Graeme Burton. New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell.
Graeme Burton. New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell.
It has been 10 years since Graeme Burton, a murderer on parole, shot Karl Kuchenbecker and wounded seven others in a drug-fuelled rampage. Today the Herald looks back at the terror and tragedy of the January 2007 events.
In the maximum security compound within New Zealand's toughest prison there's an inmate who spends most of his time alone.
He's locked up for all but about an hour each day and sources say he spends most of his time exercising and watching television.
Other inmates and guards alike fearhim - and they have good reason to.
The inmate is Graeme Burton, arguably one of the country's most dangerous men, who became a household name 10 years ago when he embarked on a terrifying spree of violence and murder.
In January 2007 Burton gunned down father-of-two Karl Kuchenbecker, shot two other men and wounded a handful of others in Wainuiomata and Wellington - the tragic climax to six months of drug-fuelled offending.
Enraged at the refusal, Burton turned on Anderson who worked as the club's lighting technician, stabbing him to death.
He was denied parole twice before the board deemed him safe enough for release and in July 2006 Burton left prison and went back to live in Wellington.
By October, he was no longer adhering to his parole conditions.
After six breaches of the conditions, a warrant for his arrest was issued.
It would later emerge that by then, Burton was already on the police radar.
He was using drugs again - methamphetamine this time - and was assaulting drug dealers and using standover tactics and intimidation to feed his new addiction.
Soon after, police launched an official investigation into Burton's activity and then started an "urgent manhunt" for the killer, who had left his approved parole address, and all hell broke loose.
Double-killer Graeme Burton sits in the dock during his sentencing after being found guilty of attempted murder of a fellow prison inmate, Auckland, New Zealand, Friday, February 19, 2010. Credit:NZPA
Barging, bashing, beating
Just three days into the new year of 2007, Burton's most notorious spree of violence began, starting with the beating of a man in his own apartment in central Wellington.
At the time Detective Senior Sergeant Shane Cotter said Burton was dangerous and should not be approached, and revealed that a search of the criminal's home uncovered a cache of hidden weapons including firearms, a cross-bow, knives and ammunition.
The manhunt was now public and the police were desperate to capture Burton before - and they were sure he would if he could - kill again.
Burton and an associate roamed the house - occupied by Khan Thompson, 17, Wade Wallace, 16, and his pregnant girlfriend Tara Enoka, 18 - looking for cash and drugs.
"I'm going to kill you... I'm going to break every bone in your body," Burton told Thompson.
Tara Enoka, left, 18, Wade Wallis, middle, 16, and right, Khan Thompson, 17.New Zealand Herald photograph by Getty Images
The teenagers had seen Burton in the news and knew exactly who he was and the trouble they were in.
"He had a gun, and he was hitting me in the back of the head with it. They yelled, 'I'm going to kill you if you don't give us stuff... He was out of his mind. I thought, 'Oh f***, it's a murderer," Thompson told the Herald in 2007.
Enoka said she was "petrified" and told Burton she was pregnant in a bid to avoid being hurt or killed.
"I thought, 'Am I going to live?' I was worried about my baby," she said.
Enoka was left alone, but Willis and Thompson were badly beaten.
The invaders finally left the home and the teenagers waited a few minutes, and then ran to a neighbour's house and called police.
Horror in the hills
Burton left Moera, armed with stolen cash and cellphones, and made his way to Wainuiomata.
A criminal associate reckoned at the time that the killer planned to hide out there before heading to Puhoi north of Auckland where his gang mates would keep him hidden.
"He's totally unpredictable," the associate told the Herald.
"He has a short fuse and thinks everyone should be scared witless of him. And they should be. He went through a phase of thinking he was a cross between MacGyver and a commando, that he could live off the land and be dangerous."
Karl Kuchenbecker. Photograph supplied.
On January 6 Burton was hiding out in the hills above Wainuiomata, an area popular with cyclists and quad bikers.
At 3.30pm that day Karl Kuchenbecker left home for a ride on his quad, telling his family he'd be home in about two hours.
As he rode along a firebreak he chanced upon Burton who by now had a loaded shotgun, a loaded revolver, ammunition, a large hunting knife, a folding knife and a baton.
And the fugitive was wearing a Kevlar stab and shrapnel-resistant vest.
Burton shot Kuchenbecker off his quad and as the 26-year-old lay bleeding on the ground, shot him again at close range.
Kuchenbecker tried to get up, to escape, but Burton wasn't done.
He stabbed the younger man repeatedly, penetrating his spine and puncturing his right lung twice.
Kuchenbecker fell back to the ground and died where he lay.
Burton moved on to his next victims.
Mountain bikers and mates Jeremy Simpson and Karl Holmes came along the track shortly after Kuchenbecker had died.
Jeremy Simpson. Herald on Sunday photograph by Michael Craig.
They rode past Burton leaning over the body and when he turned to face them, they recognised him immediately from the police appeal.
"We just locked eyes for a second or so - nothing was said, nothing was gestured. I just knew I was in big trouble," Simpson said.
"It made a pop, not like a shotgun, but like he'd shot him with a slug gun. Then I saw his [Simpson's] arm explode," Holmes told the Herald a year after the shooting.
Holmes heard Burton cock the gun again and then heard another "pop" as he was shot.
Karl Holmes. Herald on Sunday Photograph by Anthony Phelps
"It's Burton, it's Burton. We've got to get out," Holmes remembered Simpson screaming.
Nick Rea and his daughter Kate encountered Burton a few minutes later, saw him trying to start a quad bike and stopped to ask what was happening.
The pair, also on mountain bikes, were told "there has been an accident".
Burton told Nick to start the bike, telling him his life depended on it, that he had a gun and there was already one dead body - the inference being that he wasn't afraid to do it again.
The Reas managed to flee the killer, but not before he bashed Nick and "accidentally" shot Kate when his gun discharged during the fracas.
The shoot out
After attacking the Reas, Burton took off on Kate's bike up along the firebreak.
Police were already on the way and converged on the hills, armed and ready to capture the now double murderer.
Police at the entry to the Wainuiomata summit track where Graeme Burton was caught by police. 6 January 2007 to Herald on Sunday Photograph by Anthony Phelps
It wasn't long until they found Burton in the bush. He lifted his gun but the police got him first, shooting him in the leg and injuring him so severely that the limb had to be amputated.
"When I shot the innocent people I realised I was the bad guy and I had to be shot quickly," Burton later wrote to the Parole Board.
"So I ceased to hide and went out and sought the police out where I knew they'd be at the end of the firebreak.
"I saw the police and thought: 'It's over.' I was happy. I ran at them smiling, thinking, 'It's over, thank God it's over.' I was gutted that I wasn't killed."
Burton is now back in prison and is kept in segregation in the maximum security compound within Auckland Prison - the country's toughest correctional facility.
He pleaded guilty to 11 charges relating to the Wainuiomata rampage, one of murder, two of attempted murder, two of aggravated robbery, two of kidnapping, two of using a firearm against a law enforcement officer, aggravated injury and injuring with reckless disregard.
Graeme Burton sitting in a wheelchair during his sentencing in the High Court at Wellington. 3 April 2007 New Zealand Herald Photograph by Mark Mitchell
Burton, now 45, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 26 years for the murder, and preventive detention with a non-parole period of 26 years for the remaining charges.
*Karl Kuchenbecker's family declined to speak about the anniversary. They said they wanted to move on from the tragedy.
