Crimes NZ

It was the biggest white collar crime New Zealand had ever seen, totalling $1.5 billion dollars, and at the centre of it all was South Canterbury Finance.

South Canterbury Finance went into voluntary receivership in 2010, claiming a $1.5 billion dollar government bailout.

Four years later, the company director was dead and three other board members were charged with the largest fraud New Zealand had ever seen.

NZ Herald reporter Matt Nippert tells Jesse Mulligan how his investigation triggered the prosecution.

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Philip Nisbet was found dead in his Christchurch home on May 4, 2009.

In 2013, Helen Milner was found guilty of drugging her husband in order to get the life insurance payout.

Four years earlier, she had convinced police her husband killed himself.

But Lee-Anne Cartier, the victim's sister, felt something was off and began her own investigation.

NZ Herald reporter Kurt Bayer followed the case through the courts - it was dubbed The Black Widow case.

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The disappearance of Jane Furlong is a mystery that has gripped the nation for nearly thirty years.

In 1993, 17-year-old Jane Furlong disappeared from Auckland's Karangahape Road.

Nineteen years later her remains were found on a beach at Port Waikato. Her killer has never been brought to justice.

Stuff journalist Kelly Dennett wrote The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Jane Furlong, a book which won a Ngiao Marsh award for Best Non-Fiction and outlines everything we know about the case.

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In 2002, Mark Lundy was found guilty of killing his wife Christine and 7-year old daughter Amber, but investigative journalist Mike White has some questions about the prosecution's case.

Christine Lundy and her seven-year old daughter Amber were brutally killed in their own home in August, 2000.

Two years later, Mark Lundy, Christine's husband and Amber's father, was convicted of their murders.

Mark Lundy was in Wellington on a business trip, but became concerned when he could not get hold of his wife. He asked his brother-in-law to check on his family.

When Mr Weggery stepped into the Lundys' home he found a horrific scene. His niece lay dead in the doorway of her parents' bedroom. Christine Lundy's body lay on her bed in a room spattered with blood.

Both had been brutally bludgeoned to death

It would be five months before the police made an arrest. The public were stunned when they learned it was the deceased's husband and father, Mark Lundy, who was charged.

The motive suggested for the killings was the family's dire financial situation.

Mike White began investigating Mark Lundy's case in 2007 because the evidence did not seem to add up. Thirteen years later, twenty years after the deaths of Christine and Amber, he published an article in North and South titled: Anatomy of a Scandal, 20 years of lies, cover ups, incompetence and shonky science.

Mark Lundy is still battling to clear his name.

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Coral-Ellen Burrows was reported missing on September 9th, 2003. She was six years old. Former detective John Gualter worked on the case, known as Operation Reef.

On September 9 2003, six-year-old Featherston girl Coral Ellen Burrows was reported missing. Police were alerted when her mother went to pick her up from school, and found out that she hadn't attended class that day.

Ten days later, Coral's stepfather Stephen Williams was arrested and charged with her murder.

Former detective sergeant John Gualter worked the case known as Operation Reef.

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The details of the 1977 murder of Betty Benning were so bizarre, movie producer Philly De Lacey turned it into a black comedy.

In 1977 on a quiet Karori street, Alf Benning brutally murdered his wife Betty.

Her body parts were discovered buried beneath a freshly planted apple tree in the backyard. Alf had copies of books borrowed from the local library about getting away with murder.

The killing is the subject of the black comedy film How to Murder Your Wife which was released in 2015 and produced by Philly de Lacey, chief executive of Screentime.

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The 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior is described as the first act of terrorism against New Zealand. An assault which claimed the life of Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira.

On 10 July 1985 the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, was sunk at an Auckland wharf.

Two French agents planted two explosives on the ship while it was berthed at Marsden wharf, the second explosion killed Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira.

Author and academic, David Robie, spent weeks on the ship shortly before it was attacked, and wrote about his experience in Eyes of Fire.

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In 2002, an armed stranger snatched Baby Kahu from her stroller and held her for ransom for nine long days.

Wellington lawyer Donna Hall was walking her dog with two nieces and eight-month-old baby Kahu, when a stranger brandishing a gun grabbed the baby and drove off.

The next day the family was sent a ransom note demanding $3 million dollars.

For nine terrifying days the family had no idea where Baby Kahu was or if she was safe.

NZ Herald senior crime and justice reporter, Anna Leask, who also hosts a podcast series A Moment In Crime, recalls the case.

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Six-year old Teresa Cormack went missing in 1987. Her body was found 10 days later. For 15 years her murder remained unsolved, until investigators got the breakthrough of the century.

In 1987, on the 19th of June, the body of Teresa Cormack was found half buried under a tree on Whirinaki Beach, in Hawke's Bay.

It took 15 years for find her killer.

She left for school, but never arrived in class.

Former detective Keith Price worked the case in those early days and interviewed Jules Mikus after DNA technology pointed to him being the killer.

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On a Sunday afternoon in Christchurch in 1996, scrap metal dealer John Reynolds failed to return home for lunch. Later that evening, his brother found the 55-year-old lying in a pool of blood at the scrap yard.

Fifty-five year old John Reynolds was discovered lying in a pool of blood at this scrap metal yard in 1996.

He had been hit repeatedly around the head with a blunt instrument.

More than two decades on, Mr Reynolds' killer has never been found but the case is still very much alive.

Blair Ensor and Martin Van Beynen investigated the murder for the three-part Stuff podcast, Heavy Metal.

They were told there were no signs of a struggle, suggesting Reynolds was hit from behind and incapacitated and if robbery was the motive, the killer missed $2200 in the top pocket of his work shirt.

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