Crimes NZ

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stuff's senior crime reporter tells Jesse Mulligan about his ongoing hunt for one of Aotearoa's most prolific conmen.

In this episode we hear about one of our country's most sensational trials - that of headhunters gang member Pedro Cleven.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

David Ross was jailed in 2013 for running a ponzi scheme that resulted in thousands of New Zealand investors losing millions of dollars.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Barrister Simon Shamy describes the tragic murder of Ruby Knox. He represented Donella Knox who admitted killing her daughter.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Lorraine Cohen and her son Aaron spent much of the 80's locked up in a Malaysia prison facing the death penalty.

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.

Philip Nisbet was found dead in his Christchurch home on May 4, 2009. Four years later his wife was found guilty of murder.

The disappearance of Jane Furlong is a mystery that has gripped the nation for nearly thirty years.

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 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.

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.

The details of the 1977 murder of Betty Benning were so bizarre, movie producer Philly De Lacey turned it into a black comedy.

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.

In 2002, an armed stranger snatched Baby Kahu from her stroller and held her for ransom for nine long days.

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.

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 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.

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.

Canterbury plant scientist David Lloyd fell severely ill in suspicious circumstances in 1992. The ensuing investigation became known as the 'poisoned professor case'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.