Bankguard Howard Percy who was shot dead during a robbery in 1976. Pic supplied by police
Bankguard Howard Percy who was shot dead during a robbery in 1976. Pic supplied by police
There are currently 66 unsolved homicides in New Zealand, dating back to 1914.
That's 66 men, women and children - and even siblings and couples murdered together - whose deaths are a mystery.
Justice has never been served for them or their families, and while in some cases police are confident that one day they will get a result, others will never be solved.
Police provided the Herald with details of each of the unsolved homicides from 1914 to June this year.
Since then there have been a number of other murders, with only one unsolved to date.
Over four days we are detailing each murder - who the victim was, what happened and when.
Today the unsolved murders between 1940 and 1980 are covered.
As we remember those killed, we urge anyone with information on these cases to contact their local police - or offer details anonymously via Crimestoppers - and help them solve the mystery of what happened to the 66.
Brigadier Annie, 62, and her sister Rosamond, 74, had their home in the town's Salvation Army hall.
Both women were found dead from multiple head injuries inflicted with an axe and, in the case of Rosamond, who died in the bedroom, with an iron fire poker.
Annie Smyth in Salvation Army uniform, circa 1938. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
The police believed they were killed on August 8, 1942. They were found by a neighbour on August 21.
No one was ever charged with the violent murders.
However, 20 years after the women were killed Leo Silvester Hannan - a convicted murderer serving a life sentence - confessed to his lawyer that he was responsible.
He said the Smyths were his first kills.
Hannan is believed to New Zealand's first serial killer.
Edward Clarke May 12, 1945 No further information available
The 50-year-old chocolate factory manager was found battered and strangled in his office.
When police interviewed staff at the factory they revealed Radcliffe was gay and often invited men to his office - where he had a couch - for private meetings.
It was widely thought he had been attacked by someone because of his sexuality and office activity.
A number of foreign matches were found near his body to police turned their attention to the crews of ships in port at the time of the murder.
McIntosh was found dead in the woolshed of his Moa Creek farm, his head battered with an axe-like weapon.
He had earlier told his wife he was going to work out on the farm and would be home to listen to the rugby on the radio - but never returned.
The 62-year-old's wife told police that a strange man had come to the back door asking for directions to a neighbour's home soon after her husband left.
The man never arrived at the neighbours and was never identified.
The Avondale man drank a glass of antacid salts, declared he disliked the taste and, within hours, he was dead.
It was later found the salts had been interfered with, causing the fatal poisoning. The killer was never found.
"Deceased was the victim of one of the foulest murders in this country's history," pronounced the Auckland coroner, Mr A Addison, in his verdict on the case.
Wooley, 84, died in hospital a week after she suffered serious head injuries outside her home in the central city.
Her death was initially treated as an accident, but police later established Wooley had been hit around the head and had likely been attacked after disturbing a burglar.
Harvey and Jeanette Crewe 1970 - date unknown Pukekawa
It was clear there had been foul play but it would not become clear what had happened until Jeanette's body was recovered from the Waikato River in August and Harvey's a month later.
Arthur Allan Thomas was eventually charged with the murders, tried and convicted.
He was convicted a second time at retrial but in 1979 he was pardoned.
In 1980 a royal commission concluded that police planted a shell case in the Crewe's garden to frame the innocent Thomas for the murder.
Before he died former detective Jack Collins, who worked on the Walker case, said he had a hunch about who the killer was but there was not enough evidence to prove it.
The following morning a man walking his dog found Tracey's body in a bush area on Scenic Drive in the Waitakere Ranges.
The teenager had been strangled with a stocking and her body discarded just metres into the bush area.
14-year-old murder victim Tracey Ann Patient. New Zealand Herald Archives.
Two years later police received a phone call from an anonymous person who told them the signet ring Tracey owned was in a rubbish bin outside a chemist in Avondale.
Officers went to the rubbish bin and found a ring inside, believed to have been the ring Tracey was wearing when she went missing and given to her by a boyfriend.
In 2016 police revealed they were following fresh lines of inquiry, including interviewing people in Australia in a bid to find her killer.
Howard Percy November 5, 1976 Rotorua
Percy was working as a security guard at an ANZ banking facility on Old Taupo Rd when he was shot and killed by a robber.
The bank was first targeted by a robber on July 16, 1976. The offender then tied up two tellers and Percy before taking about $13,000.
Bankguard Howard Percy who was shot dead during a robbery in 1976. Pic supplied by police
Four months later, on November 5, the bank was subjected to a second robbery.
Percy was again on duty and this time tackled the offender resulting in him being shot twice. He died on the way to hospital.
Police reopened the case in 2012 after receiving fresh information about the incident. A team of police searched Rotorua's Mangakakahi Stream for the gun which was used to shoot Mr Percy.
George Engelbrecht July 5, 1979 Lower Hutt
The 91-year-old was beaten to death in his bed in Alicetown, during a botched robbery.
A Coroner later ruled that Engelbrecht's death was likely caused by repeated blows to the head, multiple rib fractures causing laceration of a lung and inhaling blood from his severe facial injuries.
One witness told police they saw a "Polynesian man fleeing" the pensioner's home the night of the murder.
Police then set about fingerprinting every islander in the area for work or sports events and even travelled to the islands to speak to people in the hope they would get a match to evidence at the scene.
No match was found.
Engelbrecht had become reclusive after his wife died and was known to tell people how he kept large amounts of cash hidden around his home.
He was robbed a year before his murder, but police did not believe the culprits of that crime were connected to the killing.
Tomorrow we visit the unsolved homicides from 1980-2000.
