Mid-week Crime News

New Zealand

A man who raped three Hamilton women in three months, one of them in the city's main street, has been found dead in Australia.  It's unsure exactly how police matched the deceased man to the rapes, which occured in 2007, but more information will be revealed when Hamilton police hold a press conference at 1:30pm NZ time.

Hamilton police are also searching for a man who assaulted a woman on her walk to work.  They are asking for the public's help to identify a man wearing orange hi-vis overalls, who attacked the woman between Anglesea and Alexandra streets in Hamilton's CBD between 5:45 and 6:15am on Tuesday morning.  If anyone has information, please call Hamilton police, or Crimestoppers at the numbers listed in the article.

Four teenagers, one of them just 15, have been remanded in custody in Hawke's Bay after a brutal attack on a local pizza delivery man.  The man was attacked while making a delivery, and the teens stole his car, cell phone and four pizzas.  They also failed to stop for police while driving the stolen car.  The four teens will appear in the Hastings Youth Court next month.

Two men who's attempt to flee police was foiled by a flock of sheep have appeared in the Invercargill District Court, were they were denied baaail.  The pair will remain behind baaaars until their next court appearance.

...sorry, I couldn't resist.


Hamilton Serial Rapist Found Dead in Australia
Police investigate Hamilton Assault
Teens on Remand After Pizza Delivery Man Attack
Sheep Pursuit Accused will Remain Behind Baaa's


Australia

A 21-year-old man has been charged with wounding with intent after he stabbed both of his parents in their home in Sydney, while on meth.  The parents are both in a stable condition in hospital, their son was refused bail when he appeared in court on Saturday.

 A Melbourne man is facing 79 charges of rape and a number of related fraud charges, after posing as a gyneacologist and taking thousands of dollars from his clients for bogus fertility treatments.  The man, who is not a registered medical practitioner, posed as an expert in IVF, but used a number of "unconventional" treatments according to former patients, including homeopathy (So charging thousands of dollars for "magic water" basically).

A 15-year-old has been charged with manslaughter over the death of a pregnant woman, after a serious crash in Hobart.  The teen was driving a stolen vehicle at high speeds and collided with the woman's car, killing her and injuring her two-year-old son.  The woman was 32 weeks pregnant and doctors were able to deliver her baby successfully.
 
Son Stabs Parents While on Meth
Fake IVF "Doctor" Faces Rape and Fraud Charges
Teen Charged over Death of Pregnant Driver

Indonesia

Security forces in Bali are on high alert after recieving information that ISIS fighters were on the island and ready to stage terror attacks.  The threat came just days after an attack in Jakarta killed eight people, including four tourists.  Police say there is currently no reason for tourists to fear visiting the popular holiday spot, but that could change as more information comes to light.

Terror Threat in Bali has Police on Alert

Papua New Guinea

Crowds of hungry people in PNG's Western Highlands overwhelmed police and local officials to food supplies from a district office.  Police allegedly fired several shots into the air in an effort to disperse the crowd, with no success.  PNG is currently suffering a serious drought, and the government has run out of funds, leaving the task of drought relief to charities and Aid agencies like Red Cross.

PNG Crowd Loots Relief Supplies

Tonga

A former coach of Tonga's under 17's National Rugby team has been jailed for manslaughter for three years, after he poured boiling water on his wife after finding texts to another man.  His wife died from the severe burns sustained by the attack, which should warrant a longer sentence than three years in my opinion.

Former Tongan Coach Jailed 
















 

The Crewe Murders: Part Two

STOP! This is part two, if you haven't read part one, you can do so here

                                The Police Investigation 

 

*Warning* This post contains material related to the murder of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe.  There are NO images of the bodies, and all the images and other material used in this blog are freely available on the NZ Police website, but in case you are sensitive to this sort of thing, reader discretion is advised

June 23 1970

 

Jeanette and Harvey Crewe are missing, their daughter has been found alone and crying in her crib, seemingly abandoned.  The only clues, bloodstains on the living room carpet, indicating some act of violence has occurred at unassuming, rural farmstead.  The usually quiet countryside is anything but on the morning of June 23rd, as police descend on the Crewe farm to begin their investigations in earnest. 

