Fiona Maulolo was killed by Leslie Parr in 1997.
By Sam Sherwood of RNZ
Nearly three decades after Fiona Maulolo was killed by her partner Leslie Parr, he killed again, this time his mother. Maulolo’s sister speaks about the family’s loss, their anger, and the many questions they have.
Tina Maulolo was at home when she heard a knock at the door.
It was June 2024, 27 years after her sister, Fiona Maulolo, was brutally killed by her partner, Leslie Parr. A jury had found him not guilty by reason of insanity, and a judge ordered that he be detained in a special secure unit and not freed without the Health Minister’s authority.
When Tina got to the front door, she saw two police officers.
They had some chilling news. Parr had killed again, this time his mother. The officers didn’t go into further details, but warned that she might be contacted by the media.
She checked online but couldn’t see anything, and had no way of finding out more information.
It wasn’t until this week, almost two years on, when a suppression order was lifted that Tina learned the full details for the first time.
She told RNZ she was “p***ed off” with the system, had many questions, and wanted an independent inquiry into the mental health system.
“It sounds like history repeated itself ... Why was he let out?”
Parr met Fiona Maulolo in 1996. The pair soon moved into a property in the Hutt Valley.
Tina says she did not know Parr well. She described her sister as a loving mother to her two daughters.
Soon after meeting Fiona, Parr, who had earlier been made a patient under the Mental Health Act, stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication regularly and had an “episode” that led to him being admitted to Porirua Hospital.
He was described as a man who was “depressed and delusional”, thinking that his father was Satan. He was predicting the end of the world in the year 2000, and said he heard voices telling him to kill himself.
When his medication was reintroduced, he began to deny psychotic symptoms.
On the day he was due to be discharged from hospital, he seriously assaulted a police officer who was visiting the same ward.
He told a psychiatrist that he didn’t believe he was to blame “because the constable had looked at him”.
He was then made a compulsory in-patient for six months under the Mental Health Act, but nine days later, on March 28, 1996, he was discharged by psychiatrist Linda Astor, who hadn’t even seen him. Astor later fled the country and was unmasked as a bogus psychiatrist.
Parr was not seen again by mental health services until April 15, 1997, after he was found semi-conscious in a carport at Maulolo’s property.
Three days later, Maulolo was found dead.
After Parr’s trial and detention in a special secure unit, a coroner found his treatment had been seriously deficient.
Tina says her sister’s death was a “total failure of the system”.
The family had concerns about the public’s safety should he ever be released.
“We had doubts. But we left that up to the authorities to do what they were supposed to do with him. We were told they were supposed to inform us along the way, if he gets released and what will happen to him, but we never had any contact, nothing.”
She says she contacted the hospital where Parr was detained more than 10 years after the killing. She says she was told he had been released to work with his uncle.
“To me, at the time, I thought, ‘Well, heck …’, we were told that he should be in there for basically the rest of his life, and yet, they released him out to family ... he can live happily with his family. And my nieces are going through life without their mother.”
For someone to be released into the community after being designated a special patient, sign-off is needed from the Minister of Health, the Attorney-General and the Director of Mental Health. Parr was released in 2012. In 2021, his status was changed to being a patient under the Mental Health Act.
At the time of his second killing, he was subject to a compulsory treatment order.
In the weeks leading up to his mother’s death, his mental health was “rapidly declining”, Justice Karen Grau said.
In May 2024, after an altercation with a relative, he was admitted to a mental health facility.
He was released after about a week on May 30. In the following days, he became preoccupied with the loss of his car keys and was having difficulties with a relationship he was in.
He was also using cannabis.
On June 4, 2024, he killed his mother, Heather Condon.
After the killing, the two police officers visited Tina.
“They didn’t go into details or anything like that,” she says.
“I had no one to reach out to for more information.”
She says her initial reaction was: “Oh my gosh, not again. Why was he let out?”
Justice Grau ruled that Parr was legally insane at the time he caused his mother’s death. He was detained in hospital as a special patient under the Mental Health Act.
Because of suppression orders that prevented publication of the names of both Parr and his mother, Tina was unaware of the extent of what happened for almost two years.
RNZ reported on the case last year, though it could not mention any names.
On Monday, the suppression orders lapsed after the Supreme Court did not grant leave to appeal.
Over the weekend, Tina received a call from a detective who investigated her sister’s killing, to tell her the suppressions were about to lapse.
The detective sent her a link to an RNZ article about the case, which detailed the background.
Then, after suppression lapsed, she read more.
“It’s just so bad ... I feel like he killed two people and got away with murder, literally. They claim he’s mental. Obviously, they thought he was fine to release him out to the public, and then look at what happened.”
She holds the mental health system responsible for “innocent lives being lost due to their incompetence and neglect”.
“If the health system did the proper thing and kept him inside, then that would never happen to [Condon].
“How come they didn’t pick up on any signs if they know what they’re supposed to be looking for? They release him out, thinking that he’s all good ... how come they can’t pick up different signs of someone that’s not well?”
She says Fiona’s two daughters are also “angry” about what happened.
“They just feel like he’s getting away with no accountability ... no one is taking accountability for it.”
An external review of the care Parr received is being completed.
Tina wants authorities to take action and adopt any recommendations the review might find.
“They can’t just say, ‘Yeah, okay, we’re gonna do it’ ... they really need to show that they will do it, or someone needs to [oversee] it, that they are going to implement whatever those things are.”
Ruth Money, chief victims adviser to the Government, said on Monday that the case was “heartbreaking and preventable”.
When RNZ first revealed the case, she called for a royal commission of inquiry into forensic mental health facilities.
On Monday, she said she stood by those calls.
Tina believes Parr should never have been released.
“He shouldn’t be out again. But I wish he would be in prison, not in mental health.”
She says an apology from authorities would do little for the family.
“Nothing will change or bring Fiona back. Any apology at this stage we consider will achieve nothing.
“However, actions do speak louder than words. We wholeheartedly agree with chief victims adviser Ruth Money that mandated recommendations to come out of this inquiry hopefully will provide greater safety for patients and communities and hopefully restore trust in the mental health system.”
She becomes emotional when asked to describe the impact of Parr’s killings on her family.
“She’s missing out on her grandchildren...,” she begins before pausing.
“Her grandchildren are never going to meet their grandmother.”
– RNZ
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