The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best premium stories of 2020. Today we look at three historic crimes that continue to grip the nation.

Broken Angel cold case

Nancye O'Reilly kissed her daughters Alicia and Juliet goodnight. A storm was rolling into Auckland and the girls had fallen asleep in the bedroom they shared, dozing just metres apart. It was the last time the 27-year-old solo mother saw Alicia alive. The next morning, the six-year-old was found dead in her bed. She had been raped and murdered. That was Saturday 16 August 1980.

It was a sickening crime which shocked the country, with even detectives struggling to get their heads around what happened; a little girl killed in the one place she should be safe. A massive police investigation was launched to find the man responsible, but despite hundreds of suspects being nominated, no one was ever arrested. As months turned into years, Nancye O'Reilly's hopes of ever getting justice for her daughter faded, although her grief did not.

But 40 years later, a detective who once combed the lawn of the O'Reilly home for clues in 1980 still believes the case can be solved. The persistence of Detective Inspector Stu Allsopp-Smith has led to Auckland police reviewing the cold case file, which has already led to new avenues to investigate. "This is unfinished business," Allsopp-Smith said. "This case is one that has never ever gone away. It's certainly stayed with me throughout my whole career."

Investigative reporter Jared Savage looks at the 40 year old cold case.

Nancye O'Reilly, holding a painting of her daughter Alicia, has unanswered questions about the 1980 murder. Photo / Alan Gibson

Hell in paradise: Aramoana's legacy

Thirty years after David Gray gunned down 13 people at the small seaside settlement of Aramoana, survivors and victims' families remember those lost.

After an altercation with his neighbour Gray, 33, armed himself with a high-powered semi automatic rifle and opened fire.

He murdered 13 men, women and children and wounded two others - little girls who were both shot in the stomach but survived.

One of the victims was a local police sergeant who was one of the first officers at the scene and tried to stop the killer.

To mark the anniversary senior journalist Anna Leask looks into Gray's murderous rampage, speaking to survivors, witnesses and others who were there on the day and in the aftermath of the terrifying siege.

Police detectives leave the house which the gunman David Gray lived in. Photo / Tim Mackrell

A shadow in the night: The hunt for serial rapist Joseph Thompson

Twenty-five years ago Joseph Thompson was jailed for 30 years for the rapes and sexual violation of nearly 50 women and young girls. His real number of victims is believed to be closer to 70 and the harm they and their families suffered was immeasurable.

During his reign of terror, residents lived in fear - parents wouldn't let their children walk to school, extra locks were added to doors and windows, some took to keeping baseball bats at arms reach and vigilante groups were formed.

When Thompson was sentenced he was given a minimum non-parole period of 25-years and told by Justice Fisher it would be a very long time before he got out, if he did at all.

"You may either die in prison or be so old and weak when released that you can harm no one."

That minimum non-parole period was up this year.

As the Parole Board declined his release, senior journalist Elizabeth Binning revisits the hunt for the 'South Auckland Rapist' - a shadow in the night who managed to elude police for 12 long years before a DNA sample led to his arrest.

Joseph Thompson pleaded guilty to 129 charges from 1983 to December 1994. Photo / Martin Sykes