Aerial view of Crewe farm

Inside the house, every room is photographed, along with any points of specific interest.  Such as, the dining room table, where the remains of the Crewe's dinner still sits, as if whatever happened here interrupted the family just as they were finishing their evening meal.

Dining room with meal remains still in place

Harvey's armchair has a prominent bloodstain on the right side of the seat cushion.  Police also find blood spots underneath this chair, indicating it may have been moved after the attack, though why remains a mystery.  Certainly not to cover up the bloodstains since there are a several much larger stains left in plain sight.
 

Harvey Crewe's bloodstained armchair

 Pathologist Doctor Cairns examines the blood stains on the living room carpet, on Harvey's armchair and on the farmhouse's back stairs.  He takes samples  for later analysis and advises investigators to search the house and the section immediately surrounding the house for a weapon.

 Two of the team's constables are detailed with searching for this possible weapon, as well as any other important clues.  They make a grid search of the lawn and garden, but they fail to find anything deemed relevant to the investigation.  You'll want to remember this little detail, it's going to be important.

 Meanwhile, in the Crewe's wool shed, a base of operations has been set up to co-ordinate the nearly 80 people, both police and civilians, who have turned out to search the area for Jeanette and Harvey, who, it's presumed, could still be alive.  The searchers are divided up into      small parties and each one given a certain area in which to focus their search.  These searchers are later joined by police dog teams, and naval divers are also sent in to assist in searching the waterways around the area.

The Wool Shed base of operations

 Later that afternoon, Rochelle is taken to the offices of Doctor Fox, who performs an examination of her general level of health, and determine what ill effects she may be suffering due to the length of time she'd been left unattended.  Fox determines that Rochelle cannot have been alone for the entire five days since her parents went missing.  He notes that she has quite serious nappy rash due to being left unchanged for a considerable period, has lost 1-2lbs in weight and is very anxious and constantly clings to Mrs Willis, the neighbour caring for her.  Fox approaches the lead detectives and advises them of his findings, and insists that Rochelle was only left unattended for 72 hours at the most, not the five days since her parents disappearance.  You'll want to remember this detail as well, it's also going to be important later on.

Wound trajectory for Jeanette Crewe

 In the weeks following the initial discovery of the crime scene at the Crewe farm, police widen their search to include the Waikato River and much of the Franklin District.
But they do not find the bodies until the morning of August 16, when Joseph Charles Adams and John Henry Gerbowitz make their way down to the Waikato riverbank, about 10kms downstream from Tuakau bridge, to rig up their setnets for a day's whitebaiting. 


They find Jeanette Harvey's body floating in the river, wrapped in material and tied with copper wire.  The Crewe investigation team are contacted, and pathologist Doctor Cairns accompanies them to retrieve the body.  Cairns conducts a cursory examination on the scene and determines that Jeanette had been shot with a single .22 bullet to the head.

Wound trajectory for Harvey Crewe

It takes police another full month to find Harvey's body, on September 16.  Harvey is found also wrapped in material and bound with wire.  His body is weighted down, tied to a vehicle axle with the same wire binding the body.  Harvey's autopsy determines that he too, was killed with a single gunshot to the head.

The Suspects



In February 1970 May Demler, Jeanette's mother dies after a long illness.  Lenard Demler continues to live and work his 465 acre farm alone, but regularly has dinner with his daughter and Son-in-law, on the neighbouring farm.  After the murders, Detective Inspector Bruce Hutton, is convinced that Demler murdered Jeanette and Harvey, and that his motive is connected to his wife's recent death, and the allocation of her estate.  Police immediately act on these suspicions, taking Demler's car for forensic examination and bringing him in for interviews on a number of occasions.

Blood spots in Demler's car  

Initially, it seems as if Detective Hutton's suspicions are bang on.  Blood spots are found on the back seat of Demler's car, and matched to Jeanette's blood type (no DNA testing back in 1970 folks).

Then, there's Demler's odd behaviour, from the time he discovers his grandchild alone in the house, and during the search for Jeanette and Harvey.



