Some of the faces of New Zealand's recent unsolved murders, clockwise from top left: Ariki Rigby, Simon Bevers, Chephar Hollis-Brown, Edward Peters, Jessica Boyce, Darrell Crawford, Chattrice Maihi-Carroll and William Taikato. Photo / NZME
WARNING: This story details the murders of victims in unsolved cases and may be upsetting.
Each year in New Zealand about 72 people are murdered. In 2019 that number ballooned to 131 because of the terror attacks in Christchurch where 51 people lost their lives. While that killer, and most, are brought to justice, some homicide cases remain unresolved. Natalie Akoorie talks to Detective Superintendent Chris Page about “cold cases” and how police investigators keep chipping away to find justice for the families of the victims.
Chris Page still remembers his first homicide case.
It was Christmas Day 1987, and Page, then a newly minted detective in the Hamilton Police Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), was called out by Gisborne police to help investigate a double-murder at Ruatoria.
It would be a baptism by fire for the young detective but the rigorous practices of his colleagues that day and throughout the case taught Page investigation techniques that he still applies today.
“These are the places in which detectives learn their skillset and apply them when there’s no practice runs.
“It was a meticulous process in the search for the truth and was a very good start to learning about investigating and setting off to find the truth.”
Now a detective superintendent, and director of the National Criminal Investigations Group at Police National Headquarters in Wellington, Page is light on details about the deaths out of respect for the family but said every investigator remembers their first murder case.
The Ruatoria case was solved, but in the past 20 years alone New Zealand has had 31 homicides where police have not managed to bring a successful prosecution. Homicides include murder, manslaughter and infanticide.
Of these “cold cases” released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, 18 are males and 12 are females - the details of one case from either 2022 or the year before were redacted.
The victims ranged in age from 3 months to 68 years; three of them were babies when they died and 14 were aged over 40.
Although police have not yet been able to bring the killers of these 31 victims to justice, their names and faces are not forgotten and their case files remain open.
Page, who has been an investigator for more than 35 years, including a four-year stint in London that he recently returned from, said not being able to solve a murder was a difficult part of the job.
“I think I might be able to represent most of our investigators across the country who have been involved in these sorts of cases where there is no closure, no resolution for family.
“All of the investigators who are involved in this work carry that sort of concern, worry and feeling about trying to bring closure to the family. So, many of those involved in those cases ... feel a really strong sense of duty to try and resolve the case, to hold someone to account.
“The search first and foremost is for the truth and then we deal with what drops out of it.”
Cold cases, as with missing persons cases, remained open and active, and one investigator “owned” the file, Page said.
That detective regularly conducted reviews of the case and looked at new technology or capabilities to test against the evidence held, though new technology is not without controversy.
This included regular rechecks of forensic evidence such as old DNA samples that might produce a different result with newer scientific technology.
Police also relied on new information from the public to generate leads and these might be forthcoming for different reasons including changing allegiances over the years, overheard conversations and confessions, rewards, relationship breakdowns, and criminal ties being cut.
There might also be fresh leads in a cold case when related material or evidence, in some cases a body, is found.
And now, police have recently appointed two investigators: One to oversee all cold cases and another to have similar oversight of all missing persons cases.
Those positions are responsible for overseeing the review of cold and missing persons cases, and ensuring that, where suitable, cases feature on television or in the media.
Where there were unsuccessful prosecutions, Page said, police kept an open mind.
In 2004 two exceptions to the double jeopardy rule, a long-standing legal provision that prevents a person acquitted, convicted or pardoned for any offence from being tried again for the same offence, were created to cover anyone wrongly acquitted.
One exception covered “tainted acquittals” and the other cases where strong guilt was established after the person was acquitted.
This involved circumstances where there was “fresh and compelling evidence” that was not previously available.
“Most investigators will keep an eye on that in the event that something new comes through.”
Page admitted sometimes police got it wrong but the process was about trying to do their best.
Unlike in other countries, New Zealand did not have a specialist homicide squad and Page said this worked well because it meant any detective could attend a homicide and produce results of the same high standard expected of veteran investigators.
“So we can send them anywhere with confidence and expect them to be able to do the work ...”
Murder was a reflection of society’s behaviour toward itself, Page said.
“Some of these cases will be unsolved because the offender was very cunning or some will be unsolved because there was no evidence we could find and the offender wasn’t cunning.”
Reviews and rechecks of cold cases, including ones carried out by police officers independent of the investigation team, would for some families never happen often enough, Page said.
“But in some of these cases you run out of leads and [you are] waiting or hoping something will come through ...”
It might be two years before a lead is generated and the file becomes active again.
“Over time, while we might not actively work on some of them, we don’t lose sight of them.
So unsolved murder cases “are never really closed”.
Below are the unresolved homicides between 2003 and June 2023 that have not already featured in a Herald series published in 2018.
Phillip John Hennah, December 4, 2004, Waīhī, Waikato
Phillip Hennah, 48, was beaten to death in his Waīhī driveway in the early hours of December 4, 19 years ago.
