Women who kill: New Zealand’s shocking roll of dishonour

By Anna Leask

Senior Journalist - crime and justice·NZ Herald·

26 Dec, 2022 04:00 PM34 mins to read

The Herald looks back at the women who have been convicted of murder, manslaughter and mercy killlings in New Zealand.

WARNING: GRAPHIC AND UPSETTING CONTENT

The baby farmer.

The Black Widow.

The Heavenly Creatures.

The body in the garden.

Lillybing. Decelia. Moko. Malachi.

These are all notorious criminal cases in New Zealand where people have been murdered at the hands of women.

Husbands, children, friends, lovers and complete strangers slain. Babies and children abused, neglected and brutalised.

Police figures show between mid-2012 and 2022, about 280 people were convicted of murder in New Zealand.

Of those, just 9.5 per cent of offenders - 26 in total - were women.

A further 47 women were convicted of manslaughter, 27 per cent of the 271 total offenders in that category.

Senior crime and justice reporter Anna Leask looks back at some of New Zealand’s most shocking cases of murder, manslaughter and even some mercy killings carried out by women.

You can also listen to Herald podcast A Moment In Crime, which revisits the offending by some of these offenders.

Some of these cases relate to child abuse or domestic violence. For information on where to get help or report concerns or crimes, scroll to the bottom of this article.

Historic killers

Minnie Dean - multiple murders

In 1895 Minne Dean became the first - and only - woman to be hanged in New Zealand for the murder of two babies.

In the 1880s Dean started taking in the children of unmarried mothers or women who had too many children.

She was paid a fee for looking after the children.

In 1891 Dean appeared before a coroner after several babies in her care died.

It was determined conditions at Deans’ rural Winton farmhouse were inadequate and there were concerns there were too many children under her roof - but the woman was cleared.

After the inquest police began to investigate Dean, and it was eventually alleged that in a series of train journeys across Southland and South Otago she had killed babies given to her to look after and stuffed them in hat boxes to transport them and dispose of their bodies.

Minnie Dean, the only woman to be executed under New Zealand law, was hanged on August 12, 1895, for murdering a baby.

In May 1895 police began to dig up Dean’s garden and found the bodies of two baby girls and a boy aged about 4.

Dean denied murdering the children, saying one girl was accidentally given too much of an opium-based medicine used to calm babies and the other suffocated after inhaling vomit.

Despite her protests, Dean was hanged.

Asked, when standing at the gallows trapdoor, if she wished to speak one last time, she replied: “No, except that I am innocent.”

Juliet Parker and Pauline Hulme - murder

The 15-year-olds murdered Pauline’s mother, Honora Rieper, in Christchurch in 1954 by bludgeoning her on a park walkway.

The schoolgirls lured Rieper to Victoria Park in Christchurch, on June 22, 1954 and proceeded to hit her repeatedly on the head with half a brick in a sock.

The girls wanted Rieper dead so Pauline would be sent to live with Juliet, whose family were set to move overseas.

Pauline had planned the killing in her diary and on the day of the fatal act, wrote an entry titled “The Day of the Happy Event”.

The pair were both charged with murder and later convicted.

Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme on their way to court in 1954. Photo / Christchurch Star file photo

As they were too young to be considered for the death penalty, each spent five years in prison.

Upon her release, Hulme immediately rejoined her father in Italy.

Parker was placed on six months’ parole in New Zealand, after which she left the country.

Both were given new identities when they were released.

Child killers

Lise Jane Turner - multiple murders

In 1984 Turner was convicted of killing 8-month-old Michael Tinnion while she was babysitting him. He was the son of a neighbour.

She also murdered her own two daughters by smothering them: Megan in 1980, and Cheney in 1982.

Turner was also convicted of attempted murder after she tried to kill two other babies in her care - a 5-week-old girl and a 4-month-old girl.

In 1997 Turner, then 41, was released from prison on parole.

She spent 13 years behind bars for her crimes.

Tania Witika - manslaughter

Witika, later known as Tania Gaye Hopping, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after her the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Delcelia.

