New Zealand crime timeline

This timeline lists a selection of the most notable New Zealand crimes (especially homicides and other violent crimes) since 1840. Inevitably some of our selections and omissions will be debatable and we encourage readers to add their comments and suggestions in the community contributions area at the end of the page. For more background information on crime in New Zealand see Te Ara. See also a map showing the location of these crimes.

1842 The hanging of Maketū

On 7 March, at Auckland, Maketū Wharetōtara (also known as Wiremu Kīngi Maketū), the son of a Bay of Island chief Ruhe, became the first person to be executed by hanging in New Zealand. He had been found guilty of murdering two adults and three children at Motuarohia in November 1841. Read more.

1848 The hanging of Joseph Burns

On 17 June, at Devonport, Auckland, Joseph Burns became the first European to be hanged in New Zealand under British law. He had been convicted of murdering a naval lieutenant, his wife and daughter. Read more and see a newspaper report (PapersPast).

1855 James Mackenzie’s sheep stealing

On 4 March James Mackenzie was found – in the area that was later to be named the Mackenzie Country – with 1000 sheep stolen from the Levels Station, South Canterbury. Read more.

1861 Rutland Stockade murder

On 1 November Colour-Sergeant James Collins fatally shot Ensign William Alexander in the Rutland Stockade, Whanganui, after the latter had slighted him. Collins' hanging was the first in New Zealand not to be held in public (public hangings had ended with the Execution of Criminals Act 1858). Read more (1966 Encyclopaedia of NZ).

1864 The Jarvey poisoning

On 26 September ship's captain William Jarvey poisoned his wife, Catherine Jane, in Dunedin. The crime was reported by his daughter Elizabeth. Jarvey’s trial resulted in another death, as expert witness Dr Macadam succumbed to 'excessive debility and general exhaustion'.  Read more (1966 Encyclopaedia of NZ).

1866 Maungatapu murders

On 13 June Philip Levy, Richard Burgess, Thomas Kelly and Joseph Thomas Sullivan robbed and murdered John Kempthorne, James Dudley, Felix Mathieu and James de Pontius on the Nelson goldfields (James Battle had been killed the previous day). All were hanged – apart from Sullivan, whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after testifying against the others. Read more.

1876 Murder of Edwin Packer

On 27 January Edwin Packer, a labourer, was murdered on the farm where he worked in Epsom. Taurangaka Winiata of Ngāti Mahuta, who worked with Packer, was the prime suspect. He escaped to the King Country where he lived for six years before being captured by Robert Barlow of Ngāti Pikiao, who handed him to the police and picked up a £500 reward. Winiata was executed at Mt Eden jail on 4 August 1882. Read more about the crime; capture and execution (PapersPast).

1880 Mary Dobie murder

On 29 December Tuhiata, known as Tuhi, was hanged in Wellington for the murder of the artist Mary Dobie at Te Namu Bay, Ōpunake, on 25 November. Tuhi wrote to the governor days before his execution asking that ‘my bad companions, your children, beer, rum and other spirits die with me’. Read more.

1883 Whanganui River murder

On 26 February the body of four-year-old Phoebe 'Flossy' Veitch was found washed ashore at the mouth of the Whanganui River, which had been in flood. Her mother, Phoebe Veitch, was convicted of Flossy's murder but her death sentence was commuted after it was determined by a Jury of Matrons that she was pregnant. This was the first and only time in New Zealand history that a Jury of Matrons was used. Hear podcast and see related newspaper report (PapersPast).

1886 Hall poisoning cases

On 19 October Timaru businessman Thomas Hall was convicted of the attempted murder of his wife, Kate, after a suspicious doctor had a sample of the contents of her stomach analysed. Hall, who had poison in his pockets when arrested, was sentenced to life imprisonment. In January 1887 he was also successfully charged with the earlier fatal poisoning of Henry Cain, Kate's stepfather, and sentenced to death. However, Hall's murder conviction was overturned on appeal due to an evidential technicality. Read more (DNZB).

