Police to look at second rifle in Crewe killings

Harvey Crewe and Jeanette Crewe on their wedding day on June 18 1966

Police say they will try to recover a rifle which forensic evidence shows could have been used to kill Harvey and Jeanette Crewe more than 35 years ago.

The move follows the identification of new evidence by the brother of Arthur Allan Thomas, who was wrongfully convicted of the 1970 slayings at Pukekawa, south of Auckland.

An elderly Pukekawa woman told the Weekend Herald late yesterday that her family still had the .22 rifle in question.

"They [police] ruled it out - I am not sure what connection there was initially, but it was ruled out," she said. "If the police want it, we are happy to hand it over."

Des Thomas has continued to investigate the killings since his brother's pardon, gathering confidential police documents and commissioning a forensic expert on firearms. He had always felt uncomfortable about evidence given by a British expert at a royal commission of inquiry 10 years after the murders.

British ballistics expert Peter Prescott told the commission that only a rifle owned by Arthur Allan Thomas could have been involved in the killings.

His evidence contradicted earlier findings of police expert Donald Nelson, who tested 64 rifles seized during the investigation and concluded either of two could have fired the deadly bullets.

"I've never been at ease with this fact, that one minute a gun can fire a bullet that could have killed the Crewes, and then all of a sudden it's changed," said Mr Thomas.

He hired a lawyer to gain access to a test bullet fired by Mr Prescott from the second suspect rifle. Mr Thomas took a forensic expert to examine the bullet last month at the National Archives, and says his conclusion was that the second rifle could also have fired those which killed the Crewes.

He also has Dr Nelson's notes.

"Right from the early tests he couldn't exclude my brother's rifle and this other one. He checked his findings - I've got his job sheet here - to make sure he was right, that he couldn't exclude two rifles."

Police national crime manager Detective Superintendent Nick Perry said the second rifle was required to clear up the mystery but there were outstanding questions about the model involved.

"The only thing we can do at this stage is to go back and try and find the rifle, so to that end we're still making inquiries through Auckland to see if we can track down that particular rifle."

Mr Perry acknowledged locating the suspect rifle was unlikely to bring police any closer to resolving the murders.

He said fragments of the murder bullets and other evidence collected at the time had been destroyed, although photographs might still exist.

"None of the exhibits have been retained from the original homicide investigation. They were destroyed, to my understanding." Mr Thomas said it was unlikely the second rifle would offer any more clues, but said the fact it could no longer be ruled out as a possible murder weapon should be a cue for police to examine other potential evidence.

"There may be DNA. There's definitely 15 unidentified fingerprints."

He said police files in his possession suggested Jeanette jumped up from a couch and stabbed at the killer with a knitting needle after her husband was shot.

"One of the knitting needles was sitting on the floor bent when police went to the scene. [DNA] might not be an issue here but it could be worth a try.

"There are some floor sweepings as well, which should be still in the police archives.

"All you need is one hair from this person." 


Pukekawa case

The victims:

* Harvey and Jeanette Crewe were murdered in their farmhouse at Pukekawa, south of Auckland, in November 1970.
* Their bodies were weighted down and thrown into the Waikato River.
* The bodies were discovered three months later.

The accused:
* Farmer Arthur Allan Thomas was convicted of the killings but later pardoned. It was revealed that police had planted evidence.

- Additional reporting, Mathew Dearnaley