Voices for the Victims
From the NZ Herald newsroom comes A Moment in Crime - a podcast delving into some of New Zealand’s biggest cases.
Anna Leask has been a crime and justice reporter at the Herald for more than a decade.
Each month she'll take you inside some of our most infamous incidents, notorious offenders and behind the scenes of high profile trials and events to show you what’s really happening in your backyard.
76 most recent episodes
Visit website →This episode includes graphic descriptions of violent acts, which some listeners may find distressing or triggering. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or distress, support is availab
This is the second part of a two-part A Moment In Crime special.
Christchurch woman Nicola Flint told friends she was dying, even showing them the spot where her ashes would be scattered.
They grieved and gave thousands to help her fight cancer.
This is part one of a two-part A Moment In Crime special.
Christchurch woman Nicola Flint told friends she was dying, even showing them the spot where her ashes would be scattered.
They grieved and gave thousands to help her fight cancer.
But pol
In 2016, 77-year-old pensioner Brian Hilton was found on the floor of his Ōpōtiki home — brutally beaten, barely conscious, and covered in blood. He died five days later. Police launched a major homicide investigation, first zeroing in on one local m
(Contains strong language and references to violence and sexual assault.)
In 1991, Bronwyn Warwick crossed a line that would define her forever. The transgender former sex worker murdered a Ponsonby pensioner during a botched antiques robbery. But
(Contains strong language and references to violence and sexual assault.)
Before she was a convicted killer, Bronwyn Warwick was a child who never stood a chance. Growing up in a family that didn't understand or accept her and facing violence, addic
In May 1992 Brian Schlaepfer shot or stabbed six members of his family to death at their South Auckland farm.
The 64-year-old murdered his wife, three sons, daughter in law and grandson.
His nine-year-old granddaughter, Linda, was the sole survivo
In December 2001, William Bell stormed into the Mt Wellington-Panmure Returned Services Association premises and brutally attacked four innocent people.
Club president Bill Absolum, club member Wayne Johnson and cleaner Mary Hobson died.
Susan Couc
On June 13, Chinese national Tingjun Cao was jailed for life for the murder of Christchurch real estate agent and mother Yanfei Bao.
Bao, 44, was stabbed to death in July 2023 and buried in a shallow grave on a farm outside Christchurch.
She was no
Warning: this episode refers to child sex abuse and is intended for a mature audience only.
The Christchurch Civic Creche child sex abuse scandal rocked the South Island city in the early 90s - and went on to become one of the most significant lega
Youth crime is a constant issue in New Zealand – and in the last few years, stories of ram raids, violent attacks and spree offending have dominated the headlines.
Successive governments have tried to tackle the problem – introducing various policie
In 2015 a 43-year-old man was jailed for more than 15 years for the premeditated, prolonged and persistent sexual abuse of his two young daughters - filming much of the abuse of the youngest and uploading it to vile websites.
He was also convicted o
Anthony John Wheble is not as well-known as many of the criminals previously covered by A Moment in Crime - but he is considered of New Zealand’s most violent criminals.
He has been in prison for more than a decade and he is serving as sentence with
From the start of 2021 to November 2023 a total of 333 police staff - constabulary and non-sworn - were investigated for alleged criminal offending.
The constabulary includes all of those from recruits right up to senior inspectors and top cops. Non
In the 19 years I have been a crime and justice reporter I have told countless stories about offending in New Zealand - who is behind it, who is hurt by it and the lasting impact.
I’ve covered a lot of the really high-profile cases during that time
In August 2014 Connor Morris was fatally injured during a street fight in West Auckland. He was struck in the head with a sickle-like tool and died instantly.
Morris, 27, was a patched gang member, the son of a senior leader and was in a relationshi
It is not a rare occurrence for teachers to be investigated or charged with sexual offending against the children and young people they are supposed to be educating, guiding and nurturing.
But some cases are significantly worse than other and in
This is the second in a two-part episode.
In 2023 South African doctor Lauren Anne Dickason was found guilty of murdering her daughters Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home.