The case was the first to highlight the shocking level of child abuse in New Zealand. A High Court judge said at the time Delcelia’s death was one of the most disturbing cases he had seen.

The toddler was found lying dead in a pool of blood, faeces and urine, while Witika and the baby’s stepfather, Eddie Smith, were partying at a friend’s place in South Auckland.

Delcelia had been beaten and badly burned after being put in a bath of hot water.

She eventually died as a result of peritonitis, caused by blows to her stomach which burst her appendix.

Delcelia Witika was murdered, aged 2, in 1991.

In 1991 Witika and Smith were both sentenced to 16 years in prison for manslaughter - at the time one of the longest sentences given for that offence.

Witika had denied the charge, claming she lived in terror of Smith and, although she wanted to help Delcelia, she was too afraid.

However, evidence presented at trial showed she had kept notes about her sexual gratification even as her child suffered.

Witika served 10 years of her sentence and was released on parole.

She married, changed her name and had another child.

Hopping died in July 2022 and her funeral notice said she was the “beautiful mother of Delcelia” and a “loved nan”.

Rachaelle Namana - manslaughter

Hinewaioriki Karaitiana-Matiaha, known as Lillybing, died at a Carterton house in July 2000.

Police said she died after “a series of dreadful injuries suffered over a three-day period”.

She was suffering from rotavirus, was covered in bruises and scratches, was violated and bleeding internally, and had horrific scalding burns on her face, shoulder and pubis.

Her mother’s stepsister Rachaelle Namana, after 10 months of denial, admitted shaking the child to death and pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter as well as counts of wilful ill-treatment and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Namana’s sister Rongomai Paewai, originally charged with manslaughter, pleaded guilty to ill-treatment and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

A court later heard as well as little Lillybing’s swollen brain, she had series of unrelated injuries, including internal haemorrhaging following a recent blow to the upper abdomen, deep abrasions to the hands suggesting she had been tied or bound, her chin and lip were torn consistent with a blow or blows, and she had severe bruising on the front of her head.

The little girl had more than 90 bruises and abrasions which, in post-mortem photos, covered her tiny body like the spots on a dog.

Even her tongue was not free from bruising.

Four of her baby teeth were loose and she had several fingerprint marks and a fingernail indentation on her scalp.

But perhaps most horrific was the genital mutilation, which doctors agreed was serious enough to kill her if the head injuries had not done so first.

Despite intensive investigations by police, there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with her sexual violation.

Lisa Kuka - manslaughter

The death of Nia Glassie remains one of New Zealand’s most horrific and high-profile child murders.

The 3-year-old Rotorua toddler died in August 2007 at the hands of her mother and stepfather and other adults living in her home.

She was abused for months leading up to her brutal death. When details emerged of what the toddler had been subjected to, New Zealanders were appalled.

Nia was admitted to Starship Hospital with critical head injuries in July 2007.

The little girl was put on life support, but died 13 days later.

Five people were charged in connection with her death: her mother Lisa Kuka and her partner Wiremu Curtis, his brother Michael Curtis and his partner Oriwa Kemp, and Michael Pearson. The abuse was mainly perpetrated by Kuka’s then-partner Wiremu Curtis and his brother Michael, while she was at work.

The brothers had decided they did not like Nia, that she was “ugly” and they began to abuse, attack and assault her for their own entertainment.

In the lead-up to her death, Nia had been put in a clothes dryer spinning for 30 minutes on a hot setting, hung on a clothesline and spun around, held over a burning fire, used to practise wrestling moves, folded into a couch and sat upon, shoved into piles of rubbish and cold baths, dragged half-naked through a sandpit, thrown at walls and dropped from heights, and had various objects hurled at her.

The child was also kicked, slapped, beaten and jumped on.

After the fatal attack on Nia in July 2007, believed to be repeated kicks to her head, she was left for 33 hours before medical help was sought.

Kuka found Nia had wet her bed, which was unusual, and would not wake up. She bathed the child, who was effectively unconscious.