Demler is the first one to discover the crime scene, but leaves his granddaughter, despite her distress, alone again for nearly an hour while he returns home to cancel the pick-up of a load a sheep, then drives to the home of his neighbour, Owen Priest before returning to the Crewe residence.

The next day, just about everybody in the Pukekawa area turns out to help with the search for Jeanette and Harvey.  The men join police in their search efforts, the ladies provide tea, coffee and sandwiches to keep the searchers going.  But Lenard Demler shows no interest in helping to search for his daughter and Son-in-law.  Hutton sees these behaviours as suspicious, and on the same day that police begin their search for the Crewe's and their investigation of the home, Hutton has his first official interview with Lenard Demler.

Demler is asked to relate the events which led to his finding the house in the state that it was, and he also relates the nuisance crimes that occured in the years and months before the murder; specifically, the house fire, the barn fire, and the burglary.

Lenard Demler's Ford Cortina

Demler is interviewed again, on June 24th, and asked to account for his movements from June 15th to June 22nd, the day of the murder.  Police conduct searches of his property and vehicles, but nothing of significance is found at this time, though police do find blood in the back of Demler's Ford Cortina once they have taken the car back to HQ.

On June 26,  Demler is interviewed again, and Detective Hutton tells him that he believes he is responsible for the murders.

A week later, on July 2, another suspect comes up on Detectives radar.  A friend of Jeanette's comes forward and tells the investigation team that local farmer, Arthur Allan Thomas, had once persued Jeanette romantically, prior to her marriage to Harvey Crewe.  Jeanette firmly rejected Thomas however, and he had appeared to take it quite well at the time, going on to marry his current wife, Vivian, and leasing a farm on Mercer Ferry Road.  Police also learn that a brush and comb set gifted to Jeanette by Thomas, was supposedly among the items stolen from the Crewe house when the house was burgled in July 1967.

At this point, Demler is still the investigative team's main suspect, they continue to interview him time and time again, accusing him of the murder, questioning why he left Rochelle in her crib for so long after he supposedly "discovered" the crime scene; was it because he was actually using that time to clean up evidence? They accuse him of using his car to move the bodies and point out the blood evidence they have backing up that theory.  Demler is interviewed on no less than 15 occasions, sometimes at the station, sometimes the wool shed HQ and sometimes in his own home.

  He is taken through the Crewe home twice and asked to account for the location of various items and furniture (which may have been moved from their normal positions according to witnesses).

 But while the investigators continue to focus on Demler, they are also beginning to find out more about their other suspect, Arthur Allan Thomas.  They have already interviewed Thomas briefly at his farm, taken fingerprints, and examined his car, a Hillman Super Minx, for blood or other signs that he had used it to move the bodies of the Crewe's.  They find nothing.  After Jeanette's body is found, nothing much changes, and detectives still believe that Demler is their best suspect, but the discovery of Harvey's body changes everything.



Coming up in part three....

The police case against Arthur Allan Thomas.

Accusations of evidence tampering.

Two trials and a Royal Pardon.



If you're interested in examining the evidence, witness statements, pathologists reports and the other documents for yourself, you can find them all on the New Zealand Police website as part of their 2014 review of this case

2014 Crewe Murder Review

Murder; the world's oldest profession

Archeologists working at a dig site in Northern Kenya have unearthed the fossilised remains of 27 pre-historic hunter gatherers, who appear to have died brutally in the world's oldest massacre (so far).  Ok, so that's not technically murder, but it is interesting and shows evidence of organized warfare occuring much earlier than previously thought.

The bodies, which are about 10'000 years old, were found near the shores of Turkana lake at a site called Nataruk.  Several of the bodies show signs of blunt-force trauma, you can see an example of this in the image above.  Other bodies show injuries consistent with arrows or spears, and the positions of a couple of the bodies seem to indicate that their hands were bound when they died. 

 This find is the oldest evidence of human warfare ever discovered, and challenges the generally accepted theory among archeologists and anthropologists, that hunter-gatherer groups did not engage in any kind of organised warfare, because they were nomadic, and didn't have land or resources to fight over. 