1891 Christchurch child murder

On 5 January the head of a three-week-old male child, killed the day before, was found by children in Christchurch. Anna and Sarah Flanagan, the mother and grandmother of the dead infant, were found guilty of infanticide but both were given a reprieve of their death sentences. The case garnered much attention due to the gruesome circumstances and hysterical behaviour of the accused in court. Hear podcast and see related newspaper report (PapersPast).

1895 The hanging of the baby farmer Minnie Dean

On 12 August the infamous Winton 'baby farmer', Minnie Dean, became the first and only woman to be hanged in New Zealand. Although she had concealed the deaths of several children who had died in her care, it remains unclear whether Dean was actually guilty of murder. Read more.

1905 Lionel Terry’s hate crime

On 24 September Edward Lionel Terry committed a racial hate crime when he shot Joe Kum Yung, an elderly Chinese man, in Wellington's Haining Street. He soon turned himself in with the murder weapon, seeking to publicise his campaign to cleanse the empire of alien influences. He was to spend nearly half a century in mental hospitals. Read more.

1909 The notorious Amy Bock

On 21 April con artist Amy Bock married Agnes Ottaway for her money under the pretence of being a man named Percy Redwood. In the wildly popular trial that followed, she admitted to charges of masquerading as a man, forgery, false pretences and theft. She received a two-year prison sentence. Read more (DNZB).

1912 Waihi Strike killing

On 12 November, during a bitter industrial dispute in the goldmining town of Waihi, striker Frederick George Evans was savagely beaten by police and strikebreakers. He died the following day. An inquiry found that Constable Gerald Wade had been ‘fully justified in striking deceased down’. To unionists, though, Evans was an innocent victim of state-sponsored violence. Read more.

1914 A New Zealand ‘Jack the Ripper’?

On 28 September prostitute Frances Marshall was brutally stabbed in Auckland. This unsolved crime sparked fears of a New Zealand 'Jack the Ripper', but there were no other similar murders directly before or afterwards. Read more (PapersPast).

1914 Ruahine axe murderer

On 28 December a young German man, Arthur Rottman, brutally murdered his former employer Joseph McCann, Joseph's wife, Lucy, and their infant son John with an axe but no clear motive. He was hanged on 13 February 1915 at the Terrace Gaol, Wellington. Read more (PapersPast).

1915 Alice Parkinson case

On 2 March, Napier woman Alice Parkinson killed her boyfriend after he had refused to marry her following a painful miscarriage. She then shot herself in the head but survived to stand trial. The jury recommended mercy due to provocation but the judge ordered life with hard labour. More than 100,000 people signed a petition calling for her release. Parkinson was eventually paroled in 1921. Read more (DNZB).

1916 Rua Kēnana's arrest

On the morning of Sunday, 2 April 1916, 57 armed police invaded the remote Tūhoe settlement of Maungapōhatu in the Urewera Ranges. They had come to arrest the prophet Rua Kēnana. A gunfight broke out and two Māori were killed, including Rua’s son Toko. Read more.

1920 Dennis Gunn’s fingerprints

On 13 March Dennis Gunn murdered Ponsonby postmaster Augustus Edward Braithwaite for his keys to the post office. This case vindicated the use of fingerprint evidence in New Zealand, with matches being made to fingerprints left on the gun and around the post office. Read more.

1920 Whanganui mayor shoots poet

On 15 May Whanganui Mayor Charles Mackay shot and injured poet Walter D'Arcy Cresswell in the mayoral office. Cresswell alleged that the mayor had made homosexual advances. Mackay was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour. Read more.

1921 Murder of a police constable

On 27 August Constable James Dorgan was found fatally shot outside a Timaru drapery store that he had been watching, believing a robbery was taking place inside. Despite a vigorous search by the police and wide public cooperation with the investigation, the murderer(s) were never found. Read more (1966 Enclopaedia of NZ).

1923 Baby farming in Newlands

Daniel and Martha Cooper of Newlands, near Wellington, were charged with infanticide and performing abortions. Martha was acquitted – her defence claimed she was weak-minded and pressured to assist her husband – but Daniel was ultimately found guilty and executed. Read more.