An 80cm-long metal bar was thought to be the weapon and there were faint traces of DNA on it.
But the police investigation was hampered by heavy rain that weekend that washed away much of the evidence.
Hennah was a P-addict and drug dealer and when his body was found the next day he was found to be carrying $150 - “a delivery fee amount”.
A relative reportedly said shortly after that they received an anonymous phone call claiming Hennah’s death was an “accident” and it was only supposed to be a “hiding”.
Sydney George Boyd, July 1, 2006, Canterbury
Sydney Boyd died in Christchurch Hospital on July 1, 2006 after being pushed down a flight of stairs and through a reinforced window on a Housing New Zealand flat stairwell a week earlier.
The 66-year-old Christchurch man was initially conscious and talking outside the social housing flats in Riccarton Rd where he landed head-first that night.
He spent 38 days in hospital including time in an induced coma but eventually died from a rare complication associated with a procedure to aid his breathing.
Police never interviewed Boyd during that time but a coroner indicated in findings released in 2009 that one or more of Boyd’s neighbours – Trent Revell, Todd Selinger or Glenn Green – knew what happened.
Darrell James Crawford, August 12, 2007, and William Taikato, December 20, 2007, Tauranga, Bay of Plenty
Darrell Crawford and William Taikato were associates who were both involved in the Bay of Plenty drug scene and gangs when they disappeared months apart in 2007.
Crawford, 35, a meth cook, was last seen on August 12 and Taikato, 40 and a father of two, four months later on December 20.
Despite extensive searches, their bodies have never been found though Crawford’s car was found parked and with the keys in the ignition not far from his Oropi home.
In April 2008 $50,000 rewards were offered in each case and in September that year, Te Puke man Mark Puata, 53, was charged with the murders of the two men.
Welcome Bay man John Aitken, 36, and 44-year-old David Anderson, from Ohauiti, were charged with the murder of Taikato. A judge acquitted all three in April 2011.
Chattrice Maihi-Carroll, January 20, 2008, Napier, Hawke’s Bay, Eastern
Chattrice Maihi-Carroll was found dead in a pool of blood at her flat on the corner of Venables Ave and Cottrell Cres in Onekawa South, Napier, on January 20, 2008.
The 46-year-old grandmother’s neighbour Zion Hiona King was arrested and charged with her murder two months later.
On parole at the time for an aggravated robbery, King was recalled to prison and spent almost two years in custody before he was set free during his second trial by a judge because the Crown’s evidence against him was unreliable.
King still denies the murder and took a $300,000 civil claim against the Attorney-General for breaches of his rights but could not prove in the High Court there had been an abuse of process.
Rangimaria Christine White, July 26, 2015, Ōpōtiki, Bay of Plenty
Fourteen-year-old Rangimaria White was lying comatose in a residential street on a dark winter’s night when her friend, trying to find someone to help move her intoxicated friend out of the middle of the road, watched in horror as the teenager was run over.
The car slowed but didn’t stop and although Rangimaria’s parents would later tell media they knew who was driving it, police were unable to find the driver to make an arrest.
A 17-year-old was prosecuted for supplying Rangimaria and her friend with alcohol that night for a party at a house where adults were also drinking.
In 2017 a coroner found Rangimaria’s death was preventable and that her parents had only given permission for her to go to a friend’s house to watch movies.
Coroner Michael Robb said responsibility for the girls should have been on the adults at the party.
Edward Anthony Peters, November 16, 2018, Hastings, Hawke’s Bay, Eastern
In the early hours of that Friday in November, Eddie Peters was viciously beaten and left for dead in the driveway of a Flaxmere house.
The 45-year-old father spent the afternoon and evening of November 15 at a tangi in Diaz Dr, of an old school friend who was a senior member of the Mongrel Mob.
He left there about 11.30pm and was found shortly after midnight, collapsed in the driveway of a family member’s property further along the same street.
He was bleeding heavily from serious head injuries but was able to give police some detail about the attack before he was transferred to Wellington Hospital where he died on November 24.
Peters’ case featured in an episode of Cold Case last year. Police believe Peters was chased from the tangi by three young men wearing gang patches, and thought to be from the Hastings chapter of the Mongrel Mob, shortly before midnight.
Jessica Louise Boyce, March 19, 2019, Renwick, Tasman
Jessica Boyce was 27 when she was last seen in the Marlborough town of Renwick on March 19, 2019.
She was seen driving her mother’s red Holden Rodeo ute which was later discovered parked at the Lake Chalice carpark in the Richmond Ranges on Friday, March 22.
Police initially considered Boyce a missing person but upgraded her case to a homicide in October 2020.
They believe her car was left at the carpark to make it look as if she had disappeared.
Her family called for a reward to be offered in the case earlier this year.
Kathleen Lorna Kawana, August 3, 2019, Ruatoria, Eastern
Kathleen Kawana’s body was found in an empty house near Ruatoria on August 3, 2019, but it’s unclear how long she had been dead.