This discovery will significantly alter prevailing narratives about prehistoric human culture, as well as increasing our practical understanding of ancient hunter-gatherer tribal groups, their daily lives and the many dangers they faced, not just from large predators, and nature itself, but also from each other.

The World's First Massacre

The Crewe Murders: Part One

New Zealand's most enduring murder mystery

Before I begin this in-depth look at one of the most well known and controversial unsolved murders in New Zealand history, some updates on crime news from earlier in the week.

There's been an arrest in the case of the murder of Cun Xiu Tian in New Zealand.  A 19-year-old Auckland man made a brief appearance in court on Thursday, charged with the murder and sexual assault of Cun Xiu Tian, a 70-year-old grandmother who was savagely beaten to death in her home in Te Atatu, West Auckland.  There was anger from members of the community outside the court building, who vented their emotions as the teen was escorted to and from the court. 
Teen arrested in Tian murder

In Australia, the man shot dead by police in Sydney has been identified as New Zealand born David Peterson, originally from Auckland.  Peterson entered the Quaker's Hill station brandishing a knife and screaming at the officers to "just shoot me."  While it's still not clear exactly why Peterson did this, there may have been mental health issues involved.
Man shot by Sydney police ID'd as Kiwi
 

Pukekawa, Franklin District: June 22, 1970

61 year old local farmer, Lenard Demler, enters the farmhouse his daughter, Jeanette Crewe, shares with her husband Harvey and their 18 month old daughter, Rochelle. Demler finds no sign of the young family, except for baby Rochelle, distressed and dehydrated, in her crib.  In the farmhouse living room, Demler finds blood staining the carpet.

The investigation would later reveal that by the time Demler entered the home and found his granddaughter, Jeanette and Harvey had already been dead for five days. Their bodies were found, weeks later, in the Waikato River.  What had happened in this quiet, rural farming community?  Jeanette and Harvey Crewe were an ordinary young couple who kept to themselves and kept busy, raising their daughter and working hard to grow and improve their farm, a legacy left to Jeanette and her sister Heather after the death of an uncle. Why would anyone want to kill them?

Background: Before the murders

Jeanette Lenore Crewe was born in 1940, the eldest daughter of farming couple, Lenard and May Demler. Her younger sister, Heather Demler, was born 1942. Jeanette and Heather grew up on the family's farm in Pukekawa, in the Franklin District, south of Auckland city, and both attended the local primary school there, Later, Jeanette moved to Auckland to complete her high school education and to train as a teacher.  The farm where Jeanette was eventually to settle with her husband Harvey, known as Chennell Estate, was left to the two girls by an uncle who died in an accident in 1950.  As the girls were still children at the time, a series of farm managers was employed to manage the farm's stock and finances until the girls reached adulthood.

In 1962, after a brief excursion overseas, Jeanette returned to New Zealand to teach, first in Maramarua and then in Whanganui.  It was while Jeanette Demler was living and teaching in Whanganui that she met Harvey Crewe. 

David Harvey Crewe, usually known as Harvey, had a similar

background to Jeanette.  He was born and raised in a

farming district in the lower North Island, but attended school in

Wellington. Upon leaving school he was employed on various farms in the

Woodville and Whanganui districts, where he met Jeanette and in 1966, they were married.

That same year, the newlyweds made the decision to move back to Jeanette's childhood home, Pukekawa, where they bought Heather's share of the farm. 

 Life in rural New Zealand in the 1960s was slow, quiet and routine, centred around hardwork, family, church and community.  Farming and agriculture was the mainstay of New Zealand's economy, especially sheep farming and wool production; which has rise to many jokes about Kiwi's and sheep over the years.

What do you give a Kiwi sheep farmer for Christmas?....

Velcro gloves. (Think about it for a bit, it will come to you.)

There was no such thing as privacy in a New Zealand farming community, when something out of the ordinary happened, everybody heard about it and the event would be the subject of pub and tearoom gossip for weeks on end. 

The first sign that something was amiss in Pukekawa came in July of 1967. Jeanette and Harvey returned home after dinner with Jeanette's parents on the neighbouring farm, to find their house had been broken into and a number of items taken.  Strangely, most of the stolen property was personal items belonging to Jeanette, items with no real monetary value.  The burglar was never caught.