Michael Curtis (left) threatens Lisa Kuka, the mother of Nia Glassie, as they leave the dock in the Rotorua District Court. Photo / Stephen Parker

But she did nothing to help the injured girl until the next day, after Kuka had spent the night celebrating Michael Curtis’ 21st birthday.

As Kuka, the Curtis brothers and others partied outside at their rented Rotorua house, Nia lay dying in her bed.

When she was admitted to Starship, Nia’s brain damage was so severe that she could no longer breathe for herself.

A jury found the Curtis brothers guilty of Nia’s murder.

Kuka was convicted of two counts of manslaughter: one for failing to provide Nia the necessaries of life and the other for failing to protect the child from violence, thereby causing her death.

Kuka was released on parole several times but recalled back to prison after she breached her conditions.

Her final release on parole was in March 2017 - shortly before her statutory release date from prison in October that year.

Tiana Mary-Anne Odessa Kapea - murder

Jyniah Mary Te Awa died in September 2007 after being abused repeatedly by her babysitter Kapea, who was a close family friend.

Kapea was caring for Jyniah when she suffered a brain injury.

The little girl was admitted to Starship Hospital but died the next day.

Tiana Mary-Anne Odessa Kapea. Photo / NZH

It later emerged that while in Kapea’s care and totally unbeknown to her parents, Jyniah was left in a closed freezer, hung on the back of a wardrobe door, held against a gas heater, swung around by her short hair and hung on a clothesline.

Her fatal head injury was the result of being kicked, thrown against a wall, shaken and smothered.

Kapea was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years behind bars.

Tania Shailer - manslaughter

Moko Sayviah Rangitoheriri died on August 10 last year from injuries he received during prolonged abuse and torture.

His case shocked, saddened and angered New Zealanders and led to marches in his name against child abuse.

Moko was in the care of his mother’s friend Tania Shailer and her partner when he was killed.

When he was taken to the hospital in August 2015 he was in a terrible state.

His eyes were so swollen that the nurse could not lift the lids to check his pupils.

His little body was cold - so cold that devices used for measuring body temperature would not take a reading.

He had bite marks on his face, his tummy was protruding unnaturally and he was covered from head to toe in bruises and abrasions.

The little boy was so badly brutalised he did not survive.

A post-mortem examination was carried out and established that the Tokoroa toddler died as a result of “multiple blunt force traumas”.

Tania Shailer and David William Haerewa in court. Photo / Andrew Warner

He had lacerations and hemorrhaging deep within his abdomen, historic bruising and damage to his bowel. Combined, that resulted in his bowel rupturing. Fecal matter leaked into Moko’s abdomen, causing septic shock.

His brain was swollen, he had blood clots under his scalp representing numerous injuries inflicted at different times in the lead up to his death.

There was evidence the toddler had been smothered.

His body was a veritable map of torture: Moko had human bite marks, contusions, abrasions, deep bruising, lacerations, patterned injuries on his face, chin, neck, ears, lower lip, gums, eyes, ribs, testes, skin, chest, tummy, shoulder and arms.

Shailer, then 26, and David Haerewa, 44, eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 17 years in jail with a minimum non-parole period of nine years.

Michaela Barriball - Malachi murder

In 2022 Michaela Barriball was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a little boy in her care.

When Malachi Subecz’s mother was jailed, she left the 5-year-old in the care of Barriball.

It didn’t take long before Barriball began assaulting the child “on a daily basis”, slapping him in the head, face, and body.

Malachi Subecz's death has led to several reviews, including one recently released identifying multiple failings in the system. Photo / NZ Police

He would frequently soil himself, which Barriball would respond to by stripping him naked and locking him outside or in a car. She would force the child to stand for prolonged periods of time, only allowing him to sit when given permission, and he was also deprived of food.

In one bout of abuse, Barriball picked up Malachi by his hair and launched him against a wall twice, before repeatedly striking him in the face.

In one of the most graphic attacks, Barriball held him under water while having a bath. The child pleaded with her to stop, but she forced him back under.

