Loved ones of the slain 18-year-old – who died after upsetting Mongrel Mob members by wearing one of the gang’s T-shirts in public - have vowed to make “a whole lot of noise” in her honour with a memorial motorbike ride starting from the crime scene.
Jimmy Heremaia pleaded guilty to murder and arson for the September 2022 slaying of 18-year-old Ariki; whose body was later found in a burned-out car at a recreational reserve on the outskirts of Havelock North.
Ariki Rigby was killed at Bay View, north of Napier, before her body was later torched in a car set alight in a carpark near Havelock North. Photo / Supplied
Some of those relatives will be in the public gallery at the court today, and gathered in the courtyard outside, for Heremaia’s sentencing.
Their memorial ride for Rigby is set to begin at on the outskirts of Bay View, where Ariki died after a late-night argument with Heremaia.
They will then travel south to the River Road Recreational Reserve – the site where Heremaia later poured petrol through the car and set it alight – before ending their ride at the Napier High Court.
Ariki Rigby was murdered after being struck twice in the head with a hammer along a grass verge on the way into Bay View, on the outskirts of Napier. Photo / Neil Reid
Rigby’s cousin and Flaxmere-based pastor Michael Ngahuka says family and friends will “ride in her honour” and “make a whole lot of noise”.
Ngahuka has previously described Ariki’s death to the Herald as a “heinous crime”.
On the six-month anniversary of Rigby’s death, Ngahuka talked about the killer, who was still at large, saying “It has to weigh on the soul, it has to weigh on your heart”.
But court documents show the Crown believes Heremaia – who fled Hawke’s Bay for South Auckland shortly after murdering Ariki - didn’t tell anyone of his offending until he unwittingly told an undercover police officer two years and 11 days after killing the teen.
Heremaia’s confession was made to a man introduced to him by a work associate who was also an undercover police officer.
Police forensics on September 6, 2022, at the scene where Ariki Rigby's body was found in a torched car on the outskirts of Havelock North. Photo / Neil Reid
The murder case’s summary of facts provides extensive and graphic details of the events of the night of September 2 – when Ariki was brutally killed – and then the hours afterwards as Heremaia tried to figure out what to do with her body and the car he had killed her in.
That includes the conversation he had with one of the undercover officers, telling him that during an argument he had overpowered Ariki, who had a hammer she was carrying for self-defence - and he hit her with it.
“Blocked it, pretty much grabbed it off her and ... dong,” he said in a conversation that was secretly recorded.
“I ... picked the girl up, she attacked me, so, yeah ... I bashed her, threw her in the back ... torched the car.”
If the murder case had gone to trial, police would have argued the catalyst for the argument and Rigby’s death would have been her wearing a Mongrel Mob T-shirt belonging to Heremaia, in public.
Anaherā Rigby during an emotional visit to the site where the badly beaten and burned body of her sister Ariki Rigby was found in a car park in rural Hawke's Bay back in September 2022. Photo / Neil Reid
What she did is deemed to be a breach of the gang’s “code”, the Napier High Court was told when Heremaia pleaded guilty.
Ariki befriended him in Flaxmere shortly after she arrived in Hawke’s Bay on holiday, and just weeks before her death.
Another gang member saw her wearing the shirt, sparking a series of events that saw Heremaia being ordered to regain the item of clothing, Ariki becoming involved in altercations in public, Heremaia having his patch confiscated by his gang boss and then the late-night argument that turned fatal.
“My baby sister didn’t deserve to die like that. Even if she wasn’t my sister, nobody deserves to die like that ... beaten up, shoved in the back of a car and then torched and then left there.”
Anaherā joined the Unite As One, Unite For All group, which has campaigned for changes to the justice system, including joining the group when they marched to Parliament in 2023.
She is among members of the group who have called for mandatory life sentences with no chance of parole for murderers.
“If you take a life, you shouldn’t be able to just spend a quarter of your life in there and then get out and live the rest of your life as if you didn’t murder someone. Life should be life.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience. He has reported on the Ariki Rigby homicide since the day her body was found.