In December of  '68, Rochelle was born. But only days later, while Jeanette and her infant daughter were still in hospital, Harvey Crewe returned home from dinner with his In-laws, to find the house ablaze. 20% of the farmhouse was damaged by the fire, and once again, the perpetrator remained at large.  

The next incident in this escalating pattern of nuisance attacks on the Crewe's came not long after the fire.  But I must preface it by saying that there is some controversy as to whether or not this actually happened, and that the police do not include this incident in their official timeline.  In 2010 an elderly Auckland couple came forward and claimed that the brake lines on Jeanette Crewe's car were cut in early 1969.  Jeanette, who had shared a room in the maternity ward with the female witness , had complained to her new friend about this brake incident just weeks after returning home from the hospital with Rochelle.  According to these witnesses, Jeanette said the brakes were "cut clean through."

Finally, in May of 1969, the Crewe's barn burned to the ground, along with 800 hay bales. That's at least three serious incidents of criminal nuisance, possibly four counting the brake incident, within the space of three years.  The barn fire was the last in this series of bizarre and unexplained attacks leading up to the murder. Less than a month later, Jeanette and Harvey were dead.

The Murders

 

I mentioned earlier that, by the time Rochelle was found, abandoned and distressed in an empty house, the Crewe's had already been dead for five days. What happened during those five days? And why did nobody think to check in on the Crewe's earlier?

 June 17th, 1970

The Crewe family ran a number of errands in and around the Pukekawa area and were seen by a number of different people throughout the day.  The police were able to use these sightings and other witness statements to compile a timeline of the events leading up to the murder, and in the days following, prior to Lenard Demler entering the home to find the Crewe's gone.

9:45am. Local stock agent, John Gracie arrives at the Crewe farm, where he has tea with the couple before leaving with Harvey to view a bull he is considering purchasing from a farm in the nearby community of Glen Murray.

10:00-12:00. Thyrle Pirret and her three-year-old daughter arrive at the farm for a visit. The women have tea together and are soon joined by Harvey, who has returned from viewing the bull. Thyrle and her daughter leave at around midday.  A short time later, the Crewe's leave together in their Hillman Hunter. This car is seen parked at a local vegetable stand between 12 and 12:30, though the witness do not recall seeing the Crewe's themselves.

12:30-3:00pm.  The Crewe's attend a stock clearance auction at another farm in the Bombay area. By this time it's raining fairly heavily, so Jeanette and Rochelle stay in the car while Harvey attends the sale. This is the last time that any of the witnesses see the Crewe's alive, although there are several sightings of their vehicle after this point.

3:30-4:30pm.  Beverly Batkin, a friend of Jeanette's, sees the Crewe's car drive past her house in the direction of Pukekawa. Craig Fulton, a Glen Murray farmer, also sees the Crewe's vehicle, parked at a stock gate a couple of kilometers from their house. He doesn't see the Crewe's themselves, but since Harvey is known to attend to stock in that area, Fulton doesn't think anything of it.  A second Glen Murray farmer, Alexander Irvine, also sees the Crewe's vehicle around this time, parked outside the local cemetary.

This sighting by Irvine is the last time the Crewe's vehicle is seen prior to the murder. Events after this point are based on the police investigation timeline, which states that Jeanette and Harvey probably returned home between 5 and 5:30pm, where they had dinner, the remains of which were still on the table five days later, when the disappearance is discovered.  Jeanette and Harvey are murdered sometime between 7- 9pm on the evening of June 17^th.

June 18th

9:30am. local delivery man Emmett Shirley arrives at the Crewe farm and leaves a loaf of bread, two bottles of milk and a copy of the morning paper in the delivery box at the end of the driveway.  There are no other visitors to the farm and no sightings of the Crewe's that day.

June 19th

9:00am. Local farmer Bruce Roddick sees a woman and a vehicle on the Crewe property while feeding hay to his stock in a neighbouring paddock.

9:30am. Emmett Shirley returns to the Crewe farm and discovers the previous day's deliveries untouched in the delivery box. Nonetheless, he leaves more bread and milk, and the day's paper before continuing on his route.