She and her husband Graham - an ortopaedic
In 2023 South African doctor Lauren Anne Dickason was found guilty of murdering her daughters Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home.
She and her husband Graham - an ortopaedic surgeon - had emigrated to New Zealand just
Cynric Temple-Camp is one of New Zealand's top pathologists - and he has just published his third book about his work.
The Final Diagnosis is a collection of stranger-than-fiction stories of death, disease and murder - as well as Temple-Camp sharing
To mark the 30 year anniversary of the mass killing A Moment In Crime presents The House of Bain, a two-part telling of the case.
On June 20 1994 Margaret and Robin Bain, their teenage daughters Arawa and Laniet and son Stephen were all shot dead i
On June 20 1994 five members of the Bain family were found shot dead in their home at 65 Every Street, Dunedin.
Margaret and Robin Bain, their teenage daughter Arawa and Laniet and their son Stephen were all shot at close range.
Just after 7am Dav
In 1954 Christchurch woman Honorah Parker was murdered while on a walk in the Port Hills.
The culprits? Her daughter Pauline, 15 and best friend Juliet Hulme, 16.
With “animal ferocity” they hit her over and over again with a brick inside a stock
In 2011 Dean Richard Mulligan was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Marice McGregor.
Marice was reported missing by her family in April 2010 and it emerged she had not been seen or heard from in the 10 days before they ap
George Gwaze was tried and acquitted in 2008 and 2012 after the death of his adopted daughter 10-year-old Charlene Makaza.
Charlene was rushed to hospital in a terrible state in January 2007 and died after her little body effectively shut down due t
Jane Furlong was 17 when she went missing from Auckland's Karangahape Rd in May 1993.
Her partner Dani Norsworthy reported her missing two days after she was last seen.
She was a new mum and a part time sex worker and while she'd had a troubled and
In this episode of A Moment In Crime - the last for 2023 - senior journalist Anna Leask looks back at some of the country’s most brazen prison escapes, and speaks to one of the most high-profile escapees in history.
Arthur Taylor spent almost a mont
In 2000 Ronald Van Der Plaat became one of the country’s most infamous sex offenders when he was jailed for a litany of horrific abuse against his daughter spanning 23 years.
He started raping, sexually violating and indecently assaulting his daught
This episode of A Moment In Crime is a follow-up from the very first episode I produced about the Christchurch terror attack.
As the Coronial inquest into the mass murder begins, it's important to remember what happened and who was responsible. It'
A Moment In Crime - The Patron - looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace.
Behind his money, philanthropy and resplendence, Wallace was a serial sex offender who lured men to his mansion on the
A Moment In Crime - The Patron - looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace.
Behind his money, philanthropy and resplendence, Wallace was a serial sex offender who lured men to his mansion on the
A Moment In Crime is presenting a three part episode - The Patron - which looks back at the life and crimes of disgraced knight and serial sex attacker James Hay Wallace.
Until his spectacular fall from grace, the Auckland rich lister was considered
In September 2021, Lauren Dickason killed her three daughters, six year old Liane, and two year old twins Maya and Karla, shortly after the family moved to Timaru from South Africa.
For the last five weeks, Anna has been covering the trial, which th
In 2011 an incomplete skeleton was found at a derelict property in Auckland by a demolition crew tasked with dismantling the buildings on site.
It took police months to work out who the remains belonged to - and then they had to work out who had ki
On May 5 2007 Lipine Sila murdered Hannah Rossiter and Jane Young and caused grievous bodily harm to eight other teens when he drove his car through a crowd outside a party in the Christchurch suburb of Edgeware.
The collision took place after Sila
In January 2008 Scottish woman Karen Aim was beaten to death while she was visiting Taupō on a trip around New Zealand.
The 26-year-old was murdered in the street by a local teenager who had been vandalising a nearby school with a baseball bat.
He
March 30 marks the 20th anniversary of Waikato mother-of-three Sara Niethe's disappearance.
Her body has never been found despite her boyfriend Mark Pakenham admitting he killed her.