1928 Elsie Walker mystery

On 5 October 17-year-old Elsie Walker was found dead with a head injury in a disused quarry in east Auckland. The cause of her death was not confirmed but local rumour suspected her cousin, William Bayly, who would later be convicted of murdering the Lakey couple. Read more (1966 Enclopaedia of NZ)

1929 The Himatangi tragedy

On 6 September a farm house in Himatangi was burned to the ground, with four adults and three children perishing inside. One of the victims, 47-year-old farmer Thomas Wright, had been shot in the head prior to the fire, but there was not enough evidence to convict any suspects. Read more (Te Ara) and see contemporary newspaper account (PapersPast).

1933 The Bayly case

On 16 October the body of Christobel Lakey was found at Ruawaro, near Huntly; it was later discovered that her husband Samuel's body had been incinerated. Their neighbour, William Alfred Bayly, was convicted of their murders and hanged on 20 July 1934. This case marked the beginning of more professional and thorough police practices in the gathering of evidence. Read more (DNZB).

1934 King Country tragedy

On 9 October Hēnare Hona shot a family of four, the Davenports, on their farm near Te Kuiti, King Country, then went on the run for 11 days. On the 20th, near Morrinsville, he shot police Constable Thomas Heeps (who died the next day); after being cornered by other police Hona committed suicide. Read more (Te Ara) and see contemporary newspaper account (PapersPast).

1935 Murder of Joan Rattray

On 2 July six-year-old Joan Rose Rattray was found asphyxiated in the mud of Karamu creek, Hastings. Police ruled out an accidental death but never found the murderer. Read more (1966 Encyclopaedia of NZ)

1939 Fake death at Piha

On 12 February Australian Gordon McKay attempted to fake his own death at Piha, west of Auckland. With the assistance of James Talbot, he had placed a corpse in a bach which was then set on fire. Both accused were found guilty of arson and – for the first time in New Zealand history – of improper interference with a dead human body. Read more (PapersPast).

1941 Stan Graham's shooting spree

On 8 October Eric Stanley Graham killed three police officers and fatally wounded a fourth at his farm near Hokitika. He later killed an agricultural instructor and two Home Guardsmen. A massive manhunt ended on 20 October when Graham was shot on sight by Constable James Quirke. Read more.

1942 German sabotage hoax

On 29 March con artist Sydney Gordon Ross convinced Robert Semple, the Minister of National Service, that a German sabotage cell had attempted to enlist Ross to their cause. Ross was put up in the Rotorua Grand Hotel under the auspicious pseudonym 'Captain Calder'. The hoax lasted for months until suspicions led to an investigation; in February 1943 the embarrassed Security Intelligence Bureau was taken over by the commisioner of police. No charges were laid against Ross or his co-conspirator, Charles Remmers. Read more.

1942 Wairoa murders

On 21 August the elderly sisters Rosamund and Annie Smyth were found beaten to death in their Wairoa home; the crime had occurred about 13 days earlier. There were a number of possible suspects but no one was ever convicted. Read more (DNZB).

1943 Hyde rail disaster

On 4 June 1943 a train derailed near Hyde in Otago, killing 21 passengers in what remains New Zealand's second-worst rail accident. The driver, John Corcoran, who was alleged to have been drinking, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. Some have argued that he was a scapegoat for the failings of the hard-pressed wartime Railways Department. Read more.

1947 Mystery of Marie West

Marie West went missing from her home on 23 April but her body was only found three months later, just 60m away in the bush on Mt Victoria, Wellington. Evidence suggested she had committed suicide but how her body ended up on Mt Victoria remains a mystery. Read more (1966 Enclyclopaedia of NZ).

1949 Moa Creek murder

On 28 September 62-year-old William Peter McIntosh was murdered with an axe in his woolshed in Central Otago. The main suspect was a stranger who had stopped to ask McIntosh's wife for the directions, but the murder remained unsolved. Read more (1966 Enclyclopaedia of NZ).

1951 ‘Secret Service’ murder

On 14 June George Cecil Horry was arrested for the murder of his wife, Mary Eileen Jones, who had disappeared from Titirangi the day after their wedding almost ten years before. Suspicions were raised by Horry's dubious claims that he was a secret service agent and that his wife had drowned during the Second World War. Despite the absence of a body or a confession, Horry was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Read more (DNZB).