June 20th

9:30am.  Emmett Shirley makes his third delivery to the Crewes, sees that the previous two deliveries are still in the box, but assumes the Crewe's have just gone away for a day or two.  He leaves his usual delivery of milk, bread and paper.

2:00pm.  Neighbour, Queenie McConachie, sees a child and a vehicle on the Crewe property while driving past with her husband Maurice. Later that same afternoon, while driving back past the Crewe place, Maurice also sees the child, standing in the Crewe's front paddock, near the road.

June 21st

There are no visits to the Crewe farm and no sightings of the woman or the child.

June 22nd

7:00am.  Stock agent, Joseph Moore, telephones the Crewe household. The call goes unanswered so Moore calls Jeanette's father, Lenard Demler, to ask if the Crewe's have gone away. Demler replies that the couple should be at home and Moore tells Demler he will visit the address later in the day.

9:00am.  Joseph Moore and fellow stock agent, John Dagg, arrive at the farm and knock on the door for some time, but receive no answer.  The two men notice a light on in one of the rooms, but no movement or signs of life within the house. They assume the Crewe's are away and leave without further attempts to locate the family.

9:30am.  Emmett Shirley arrives as usual, but seeing the uncollected deliveries from the previous four days, decides not to leave any more. He removes the old bread and throws it into the front paddock for the birds so that it won't attract mice.

10:00am-12:30pm. Ronald Wright, a local transport foreman, calls the Crewe's  several times throughout the morning to organise the collection of some sheep for transport. After getting no answer, Wright calls Lenard Demler and asks him to try and get in touch with Harvey regarding the sheep.

1:00pm. Lenard Demler drives over to Crewe's, where he discovers bloodstains on the carpet of the living room and no sign of Harvey or Jeanette. He also finds Rochelle in her crib, alive but dehydrated and very distressed.

Lenard Demler's behaviour from this point onward is rather strange, something that is noted by police at the time, and is one of the things that initially makes him their prime suspect for quite some time.

1:00-3:00pm.  Demler leaves Rochelle in her crib and returns to his own home, where he first calls Ronald Wright to cancel the sheep collection, then calls his neighbour, Owen Priest, to ask for his help in locating Jeanette and Harvey.

The two return to the property together at around 1.45pm and begin searching the farm's paddocks and outbuildings. Finally, after leaving Rochelle alone for a further 45 minutes, Demler removes his granddaughter from the home and takes her to a neighbour by the name of Barbara Willis, while Owen Priest calls the police station in Tuakau to report that Jeanette and Harvey are missing, and that there is blood on the carpet in their home.  Owen Priest will later tell police that when he asked Demler what happened, Demler replied that Harvey had killed his daughter, and called him a bastard.

3:00pm.  Constable Wyllie arrives and conducts a cursory search of the house and property. He then calls his superior, Senior Sergeant Melville, to advise him of the situation. On Melville's orders, Constable Wyllie exits the home, locks it behind him and waits with Owen Priest for more officers to arrive.  

4:00pm.  Melville arrives, accompanied by Constable Rounthwaite.  Shortly afterwards, Detective Sergeant Tootill, Constable Abbott, and Constable Metcalf also arrive.  A more thorough search of the property and local area begins, and preliminary enquiries are made.

Coming up in part two of the Crewe Murders...

Finding the bodies in the Waikato River.

The police investigation

The suspects



Check back in the next day or so for part two of this in-depth look at the Crewe murders and their aftermath.  Finally, I leave you with the crime story of the week, from the "Only in the New Zealand" file....

What the flock?!? Sheep stop police car chase

To Name or Not To Name; That is the Question.

 A well known New Zealand actor is facing four charges of sexual assault in the Auckland District Court, for incidents which took place from 2010 to 2013.  The 45-year-old has been granted interim name suppression and the judge has rejected media requests to photograph the accused.  A second hearing has been scheduled for next week to argue the issue, where the Crown intends to oppose continued name suppression.  That's all the information I have on this case at this time, but that's not all I have to say about it.

