Miser almost got away with a perfect murder

By STACEY BODGER

ROTORUA - It was almost the perfect murder.

For 31/2 years after he murdered Auckland peanut salesman Mile Vukotic during a fight over money, Christopher Stephen Schuler told only two people.

He should have kept it to himself.

In the High Court at Rotorua yesterday, a jury of seven men and five women deliberated for five hours before finding Schuler guilty of murder.

Showing emotion for the first time in the seven-day trial, Schuler flinched and looked shocked as he was led away, while Mr Vukotic's widow, Milena, sobbed in the public gallery.

Schuler, aged 48, a Tokoroa mill labourer, was a miser who had few close friends and aspired to be a millionaire.

A tall, powerful man, Schuler had amassed $900,000 from his job and rental properties.

His closest friend, Hans Janetzke, told the court that Schuler picked up clothes from the road and would eat brussels sprout peelings.

"He didn't like to spend a cent."

Mr Vukotic, aged 55, was by contrast a small, slightly overweight Croatian who came to New Zealand in 1968 as a Seventh Day Adventist missionary.

Mr Vukotic, his wife Milena and two daughters rented a house in Helensville.

In 1989, Mr Vukotic opened his own produce business and advertised for investors.

It was then that Schuler entered the Vukotics' lives.

By 1995, he had lent the Vukotics $341,000 to finance a new peanut distribution venture and pay off old debts, and had taken out a $350,000 life insurance policy on Mr Vukotic.

Mr Vukotic repaid $55,300 but Schuler had become convinced that he was not going to recoup his loan.

He told friends of a plan to kill Mr Vukotic by crushing him under a car and tried to hire hitmen with offers of $10,000.

On November 13, 1995, Mr Vukotic arranged to visit Schuler on his way home from work in Turangi and Taupo, because he could not afford a repayment.

Inside the house, a fight developed. Mr Vukotic's neck cartilage was fractured and he died about 10 minutes later after swallowing his own vomit.

Schuler put the body in Mr Vukotic's own car and drove 40 minutes along State Highway 1 to a Karapiro lay-by.

After puncturing a tyre with a nail, he jacked up the car, put the body under it, and rocked the car until it fell.

He then hitchhiked home.

At 3 am the next day, Mrs Vukotic woke and realised her husband was overdue.

Distraught, she phoned Schuler, who denied having seen him, swore and asked when he was going to get his money.

Schuler's elaborate plan fooled the police, pathologist and coroner, who ruled the death accidental and warned of the dangers of crawling underneath a jacked-up car.

Schuler collected the $350,000 insurance payout, Mr Vukotic was buried and his family moved to Canada.

Telling people about the murder was Schuler's only blunder.

They in turn told other people, one of whom went to the police with a third-hand story last April.

Police exhumed the body, reconstructed the scene at the lay-by and watched Schuler for several days before arresting him on a charge of murder.

During the trial, which started last week, the Crown portrayed Schuler as a man who had reached boiling point over the unpaid debt.

Hans Janetzke said Schuler spoke of "killing the bastard ... finishing him off" to recoup his money.

Prosecutor John McDonald said Schuler had every intention of doing that when he delivered the fatal blow to Mr Vukotic's neck soon after he walked through his door.

Schuler's defence was that the fight got out of hand and he did not mean to kill him.

Defence counsel Murray McKechnie said Schuler then panicked, put the dead body in the car and staged the accident.

The jury believed the Crown.

Detective Greg Standen, the Tokoroa officer in charge of the case, said yesterday the result was enormously satisfying.

"It's difficult investigating historic cases but we were convinced Schuler showed continued intent - there was no doubt he wanted to kill Mr Vukotic."

Mrs Vukotic, who returned from Canada for the trial, is still paying off her husband's debts, despite no legal requirement to do so.

She said she "always had suspicions" about Schuler but she is not angry with him. Instead, she sympathises with his parents, who must accept their son is a murderer.