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 justice by burying her clothing after her death.
The case was bizarre, captivating and tragic - and then after all of the details emerged in the courtroom, a jury spent days deliberating before coming to their decision late on a Friday.
In episode 14 of A Moment In Crime, we look back at the mysterious and tragic death of Lauren Biddle and delve into her final hours and the men she was with.
Biddle, 22, died suddenly, most likely of a drug overdose, at McGirr's hillside house in the suburb of Clifton on October 22, 2018.
McGirr, a 39-year-old civil engineer, was later charged with supplying Biddle and her ex-boyfriend the Class-B controlled drug MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, and attempting to pervert the course of justice by hiding Biddle's clothing after her death.
He denied the charges and stood trial in the Christchurch District Court.
A jury eventually found him guilty of perverting the course of justice, but acquitted him on the supply charge.
A Moment In Crime is written, hosted and produced by Anna Leask with help from the NZME sound and vision team.
Leask has been covering crime and justice for the Herald for more than a decade and has reported on most of the major incidents and events over that time.
"Each month I'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," she said.
"Heroes and villains battle for justice to be done, and it seems no matter how horrifying the story, we always want to know more.
"If you want to know more about the cases that have shocked and shaped our nation - from murders and massacres to violent villains and the utterly unbelievable - join me for A Moment In Crime."
In our first episode, we looked back at the Christchurch terror attack - what unfolded on March 15 and how it changed New Zealand.
The podcast has also delved into the cold case murder of Kayo Matsuzawa, the murder of Feilding farmer Scott Guy, the cold case of schoolgirl Alicia O'Reilly, double killer Jason Somerville - infamous for the Christchurch House of Horrors, and the Lundy and Crewe family murders.
In 2017, Leask wrote and hosted Chasing Ghosts - a six-part podcast series on the Amber-Lee Cruickshank case.
The South Island toddler disappeared almost 27 years ago from a small town on the shore of Lake Wakatipu.
To mark the 25th anniversary of Amber-Lee's disappearance, Leask investigated the famous cold case in a bid to generate some answers for the toddler's family.