The reason I am blogging about this is because there is a history around this issue of famous people getting name suppression in the New Zealand courts, including a number of cases of well-known individuals being granted permanent name suppression.  And, here in NZ, permanent means permanent, even if the person is found guilty of the charges and convicted.  Meanwhile, the names of non-famous people, whether they are just facing charges or have already been convicted, are given to the media All. The. Time.  There's a definite pattern of one rule for the rich and famous, and a different rule for the rest of us working stiffs, and that is not how a fair justice system is supposed to work.

I don't know the identity of the actor being charged in this case, and I would not break name suppression if I did know it, because look what happened to Whale Oil when he tried that trick.  I would not look good in prison sweats.  But, what I will do is continue to push for fairness in our justice system.  If a person gets name suppression, it should be for good reasons, to protect them, their families, or their victims (especially the victims), not just because they're famous.  Come on New Zealand judiciary, do the right thing!

 
Kiwi Actor Facing Sex Charges: Stuff
Auckland Actor Takes Case to Court: NZ Herald

I also wanted to include a link to Peter Jackson's Facebook rant on Making a Murderer.  Yes, that's Peter "Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit" Jackson I'm talking about.  What you might not know about Mr Jackson is that back in 2012, he co-produced a documentary on the wrongful convictions of the West Memphis Three, so this is a subject that he is very familiar with.  If you haven't seen Making a Murderer, you should definately head over to Netflix and check it out.  Binge watch all 10 episodes, cos if you don't, you're a pussy. Sleep is for the weak!

Peter Jackson on Making a Murderer

Mid week crime news from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific: 20/1/2016

 Mid-Week Crime News: Wednesday 20/1/2016

New Zealand
 
New Zealand crime news is still being dominated by the vicious murder of 70-year-old West Auckland resident, Cun Xiu Tian.  Police are asking the public to report any sightings of a young man in a green and white tracksuit and white baseball cap on the night of the murder.

 In other news, a 38-year-old Auckland mother who recently regained custody of her son after losing him due to her alchoholism, has been sentenced to intense supervision after she fell off the wagon and left her 21-month-old son at home alone for over 12 hours while she went out drinking.  As if that wasn't bad enough, she also punched the manager of a supermarket after she was caught shoplifting and then went on to assault the police officer who arrested her.  What a stunning example of humanity...NOT!

Australia
 
A man has appeared in the Victorian court today, charged with murder after the body of a woman was found in bushland on Monday.  Police believe the body is that of missing woman, Karen Chetcuti, who disappeared from the town of Whorouly a week ago.  The accused murderer, 48-year-old Michael Cardamone, lived next door to the victim and allegedly killed her after she went to his home to pick up some tomatoes.

A man was shot dead by police in a suburb of North-West Sydney this morning after he walked into a police station weilding a large knife.  It brings to mind the phrase 'don't bring a knife to a gun fight,' especially if the guy with the gun is a cop.

Samoa

 Just in case you thought it was only America that has problems with police corruption, think again.  An anonymous letter signed by "Police Officers who want make use of the time and money we are paid with" was sent to the editor of the Samoan Observer, as well as the Samoan Police Commissioner and a number of other officials.  This letter alleges widespread corruption, and accuses Samoan police officers of "leading the way in breaking the law."  The letter goes on to list a number of system problems with Samoan law enforcement and is the second letter to surface with these kinds of allegations.  The first letter surfaced a few years ago and led to a number of inquiries.

Papua New Guinea

An American tourist was raped and tortured for more than an hour in a vicious pack-rape on the Kokoda trail on Monday, while her male partner was forced to watch.  The couple were attacked by three men weilding machetes and spears, and the woman lost three fingers during the prolonged attack.  The men also robbed the couple of money, cell phones and other valuables.  The Kokoda track is a popular hiking destination for tourists, and police are asking local villagers for help in capturing the suspects.  Villagers successfully captured one of the men involved and turned him over to police, but the remaining two are still at large.



LINKS

Cun Xiu Tian Murder Investigation

Mother Leaves Toddler Home Alone


Neighbour Charged with Murder of Missing Victoria Woman


Knife-wielding Man Shot by Police


Letter Alleges Corruption in Samoa's Police Force

Tourist raped and tortured in PNG