Michaela Barriball was sentenced to a minimum 17 years in jail for the murder of 5-year-old Tauranga boy Malachi Subecz in 2021. Photo / Andrew Warner

Another bathroom incident saw a soiled Malachi placed in a shower flowing with 73-degree hot water. He suffered severe burns, including a deep 13cm blackened injury on his abdomen.

Barriball messaged her partner saying she was going to kill Malachi - and she did.

He did not survive the last attack she inflicted - suffering a brain haemorrhage and substantial bruises across his entire body.

Weighing just 16kg, little Malachi died at Starship Hospital in November 2021.

Southern Thompson - murder

In May 2022 Southern Thompson was jailed for abusing, neglecting and bashing her 18-month-old daughter Comfort Jay Thompson-Pene to death in their Tirau home in July 2018.

Comfort was born with a birth defect, and she spent the first few months of her life in hospital.

She was discharged from the hospital healthy, but was vulnerable and needed extra care.

On July 23, 2018 Thompson approached a neighbour asking to use their phone because her daughter was unwell.

She called Healthline and said the child was non-responsive.

Healthline staff repeatedly urged her to call an ambulance and offered to call one for her.

Despite being told her daughter urgently needed to see a doctor in the next hour, she said she couldn’t take her because of other matters.

Thompson did not call 111 for an ambulance for another two hours.

When paramedics arrived, they found Comfort lying on her back on the floor. She was not moving and they initially thought she was dead.

Comfort was airlifted to hospital by helicopter and placed on life support.

Doctors soon ascertained she had suffered irreversible brain injuries that were not survivable.

She died the next day.

Southern Thompson. Photo / Stephen Parker

A postmortem examination confirmed Comfort died as the result of head injuries due to blunt force trauma.

There had been a number of impacts to the head, which led to a blood clot over the surface of the brain as well as bleeding over the surface of the brain.

She also had extensive bruising around her head, some of which were fresh injuries. Others were older.

Thompson admitted assaulting the toddler but denied injuring her head.

She claimed the girl had fallen down two concrete stairs.

However, a police investigation revealed Thompson would hit her daughter on a regular basis, and the child was seen by a number of people with two black eyes and a cut lip.

Doctors found her body covered in healing scratch marks, especially around her neck and chest.

She also had extensive bruising on her body consistent with excessive application of fingertip-force from adult-sized hands.

She weighed just 8kg when she died and doctors said that was consistent with not being fed enough.

Comfort also had “severe and extreme” nappy rash and police said her condition “represented chronic neglect of basic care”.

Thompson was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years on charges of murder, ill-treatment of a child, injuring her with intent and failing to seek medical care.

Spouse killers

Helen Milner - murder

Milner was dubbed the “Black Widow” after she was convicted of murdering her second husband Phil Nisbet by poisoning him with crushed sedatives in his food in 2009.

When Nisbet was found dead in his bed at the Christchurch home he shared with Milner in the Christchurch it looked like suicide.

He’d left a note.

When police arrived, they found Milner wailing, distraught.

It appeared to the attending officers that the father-of-two had purposefully ingested up to 50 anti-histamine pills, Phenergan.

Nisbet’s sister Lee-Ann Cartier had been living in Queensland and rushed over for the funeral.

Helen Elizabeth Milner in the High Court at Christchurch. Photo / NZ Herald

Cartier immediately smelled a rat. She thought the handwritten signature on the typed suicide note was fake.

Further, she didn’t believe her brother would have taken his own life – and then there was the $250,000 life insurance payout.

Four days after the funeral, family members including Milner’s adult son approached police with concerns.

But with detectives calling it a straightforward case of suicide without any hint of foul play, Cartier decided to do her own digging.

Her amateur sleuthing eventually helped prompt a coroner to suggest cops take a second look at the case.

As a result, Milner was charged with Nisbet’s murder.

In 2013, despite her protesting her innocence, a jury found Milner guilty of murder.

She was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Rena Joyce - murder

In January 2021 Rena Joyce walked into the central police station in Christchurch and told staff she had killed her partner.

