, 2021•29 min•Season 4Ep. 24
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 on rnz.co.nz for more details...
Sep 19, 2021•23 min•Season 4Ep. 23
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 the legal battle to save the Cohens. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details...
Sep 12, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 22
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 had ever seen. NZ Herald reporter Matt Nippert tells Jesse Mulligan how his investigation triggered t...
Sep 05, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 21
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 investigation. NZ Herald reporter Kurt Bayer followed the case through the courts - it was dubbed The Black Widow...
Aug 29, 2021•26 min•Season 4Ep. 20
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 which won a Ngiao Marsh award for Best Non-Fiction and outlines everything we know about the case. Go to ...
Aug 22, 2021•25 min•Season 4Ep. 19
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, Coral's stepfather Stephen Williams was arrested and charged with her murder. Former detective sergeant ...
Jul 11, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 15
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 Baby Kahu was or if she was safe. NZ Herald senior crime and justice reporter, Anna Leask, who also...
Jul 11, 2021•23 min•Season 3Ep. 18
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 murders. Mark Lundy was in Wellington on a business trip, but became concerned when he could not get hold of hi...
Jul 11, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 14
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 is the subject of the black comedy film How to Murder Your Wife which was released in 2015 and produc...
Jul 11, 2021•21 min•Season 3Ep. 16
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 Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira. Author and academic, David Robie, spent weeks on the ship shortly...
Jul 11, 2021•23 min•Season 3Ep. 17
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 class. Former detective Keith Price worked the case in those early days and interviewed Jules Mikus after DN...
Jul 11, 2021•28 min•Season 3Ep. 13
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 decades on, Mr Reynolds' killer has never been found but the case is still very much alive. Blair E...
Oct 02, 2020•20 min•Season 2Ep. 12
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 Deborah Chambers QC presented The Trial - Crown vs Calder Dr Calder was accused of poisoning Mr Lloyd ...
Oct 02, 2020•25 min•Season 2Ep. 11
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 missing in May. David Tamihere was convicted of their murders in 1990, he was granted parole late in 2010...
Oct 02, 2020•29 min•Season 2Ep. 10
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 Canterbury teenager, Kirsty Bentley. The 15-year-old from Ashburton went missing after taking her dog for a walk on ...
Oct 02, 2020•27 min•Season 2Ep. 9
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 violent turn, when Anna Browne stabbed mother-of-two Carly Stewart to death. The case became known as ...
Oct 02, 2020•19 min•Season 2Ep. 8
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 contained the equivalent of three sticks of gelignite in explosive power, which were set off by an unusual...
Oct 02, 2020•28 min•Season 2Ep. 7
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 teenage dominatrix who, along with her partner Neville Walker, was tried three times for the murder of Pet...
Aug 05, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 5
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 chartered yacht Tamarack but found all the berths were full. Three other passengers were travelling...
Jul 01, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 1
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 Johnstone, the original Mr Asia, and grew from marijuana imports to a massive heroin operation. Johnstone wa...
Jun 25, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 6
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 in 1997, following fresh DNA evidence. Journalist Donna Chisholm supported him through his retrial an...
Jun 24, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 4
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 which led them to charge Auckland woman Gail Maney with ordering a "hit" on Fuller-Sandys. Maney has al...
Jun 23, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 3
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 justice. Teina Pora was convicted of Burdett's rape and murder in 1994, found guilty again at a retrial in 2...
Jun 22, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 2