1952 Capital punishment returns

On 13 March William Giovanni Silveo Fiori, who had murdered Mr and Mrs Gabolinsky and their son at Minginui, became the first person to be hanged in New Zealand following the National government's 1950 reinstatement of capital punishment. Read more (TrueCrimeLibrary) and Jack Gabolinski service page (Cenotaph).

1954 The Parker-Hulme murder

On 22 June Pauline Parker and her friend Juliet Hulme murdered Pauline's mother, Honora, on a walking track in the Cashmere Hills,  Christchurch. The key question in this infamous and shocking case was not the girls' guilt, but their state of mind. It was finally decided that the pair were not insane and had murdered in cold blood. They received five years' imprisonment and were ordered never to contact each other again. Read more.

1954 Dunedin Hospital manslaughter

On 12 December Senga Florence Whittingham shot John William Saunders in a bathroom at Dunedin Public Hospital. The two house surgeons had been engaged to each other until Senga miscarried. She was charged with manslaughter after claiming she had not wanted to kill Saunders but only frighten him. Read more (1966 Encyclopaedia of NZ)

1957 Hanging of Walter Bolton

On 18 February Walter Bolton, a 68-year-old Whanganui farmer, became the last person to be executed in New Zealand. After a controversial trial he was convicted of murdering his wife, Beatrice, and was hanged at Mount Eden prison. Read more.

1961 Disappearance of Wendy Mayes

On 15 September Wendy Mayes disappeared after meeting with John Maltby for an interview as a photographer’s model. Maltby was the main suspect, but while under police surveillance he escaped into the bush. His body washed ashore at Island Bay on 24 September; Wendy Mayes' body was never found. Read more (1966 Encyclopaedia of NZ).

1962 The parcel-bomb murder

On 5 February Dunedin barrister James Patrick Ward was killed by a bomb delivered in a parcel to his office. Although it was established that the bomb was sent from Dunedin no other firm leads were ever found. Read more (1966 Encyclopaedia of NZ).

1962 George Wilder prison breaks

17 May was the first of three occasions on which convicted burglar George Wilder escaped from prison. This first prison break lasted 65 days, his second, 172 days, and his last, only three hours. Read more.

1963 Waitakere shootings

On 6 January Victor George Wasmuth fatally shot a kennel owner and two police officers who attempted to apprehend him. Wasmuth was found not guilty of the murders by reason of insanity. Read more (Stuff).

1963 Alicetown shootings

On 3 February Bruce Douglas McPhee shot two police officers who had responded to a domestic incident at his house in Lower Hutt. McPhee received life imprisonment for the murders. This shooting, along with the Waitakere shootings that year, led to the formation of the Armed Offenders Squad in 1964. Memorial pages: Bryan Schultz; James Richardson (NZ Police).

1963 Bassett Road machine-gun murders

On 4 December, in Remuera, Auckland, John Frederick Gillies and Ronald John Jorgensen shot Kevin James Speight and Frederick George Walker to death using a .45-calibre Reising submachine gun. The men were involved in a gangland dispute over illegal liquor dens. Both Gillies and Jorgensen were sentenced to life imprisonment. Read more.

1969 Jennifer Beard murder

On 31 December Jennifer Beard, a 25-year-old school teacher from Tasmania, was murdered while holidaying in the South Island. It is believed she was strangled in a sexually motivated attack. Despite a massive police investigation the murder remains unsolved. Read more (Crime.co.nz)

1970 Crewe murders

On 22 June the disappearance of Waikato farming couple Harvey and Jeanette Crewe was discovered when their starving 2-year-old daughter, Rochelle, was found in their home by her grandfather. The couple's bodies were found three months later in the Waikato River. In 1971 Arthur Allan Thomas was found guilty but doubts remained about police methods and evidence. After a long campaign he was pardoned nine years later and awarded almost $1 million compensation. It is still not known who was responsible for the Crewe murders. Read more (Te Ara)

1974 Secrets of W.B. Sutch

On 26 September a retired diplomat and economist, Dr W.B. Sutch, was arrested on charges of sharing state information with Russian diplomat Dimitri Aleksandrovick Razgovorov. Sutch's trial marked the first time anyone had been charged with an offence under the 1951 Official Secrets Act. He was ultimately acquitted. Read more.

