A defenceless baby, snatched from her mother, and for eight long days no one knew whether she was alive or dead.
The blanket daily news coverage was "a little excessive, but entirely understandable", according to Dr Joe Atkinson, a political studies lecturer specialising inthe media at Auckland University.
"The people involved are not just celebrities, they are Maori celebrities, which adds to the fascination. This story had the human-interest angle - a universal situation every parent could sympathise with - and the cachet provided by well-known personalities.
"Kidnappings are fairly rare events in this country as well, so this particular crime attracted more attention than others, even murders which happened at the same time."
Otago University sociologist Dr Jackie Hunter said the media interest reflected the crime's rarity and helped boost public input into the police investigation.
"This was something very different to the usual crime stories and it really pulled on people's heartstrings. You would have to expect a lot of media and public attention, it had an innocent baby and parents and the feeling that this could happen to anyone.
"At the very least the high profile that resulted would have boosted the police's chances of catching the kidnapper."
Film, television and media studies lecturer Dr Nabeel Zuberi suspects some people cared about baby Kahu because the media told them to.
"I'm not sure if people were really that fascinated. From my own experience people were more interested in talking about the Rugby World Cup. In this case, I think the story's profile may have been something of a media fabrication."
