"They're all dead." That's what 22-year-old David Bain told the 111 operator on June 20, 1994. What he'd just found at his family's Dunedin home would become New Zealand's most infamous murder mystery—one that still divides the nation 30 years later.
Inside 65 Every Street lay five bodies: Robin Bain (58), Margaret Bain (50), and their children Arawa (19), Laniet (18), and Stephen (14). All shot with a .22 caliber rifle. The only survivor was David, who had been out delivering newspapers[citation:2][citation:5]. What happened next is a legal saga like no other.
Initially, police believed Robin—the school principal patriarch—had committed murder-suicide. He had been living in a caravan in the garden, and Laniet had allegedly told a friend about a long-term incestuous relationship with her father[citation:5][citation:6]. Then a suicide note was found on the family computer: "Sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay"[citation:2].
But forensic evidence shifted suspicion. David's bloody fingerprints appeared on the rifle. His palm print was smudged on the washing machine. A lens from his glasses was found under Stephen's bed—where experts said a vicious struggle had occurred[citation:2][citation:3]. Four days after the massacre, David was charged with five counts of murder.
The case became a cultural obsession. Former All Black Joe Karam championed David's cause, visiting him over 200 times in prison[citation:6]. The 1995 trial ended in conviction: life in prison, minimum 16 years.
But David fought. In 2007, the Privy Council quashed his convictions, ruling a "substantial miscarriage of justice" had occurred[citation:5][citation:7]. A 2009 retrial lasted three months. The jury deliberated less than six hours. Verdict: not guilty on all counts[citation:5].
The family home was burned to the ground at relatives' request[citation:7]. David changed his name to William Davies, married, had children—one named Arawa, after his murdered sister[citation:2][citation:5]. He received an ex gratia payment of $925,000 but was denied full compensation because he couldn't prove "innocence on the balance of probabilities"[citation:2][citation:7].
Thirty years later, New Zealand remains split. Robin or David? Father or son? Two suspects. Five victims. Zero witnesses. And a secret that died in a ramshackle house on Every Street.
Listener discretion advised. Press play for the case that haunts a nation.


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