Within an hour officers had found the decomposing remains of Martin Orme Berry dumped in a compost heap in his own backyard.

Joyce claimed the pair had a turbulent relationship - that Berry was cruel and violent and she snapped and stabbed him to death during a heated argument.

However, a jury heard that it was Joyce behind most of the violence in the relationship.

In fact, she had been sent to prison for an earlier assault on Berry and was still under supervision when she killed him.

Joyce, who the court heard was an alcoholic, admitted stabbing Berry repeatedly and cutting his throat.

However, she said it was manslaughter - that she had not meant to kill him.

After a trial spanning two weeks, a jury in the High Cout at Christchurch found Joyce guilty of murder.

She was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve 13 years and nine months in prison before she is eligible for parole.

Karen Ruddelle - manslaughter

Joseph Michael Ngapera died in November 2018 after being stabbed twice in the chest.

The first blow pierced his ribs, lung and heart.

His partner Karen Ruddelle was charged with murder, but after a trial in the High Court at Auckland she was found guilty of the lesser alternative charge of manslaughter.

She never denied she was responsible for Ngapera’s death - but strongly denied there was any murderous intent.

Rather, she said she was acting in self-defence, trying to protect herself and her teenage son, and was suffering from social entrapment - effectively battered women’s syndrome - after a lifetime of domestic violence, including at the hands of Ngapera.

At her trial in the High Court at Auckland, a jury heard evidence from about 40 witnesses, including from Ruddelle herself and several domestic violence experts who spoke about coercive control and social entrapment - formerly referred to as battered women’s syndrome.

And they heard how Ruddelle, after a life of abusive relationships and trauma, had symptoms of PTSD and how she and Ngapera would drink together and he would become abusive.

The trial jury was unanimous in finding Ruddelle not guilty of murder.

She was later sentenced to 11 months’ home detention.

Gay Oakes - murder

In 1994 Gay Oakes was found guilty of murdering her de facto husband and burying him in the backyard of her Christchurch home.

English-born OakeS poisoned and suffocated Doug Gardner in January 1993.

His body was buried in the garden for 14 months.

He was listed as a missing person until police received a tip-off and made the grisly discovery.

Oakes, a mother-of-six, admitted killing Gardner, but maintained she was the victim of battered women’s syndrome and had often fled women’s refuges to escape frequent mental and physical abuse.

Gay Oakes was charged with murder after killing her de facto partner. Photo / Supplied

She was convicted of murder in September 1994 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Eight years later, the Parole Board released the killer, accepting that battered women’s syndrome could be used as a defence.

A condition of Oakes’ parole is that she is unable to publish or give media interviews about her relationship with Gardner, or be critical of him or his family.

While in jail, Oakes wrote a detailed account of her life with Gardner, called Decline into Darkness.

She wrote of Gardner’s abusive, violent behaviour and claimed he stole money from her.

The book angered Gardner’s family.

After her release, Oakes met her new partner Andrew McMurtrie. The couple still live in Chistchurch.

Michelle Nicholson - murder

Michelle Elizabeth Ann Nicholson was sentenced to life in prison in 1997 for the murder of her partner, Dennis Hind, of Temuka.

Nicholson, also known as Michelle Richards, was living with Hind and her three children when she convinced 18-year-old Robert Smith to commit the murder.

Nicholson was a drug addict and had significant debt as a result.

Hind had changed his will to include her, and soon after she had him killed.

Smith, who was in a relationship with Nicholson, entered Hind’s bedroom in January 1997 and stabbed the older man to death in his own bed.

Hind was stabbed 127 times.

Both Nicholson and Smith were convicted of murder and jailed for life.

Nicholson was first paroled in 2007 but was recalled soon after when it emerged that she had formed a relationship with a man who had been jailed for murdering a prostitute.

Nicholson was granted parole again in December 2011 and completed her master’s degree in criminology at Victoria University in 2014.

In early 2016 she was recalled to prison again after police searched her home and found drugs in various locations including her bedroom.