1975 Disappearance of Mona Blades

On 31 May Mona Blades disappeared while hitchhiking to her family home in Hastings for her nephew's first birthday. Little is known about her fate except that she was last seen in an orange Datsun on Matea Road. Read more.

1979 Queen Street nightclub murder

On 1 July Brian Ronald McDonald shot Margaret Bell, aged 17, in the head. The bullet had been intended for the doorkeeper of a Queen Street nightclub, who had refused him entrance. Read more (NZ Listener).

1979 ‘Mr Asia’ murder

On 14 October the body of Christopher Martin Johnstone, a leader of the 'Mr Asia' drug syndicate, was found in a flooded disused quarry in Lancashire. His corpse had been hastily mutilated to avoid identification. His associate Terence John Clark was found to have put out a hit against Johnstone and was convicted for his murder on 15 July 1981. Clark was found guilty after a 123-day trial, one of the longest in English history. Read more.

1984 Trades Hall bombing

On 27 March Ernie Abbott, caretaker at the Wellington Trades Hall, was killed instantly when he moved a suitcase bomb. No motive has been found and the case remains unsolved. Read more.

1985 Rainbow Warrior bombing

On 10 July the Greenpeace protest ship, docked in Auckland, was torn apart by two bombs planted by French Secret Service (DGSE) agents. A Portuguese crew member, Fernando Pereira, was killed. Having been arrested and charged with murder, agents Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. Read more.

1987 Teresa Cormack murder

On 19 June six-year-old Teresa Cormack's body was found half-buried under a tree on Whirinaki Beach, Hawke's Bay, eight days after she went missing. It wasn't until 2002, after new DNA testing had been introduced, that Jules Mikus was arrested for Teresa's sexual violation and murder. Read more (Crime.co.nz).

1989 Plumley-Walker's death

In February 1989 the body of Peter Plumley-Walker was found floating below the Huka Falls, with wrists and ankles bound. A teenage dominatrix and her partner were tried three times for murder and finally acquitted. It is alleged that Plumley-Walker died during a bondage session at their Auckland house, and the pair had taken the body to Taupō and dumped it into the river. Read more (NZ Herald) and Te Ara.

1990 Aramoana massacre

On 13 November David Gray killed 13 people, including a police sergeant, following an argument with a neighbour at the tiny Otago beach settlement of Aramoana. This remains New Zealand’s largest mass murder. Gray was shot dead the next day by police officers. Read more.

1991 Delcelia Witika child abuse case

On 21 March police were called to a Mangere address following a call from Tania Witika saying she had arrived home to find her two-year-old daughter, Delcelia, had died. The investigation that followed uncovered one of New Zealand's most horrendous child abuse cases. Both Tania and her partner, Eddie Smith, were found guilty of manslaughter and other counts of neglect and ill treatment and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment. Read more (Crime.co.nz)

1992 Christchurch Civic Crèche child abuse

On 30 March Peter Ellis was one of five staff members arrested for sexual abuse of children at the Christchurch Civic Crèche. He was the only one who stood trial. His conviction in 1992 drew attention to the authorities' handling of child sexual abuse, particularly the reliance on children's testimony. Ellis protests his innocence to this day. Read more (Te Ara).

1992 Masterton massacre

On 26 June Raymond Wahia Ratima killed seven of his family members, including his three young children, at his home in Judds Road, Masterton. He received life imprisonment. Read more (Te Ara).

1992 Schlaepfer farm murders

On 20 May south Auckland farmer Brian Schlaepfer killed his wife during an argument. He went on to kill his three sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson before committing suicide. His nine-year-old granddaughter Linda was the only one to survive, after hiding in a wardrobe. Read more (Crime.co.nz).

1992 New Zealand's worst white-collar crime?

On 18 December Allan Hawkins, executive chairman of Equiticorp, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for stealing $88 million dollars from investors in his company. Read more (Te Ara).