Pakenham was charged with her murder in 2011 but before his case
Warning: this episode contains graphic descriptions of murder and the disposal of a body and is suitable for a mature audience only.
In 2010 Auckland woman Carmen Thomas was reported missing by her ex-partner Brad Callaghan. He told police she had
Police figures show between mid-2012 and 2022, about 280 people were convicted of murder in Aotearoa.
Of those, 9.5 per cent of offenders - 26 in total - were women.A further 47 women were convicted of manslaughter, 27 per cent of the 271 total offe
For nearly eight years Auckland woman Pakeeza Yusuf and her 3-yeard-old daughter, Juwairiyah “Jojo” Kalim, lay covered by stone and mud on Auckland’s North Shore.
They were murdered as they slept in late 2006 but for many years nobody knew about the
In September 2008 New Zealanders were shocked by the killing of a man who stepped in to help a woman in danger in central Auckland.
Austin Hemmings, 44, was fatally stabbed when he intervened in a confrontation as he left work.
The good Samaritan
Christchurch caregiver Valerie May Heaney, 64, was found dead in the hallway of her Bromley home on April 4 2022.
Initially, police said her death was unexplained but after a post-mortem examination, it became clear something violent and horrific h
When Phillip John Smith left a Waikato prison on approved temporary leave in 2014 no one suspected that within days he would be leading authorities on an international man hunt.
Smith, also known as Phillip John Traynor, was meant to spend his time
The 1998 murder of the Ashburton schoolgirl remains one of New Zealand's most high-profile cold cases.
Kirsty disappeared on December 31, 1998, while walking the family dog Abby on the banks of the Ashburton River.
The day after Kirsty went missing
In 2013 Auckland couple Glenys Stanton and Trevor Waite were gunned down in bed together at his home in Opaheke south of the city.
Their killer was John Mowatt, an ex of Stanton who spiralled out of control when she ended their relationship.
Mowat
In October 1985 Arthur Easton was murdered in his Papakura family home.
Easton and his two teenage sons were attacked by a bayonet-wielding home invader.
The 52-year-old postal worker was stabbed in his liver during the frenzied attack and died of
This episode contains strong language.
In 2001 Bruce Thomas Howse murdered his stepdaughters Olympia Jetson and Saliel Aplin as they lay in their beds at their Masterton home.
The girls - aged just 11 and 12 - had suffered years of physical and sex
In January 2020 Rena Joyce walked into a Christchurch police station and made a startling confession.
She told officers she had killed her partner Martin Berry and that his body was buried in the compost heap at his home.
Following a trial in Mar
In 2007 Christchurch woman Emma Louise Agnew was found dead - murdered by a man she met while trying to sell her car.
The 20-year-old was reported missing on November 15 and her body was found 12 days later, hidden beneath vegetation and pine needle
In 1992 Susan Burdett was found dead in her South Auckland home.
The 39-year-old had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death with a baseball bat she kept by her bed for protection.
Susan's story was awful and tragic but would become much more
In September 2003 Helen Meads was gunned down at her Matamata home by her husband Greg.
She was shot at close range, her body found soon after by police in the stables at the property she shared with her racehorse breeder husband Greg Meads.
Mead
On February 8 1997 Stephen Lawrence Anderson gunned down six people and wounded five others during a rampage at a ski lodge just out of Raurimu in the central North Island. The tragedy remains one of the worst mass shootings in New Zealand history. I
On a Monday morning in June 2004 Jim Donnelly got up and went to work at a steel mill south of Auckland. But he never came home. The metals scientist has been missing every since and his wife has never given up hope that one day the mystery will be..
Peter Holdem was a prolific sex offender and told police when he was arrested in the early 80s that the next little girl he targeted would die. In 1986 he grabbed Louisa Damodran as she walked home from school and his horrific promise came true.
For
The death of Christie Marceau in November 2011 shook New Zealand. The 18-year-old was fatally stabbed in her own home and died in her mother's arms. The man responsible for the attack was on bail for previously kidnapping and assaulting Christie and.
