Cold case murders

Kathleen Kawana’s body was found in an empty house near Ruatoria on August 3, 2019.

WARNING: This story details the murders of victims in unsolved cases and may be upsetting.

Each year in New Zealand about 72 people are murdered. In 2019 that number ballooned to 131 because of the terror attacks in Christchurch where 51 people lost their lives. While that killer, and most, are brought to justice, some homicide cases remain unresolved. Natalie Akoorie, Open Justice deputy editor,  talks to Detective Superintendent Chris Page about “cold cases” and how police investigators keep chipping away to find justice for the families of the victims.

Chris Page still remembers his first homicide case.

It was Christmas Day 1987, and Page, then a newly minted detective in the Hamilton Police Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), was called out by Gisborne police to help investigate a double murder at Ruatōria.

It would be a baptism by fire for the young detective but the rigorous practices of his colleagues that day and throughout the case taught Page investigation techniques that he still applies today.

“These are the places in which detectives learn their skillset and apply them when there’s no practice runs.

“It was a meticulous process in the search for the truth and was a very good start to learning about investigating and setting off to find the truth.”

Now a detective superintendent, and director of the National Criminal Investigations Group at Police National Headquarters in Wellington, Page is light on details about the deaths out of respect for the family but said every investigator remembers their first murder case.

The Ruatōria case was solved, but in the past 20 years alone New Zealand has had 31 homicides where police have not managed to bring a successful prosecution. Homicides include murder, manslaughter and infanticide.

Of these “cold cases” released to the New Zealand Herald under the Official Information Act, 18 are males and 12 are females. The details of one case either this year or last were redacted.

The victims ranged in age from three months to 68 years. Three of them were babies when they died and 14 were aged over 40.

Although police have not yet been able to bring the killers of these 31 victims to justice, their names and faces are not forgotten and their case files remain open.

Murder most foul when

it can’t be resolved

Page, who has been an investigator for more than 35 years, including a four-year stint in London that he recently returned from, said not being able to solve a murder was a difficult part of the job.

“I think I might be able to represent most of our investigators across the country who have been involved in these sorts of cases where there is no closure, no resolution for family.

“All of the investigators who are involved in this work carry that sort of concern, worry and feeling about trying to bring closure to the family. So, many of those involved in those cases . . . feel a really strong sense of duty to try to resolve the case, to hold someone to account.

“The search first and foremost is for the truth and then we deal with what drops out of it.”

Cold cases, as with missing persons cases, remained open and active and one investigator “owned” the file, Page said.

That detective regularly conducted reviews of the case and looked at new technology or capabilities to test against the evidence held, though new technology is not without controversy.

This included regular rechecks of forensic evidence such as old DNA samples that might produce a different result with newer scientific technology.

Police also relied on new information from the public to generate leads and these might be forthcoming for different reasons including changing allegiances over the years, overheard conversations and confessions, rewards, relationship breakdowns, and criminal ties being cut.

There might also be fresh leads in a cold case when related material or evidence, in some cases a body, is found.

And now, police have recently appointed two investigators: One to oversee all cold cases and another to have similar oversight of all missing persons cases.

Those positions are responsible for overseeing the review of cold and missing persons cases, and ensuring that, where suitable, cases feature on television or in the media.

Unsolved murders

never closed

Where there were unsuccessful prosecutions, Page said, police kept an open mind.

In 2004 two exceptions to the double jeopardy rule, a long-standing legal provision that prevents a person acquitted, convicted or pardoned for any offence from being tried again for the same offence, were created to cover anyone wrongly acquitted.

One exception covered “tainted acquittals” and the other cases where strong guilt was established after the person was acquitted.

This involved circumstances where there was “fresh and compelling evidence” that was not previously available.

“Most investigators will keep an eye on that in the event that something new comes through.”

Page admitted sometimes police got it wrong but the process was about trying to do their best.

Unlike in other countries, New Zealand did not have a specialist homicide squad and Page said this worked well because it meant any detective could attend a homicide and produce results of the same high standard expected of veteran investigators.

“So we can send them anywhere with confidence and expect them to be able to do the work . . .”

Murder was a reflection of society’s behaviour towards itself, Page said.

“Some of these cases will be unsolved because the offender was very cunning or some will be unsolved because there was no evidence we could find and the offender wasn’t cunning.”

Reviews and rechecks of cold cases, including ones carried out by police officers independent of the investigation team, would for some families never happen often enough, Page said.

“But in some of these cases you run out of leads and (you are) waiting or hoping something will come through . . .”

It might be two years before a lead is generated and the file becomes active again.

“Over time, while we might not actively work on some of them, we don’t lose sight of them.”

So unsolved murder cases “are never really closed”.

Cold case murder victims

Following are the two unresolved homicides in Tairāwhiti that were covered in this report.

Kathleen Lorna Kawana

August 3, 2019, Ruatoria

Kathleen Kawana’s body was found in an empty house near Ruatōria on August 3, 2019, but it’s unclear how long she had been dead.

The 46-year-old was last seen on June 20 with an associate in Porirua but it’s believed she returned to her hometown of Hastings the next day.

Kawana, a mother of eight, was found in the lounge by the new owners of the house when they went to inspect the property.

Police originally called for Flaxmere’s Ri Nikora, 42, to come forward so they could speak to him about the death.

Chephar Hollis-Brown

July 3, 2022, Gisborne

Chephar Hollis-Brown, a mother of one, was killed at a Te Hapara property in Gisborne in the early hours of July 3, 2022.

Police were called to the house at 3.45am to reports of a woman being shot but the 25-year-old was dead when they arrived, hit by one of two shots fired from outside the house before a man fled in a vehicle.

Hollis-Brown was shot as she answered an early morning knock at the door of a Centennial Crescent house. Police described it as a “senseless shooting”.

Any information related to these cases can be given to police by calling 105, or anonymously at Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

Murder statistics

at a glance

Between 2007 and 2020, 1005 people were killed by homicide (murder and manslaughter);

Māori accounted for about one-third of homicide victims;

Males represented 65 percent of all victims;

The lowest annual homicide figure of 46 was in 2017;

Around seven out of 10 homicides were murders;

Of all family-linked homicide victims, 44 percent were male and 56 percent were female;

Around 16 percent of homicides were committed by a current or former partner – 74 percent of these victims were female.

Children under the age of 5 made up 10 percent of homicide victims.

Source: Homicide Victims Report 2021 and Historic NZ Murder Rate Report 1926-2021, published in June 2023.