1994 The Thomas murders

On 16 February father and son financial dealers Eugene and Gene Thomas were shot dead in their Wellington office. John Barlow faced three trials for the murders: after the first two ended with hung juries, he was found guilty in October 1995 and sentenced to a minimum of 14 years' imprisonment without parole. Read more (Te Ara).

1994 Bain family murders

On 20 June Stephen, Arawa, Robin, Laniet and Margaret Bain were killed in their Dunedin home. The only surviving family member, David Bain, was found guilty of the murders in 1995. Following intense public speculation and doubts over police conduct during the investigation, Bain was acquitted after a 2009 retrial. Read more (Wikipedia).

1995 First convicted serial rapist

On 31 July Joe Thompson became New Zealand's first convicted serial rapist, pleading guilty to all 129 charges spanning over a decade. This is the largest number of guilty pleas in any Commonwealth country. Thompson received 30 years' imprisonment. Read more (Crime.co.nz).

1996 Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa

On 13 May serial rapist Malcolm Rewa was arrested at his Mangere home. He was found guilty of 24 rapes and given a 22-year minimum non-parole sentence. He was later found guilty of the rape of Susan Burdett (but not her murder), earning him an additional 14 years in prison. Read more (Te Ara).

1997 Raurimu massacre

On 8 February Stephen Anderson, a 25 year old with a history of mental illness, killed six people, including his father, at a Raurimu ski lodge. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed indefinitely to psychiatric hospital care (but has since been released). Read more (Crime.co.nz).

1998 Peter Mwai HIV case

On 24 June Peter Mwai was released from prison after serving two thirds of his seven-year prison sentence for knowingly infecting others with HIV. Mwai was the first person in New Zealand to be tried for willfully spreading the HIV virus although he was convicted of a lesser charge of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm. Read more (Crime.co.nz).

1998 Ben Smart and Olivia Hope's disappearance

On New Year's Day Ben Smart and Olivia Hope went missing after they boarded a stranger’s yacht in the Marlborough Sounds. Picton resident Scott Watson was found guilty of the pair's murder in 1999 but their bodies have never been found. Read more (Crime.co.nz).

2000 Lundy murders

On 29 August Christine Lundy and her daughter, Amber, were beaten to death in their Palmerston North home. Their bodies were discovered the next day. Christine's husband, Mark Lundy, had been away on business in Petone, but six months later he was arrested for the murders. In April 2002 he was convicted and sentenced to a 17-year minimum non-parole period. Read more (Crime.co.nz).

2000 Chubb robbery

On 22 December Peter Tyson, a former Chubb employee, and six accomplices robbed a Chubb security van in central Wellington. This was the largest armed robbery in New Zealand's history with $940,404 being taken. Tyson was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment; his accomplices received sentences ranging from 4 to 9½ years. Read more (NZ Herald).

2001 RSA murders

On 8 December William Bell killed three people and severely beat another employee at the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA. He had been fired from the RSA three months prior to this attack and robbery. He was given 33 years' imprisonment, the longest sentence passed down to anyone by a New Zealand judge. Read more (Te Ara).

2007 Graeme Burton shootings

On 6 January, near Wellington, Karl Kuchenbecker was killed and three others were wounded in a random shooting by parolee Graeme Burton (who had earlier been convicted of murder in 1992). This crime sparked widespread criticism of the Corrections Department and the Parole Board: Burton had been released on parole halfway through 2006 despite violent behaviour in prison. Read more (Te Ara).

2008 Sophie Elliott murder

On 9 January, in Dunedin, Sophie Elliott was stabbed 216 times by ex-boyfriend Clayton Weatherston, who received a minimum 18-years' non-parole prison sentence. The case attracted great media attention and due to public outrage at Weatherston’s claims of provocation this partial defence was abolished in New Zealand later in 2009. Read more (Stuff).

2009 House of Horror

On 3 September, following a confession by murderer-rapist Jason Somerville, the bodies of Tisha Lowry and Jason’s wife, Rebecca, were found under the Somervilles' Christchurch house – subsequently referred to as 'The House of Horror'. After surviving several arson attempts it was later demolished. Read more (Te Ara).