Julie Appelgren wants her deceased husband Ross' conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal. Photo / Nick Monro
By Tim Watkin of RNZ
The Police have apologised to the family of convicted murderer Ross Appelgren after it was discovered they lost their original 1985 investigation file.
Appelgren died in 2013 but now his widow, Julie, is trying to have his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal. Her legal team – lawyers Nick Chisnall KC, Kerry Cook and investigator Tim McKinnel – last year asked police for the file - but were told it was missing.
McKinnel says in his decades of experience working in and with the police, the loss of a murder file is unprecedented. “For the police to lose a homicide file is extraordinary.”
The “file” amounts to boxes of paperwork. “It can’t just slip behind a desk or a cabinet somewhere”, McKinnel says. “Somebody has moved it.”
Julie complained to the Independent Police Conduct Authority, prompting further efforts by police to find the file.
However, in an April 2025 letter to Julie’s legal team - provided to RNZ - Counties-Manukau District Crime Manager, Detective Inspector Faamunuia Vaaelua, has written: “Unfortunately, the 1985 Police file for Mr Applegren can no longer be located, for which I sincerely apologise. Despite an extensive search and considerable effort, we have been unable to locate the file, and unfortunately, it remains missing.”
Vaaelua said the file had last been retrieved by detectives investigating an unrelated homicide, which went to trial in 2021. Since then, the file’s whereabouts are unknown.
The IPCA have told RNZ it “did not conduct an independent investigation, therefore there is no public report or comment”. They wrote to McKinnel to explain the outcome. They don’t keep a record of “specific actions or complaints” so could not say if a murder file had ever been lost before.
McKinnel says, “Homicide files in particular are not files that get destroyed. They are to be retained permanently. The retention and disposal guidelines that the Police have are very clear, so the advice that the file has been lost is troubling”.
RNZ asked police how the file was lost, when it was last handled by police, and what steps police have taken to find the file. In an email, Detective Inspector Scott Beard, Auckland City CIB, wrote: “As this process is ongoing and has not been heard by the Court, it would be premature for Police to engage in detail at this point”. Beard promised Police would comment further “once we are in a position to do so”.
Without the investigation file, for his Nark podcast on the Appelgren case, host Mike Wesley-Smith has instead drawn on hundreds of pages of police and court documents collected by Appelgren and his legal teams over the years. They were inherited by Julie, who made them available to Wesley-Smith.
The new attempt to clear Appelgren’s name is the latest step in a case with a long and controversial history. Following Appelgren’s first conviction in July 1985, he successfully petitioned the Governor-General in 1990 to refer his conviction back to the Court of Appeal. The Court quashed his conviction because the prosecution failed to disclose key evidence and ordered a retrial.
Appelgren was released in 1990, but tried and convicted a second time in 1992. It emerged police and prosecutors had failed to disclose a confession from another prisoner saying he’d ordered the hit on Darcy Te Hira and that Appelgren was not involved.
Appelgren again petitioned the Governor-General, who again referred his conviction back to the Court of Appeal in 1994. His then lawyers had his court date adjourned to enable them to file further evidence. However, 31 years later, Appelgren’s appeal hearing is yet to take place. According to Julie, her husband’s failing health and lack of money prevented him from progressing his case while he was alive.
Chisnell and Cook will argue that the appeal should be allowed to continue at a hearing in the Court of Appeal expected next year.