Herald journalist Anna Leask looks back at the case of Colin Mitchell - the man behind an attack on a Auckland woman in 2017. What started as an apparent random attack soon unravelled as four decades of offending by a serial rapist who was finally...
Who killed Chris and Cru Kahui? The twin brothers were only 84 days old when they died, within hours of each other, after being violently assaulted. Their deaths remain one of New Zealand's worst child abuse cases.
Are you worried about the safety..
In 1998 Auckland woman Claire Hills didn't make it to work. The 30-year-old was murdered, burned alive in her own car. Her killer left clues - DNA even - but after 23 years police are still no closer to finding him.
If you can help police phone...
In this episode of Herald true-crime podcast A Moment In Crime we look into the beginnings of Gloriavale and the ongoing list of men brought to justice for sex crimes against children within the confines of the religious community.
And podcast host.
Ben Smart and Olivia Hope went missing over New Year 1997. Their bodies were never found but a man was convicted of their murders and jailed for life. In today's episode of A Moment In Crime we revisit the enduring mystery,
In this month's episode of A Moment In Crime, senior journalist Anna Leask looks back a the murder of Grace Millane, a young backpacker from the UK who died in Auckland, New Zealand in 2019.
In 1992 toddler Amber-Lee Cruickshank disappeared from a small South Island town.
Despite exhaustive searches spanning almost 30 years, there has never been any sign of the 2-and-a-half-year-old.
The Herald re-investigated the case in 2017 and...
After a high profile trial in November this year, Christchurch engineer Joseph McGirr was acquitted by a jury of giving ecstasy to a US polo player before she died in his spa bath.
But he was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of...
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A 9.51am on September 1 2014 a balaclava-clad man stormed into the Work and Income New Zealand office in Ashburton and opened fire.
In just 61 seconds he gunned down and killed two women and almost murdered two more.
Then he calmly walked back out.
In episode 11 of NZME podcast A Moment In Crime we look back at the front line deaths and revisit some of the stories that have shocked and saddened New Zealand. The episode comes two days before the annual police Remembrance Day - a date marked...
The murders of Christine Lundy and her young daughter Amber in their own home in 2000 is still a case that New Zealanders find shocking.
And it's a case everyone has an opinion on - even more so after two decades of hearing the facts in various...
In August 1980 six-year-old Alicia O'Reilly was raped and killed in her bed by an intruder. Her sister was sleeping less than a metre away. Forty years on, the offender has never been found and her family are still desperate for answers.
In the early hours of June 8 2010, Feilding farmer Scott Guy was gunned down in the driveway of his rural home as he headed out to work. A decade on, despite an arrest and a high profile trial, there has been no one held accountable for the slaying,.
On June 17 1970 Harvey and Jeanette Crewe were gunned down in the living room of their Pukekawa farmhouse. Fifty years have passed since the brutal crime - which remains unsolved despite one man being convicted twice of murder. In episode seven of...
Kidnapped: The bizarre abduction of Baby Kahu
In 2002 a baby girl was snatched from her pram as her mother pushed her through a quiet Wellington suburb. For days the nation - and the world - watched on as the hunt for Baby Kahu intensified. How did.
In 2009 Auckland man Blazej Kot murdered his new bride in New York State. We look back at the case - including the computer science student's bizarre trial and where he is now.
In 2008 Tisha Lowry went missing in Christchurch without a trace. In 2009 her neighbour reported his own wife missing. When he went into a local police station days later, no one could have imagined what he would admit to, and why. We look back at...
Kayo Matsuzawa’s body was found stashed in a small cupboard in a building in Auckland’s CDB in 1998.
She was naked, she had been there for at least 10 days.
And 21 years on - even in spite of a hefty $75,000 reward offered in 2007 - her killer has.
In 2009 a toddler vanished in West Auckland.
For more than a week police, search specialists and volunteers combed the city for any sign of the little girl.
But she was nowhere to be found.
As investigators started to fear foul play, a shocking an
It was New Zealand's darkest day, and one we will never forget.
Our newsroom got the first call from a witness just minutes after the shooting started.
For the first time we are sharing audio from that interview - and others - as we take you back..