Rochelle Crewe now a mother

Rochelle. Photo / Supplied

She's the country's best-known orphan - and is now a mother. Rochelle Crewe has a new name yet despite intense public interest in her life has maintained her privacy for the sake of her daughter.

Rochelle, now 41, was 18 months old when her grandfather Len Demler found her on June 22, 1970, crying in her cot. Her parents Harvey and Jeannette Crewe were nowhere to be seen. Mystery still surrounds who cared for her in the blood-spattered Pukekawa farmhouse after her parents were killed.

This month Rochelle broke her silence to call for the case to be re-opened - but took back her parents' surname Crewe to mask her new identity.

The Herald on Sunday can reveal that Rochelle was brought up by one of her mother's siblings and attended exclusive Auckland girls' school St Cuthbert's College.

Rochelle lived for some time in America but is now believed to be based in the South Island.

Interest in the case was renewed with publication of The Inside Story, a book by Ian Wishart which proposed a new theory.

Wishart said yesterday that two sources now claimed an earlier attempt was made on Jeannette Crewe's life. He said in early 1969 the brake lines on Jeannette Crewe's car were cut "clean through".

One source was a woman who became close friends with Jeannette Crewe in the maternity ward at the time of Rochelle's birth. "She was driving out of the drive and the car wouldn't stop. She was definitely quite shaken," the woman told Wishart.