The 46-year-old was last seen on June 20 with an associate in Porirua but it’s believed she returned to her hometown of Hastings the next day.
Kawana, a mother of eight, was found in the lounge by the new owners of the house when they went to inspect the property.
Police originally called for Flaxmere’s Ri Nikora, 42, to come forward so they could speak to him about the death.
David Stanley Hart, January 31, 2020, Auckland City
David Hart’s bones were found encased in concrete beneath a Mt Eden villa on January 31, 2020 though it was eight months before they were identified as him.
The 78-year-old’s history as the past owner of the villa, which he ran as a ramshackle boarding house up until early 2004, emerged and police were looking for details of his movements after March that year.
The boarding house attracted ex-criminals and elderly alcoholics and it’s unclear whether Hart had any family.
He was never reported missing and neighbours believed he had gone to Australia or a rest home.
Sofia Nesia Taueki-Jackson, May 23, 2020, Clover Park, Counties Manukau
Police believe Sofia Taueki-Jackson, aged 14 months, was killed at her mother’s home in Flat Bush Rd, Clover Park, after suffering a catastrophic and unsurvivable head injury late on Saturday, May 23, 2020.
Several people were present at the property at the time.
Three days after her death, police launched a homicide inquiry, dubbed Operation Asbury.
No one was charged with her killing. Police charged a family member with attempting to obstruct the course of justice, but that charge was eventually dropped.
That 25-year-old woman was not Sofia’s mother but a close relative.
Jade Pui, January 26, 2022, Raglan, Waikato
Jade Pui, also known as Jade Pui-Rakena, was found dead by Raglan residents at 7pm on a summer Wednesday in his parked car outside a house on Wainui Rd.
The 43-year-old man from Auckland had been staying in Raglan.
Police appealed for information about Pui’s last movements on Wainui Rd between Raglan and the Manu Bay boat ramp from 5pm the day before, Tuesday, January 25.
They also sought sightings of a white Mitsubishi Legnum or any other suspicious vehicles or motorbikes seen in the area over that time.
Simon Allan Bevers, March 9, 2022, Nelson, Tasman
Simon Bevers had been picking apples at the Eden’s Road Fruit orchard in Hope, near Nelson, for two weeks when he was found dead in his tent by a concerned worker on March 9, 2022.
He’d last been seen going to bed after 8pm on Monday, March 7, but he never turned up to work the next day.
Police did not recover a weapon but said something sharp was used to attack the 56-year-old seasonal worker, who had an injury that resulted in a lot of blood loss.
Police found Bevers’ blood on a coat belonging to a fellow orchard worker who was part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.
The orchard worker was one of “several” workers who were persons of interest.
On the first anniversary of Bevers’ death police announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction. The reward was to expire in May this year.
Chephar Hollis-Brown, July 3, 2022, Gisborne, Eastern
Chephar Hollis-Brown, a mother of one, was killed at a Te Hapara property in Gisborne in the early hours of July 3, 2022.
Police were called to the house at 3.45am to reports of a woman being shot but the 25-year-old was dead when they arrived, hit by one of two shots fired from outside the house before a man fled in a vehicle.
Hollis-Brown was shot as she answered an early morning knock at the door of a Centennial Cres house. Police described it as a “senseless shooting”.
Ariki Rigby, September 5, 2022, Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, Eastern
Eighteen-year-old Ariki Rigby’s remains were found on September 5, 2022 in the back of a car that had been set alight in a recreational reserve on the outskirts of Havelock North.
The teenager had been living in Auckland at the time and was in Hawke’s Bay on holiday when she was reported missing by family on September 2.
Initially, police thought her remains were that of a sheep and the vehicle was to be collected from the River Rd reserve. Then a dog walker noticed a necklace on the body and police were recalled to the scene.
She had been badly beaten before her death.
Police and her whānau made a fresh appeal for information on the first anniversary of Rigby’s death in September.
Raniel Armond Kiu, May 11, 2023, Palmerston North, Central
Mongrel Mob member Raniel Kiu died in hospital after being seriously injured on the night of May 11 last year in a Dahlia St property in Palmerston North.
Police launched a homicide inquiry while crowds of Mongrel Mob members gathered in the street after Kiu’s death.
At the time police said they believed Kiu’s death was “confined to a group of people” and there was no ongoing risk to the community.
An anonymous gang member later claimed to the Herald Kiu was killed over a methamphetamine deal gone wrong.
In the months that followed, gang tensions in the city were high. Another Mongrel Mob member was fatally shot before a Black Power member had his finger cut off and was depatched.
Any information related to these cases can be given to police by calling 105, or anonymously at Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
Source: Homicide Victims Report 2021 and Historic NZ Murder Rate Report 1926-2021, published in June 2023.
Natalie Akoorie is the Open Justice deputy editor, based in Waikato and covering crime and justice nationally. Natalie first joined the Herald in 2011 and has been a journalist in New Zealand and overseas for 28 years, recently covering health, social issues, local government, and the regions.
Her carers said the socks were to stop the woman from chewing on her hands.