Amandeep Kaur - murder

Amandeep Kaur, 33, and her lover Gurjinder Singh, 28, were found guilty in 2016 of the murder of Kaur’s husband, 35-year-old Davender Singh.

Singh’s throat was slit as he sat in his car on a south Auckland road on August 7, 2014.

His neck was so deeply severed that a pathologist said it was classified as a “partial decapitation”.

At trial the accused killers blamed each other for Davender Singh’s murder.

Gurjinder Singh (right) and Amandeep Kaur on trial for allegedly killing 35-year-old Davinder Singh, who was married to Kaur at the time. Photo / Richard Robinson

His wife admitted writing love notes to Singh when they worked together at an Auckland plastic manufacturing factory.

In the notes she and Singh both spoke of wanting to be together, and planned all of the details of her husband’s murder.

Kaur claimed she pulled out of the murderous plot days before - but Singh went through with it.

Singh rejected that, saying when he got to the car the victim had already been stabbed.

At sentencing, the presiding judge ruled that Singh was likely responsible for the stabbing, Kaur would have been holding her husband down at the time.

He found the pair equally to blame.

The killer couple were both sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve 17 years behind bars before they are eligible for parole.

Kaur appealed her sentence, claiming she was the victim of domestic violence.

However, the Court of Appeal said there was no evidence of that.

Rikki-Lee Simeon - murder

Simeon was just 18 when she murdered her partner Brendon Hamilton at an Auckland flat.

Hamilton, 21, was stabbed in the neck in the Mt Eden apartment and died the same day his and Simeon’s daughter Shyanne turned 1.

The young mother denied the charge of murder, saying the fatal stabbing was an accident.

Rikki-Lee Simeon had pleaded not guilty to the murder of her partner, Brendon Hamilton. Photo / Supplied

At her trial, her lawyer told the jury they could not rule out self-defence, and said police interviewed Simeon in questionable conditions, when she was hungry and deprived of sleep.

But Crown prosecutors said Simeon had a history of being a violent, abusive girlfriend and even if she felt threatened on the day of the murder, her use of a 30cm kitchen knife against Hamilton in the early hours of the morning was unreasonable.

Simeon was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 14 years.

Sarah Barry - murder

The 28-year-old was sentenced to seven months’ home detention after she admitted a charge of manslaughter.

Barry and her boyfriend Thomas Issiah Ellery, 25 killed her ex Andrew James Little in 2019.

Little, 35, was stabbed 13 times in 2019 and died on the floor of his flatmate’s bedroom.

He and Barry had been in a relationship for two years before separating in May 2019.

In August that year, Barry started a new relationship with Ellery.

In October, Little attempted to rekindle things with Barry but she resisted his advances.

One night as she and Ellery were sleeping at her home, a brick was thrown through her bedroom window.

The windows of Ellery’s van parked outside were also smashed.

The couple suspected Little was responsible and days later - “angry” and “seeking retribution” - they went to his house.

An altercation ensued and Little was stabbed 13 times in his face neck, back, arms and chest.

The fatal strike passed between Little’s seventh and eighth rib, entering his chest cavity and perforating his heart.

The wounds resulted in severe internal and external bleeding.

Little staggered through the house before collapsing on the floor in his flatmate’s bedroom, where he died.

In 2022 Ellery was jailed for life for Little’s murder.

Barry was sentenced to seven months’ home detention for the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Alana Bamber - murder

Tony Waldron was found dead at his Gardiners Rd, Rakaia, home, 45 minutes south of Christchurch, on September 18, 2019, after failing to show up for 5.30am milking.

After a lengthy homicide investigation, Waldron’s wife Alana Bamber, 35, and her cousin Joshua Dylan Morris-Bamber, 28, were charged with murdering the 25-year-old in his bed.

They denied killing Waldron or having any part in his death.

At their trial in the High Court at Christchurch, the jury heard that Bamber manipulated her cousin into believing Waldron was an abusive and violent man.

With that in mind, Morris-Bamber asked her for Waldron’s address and when she supplied it, he drove to the house and fatally attacked him.

The night of the murder Waldron went to bed about 12.56am after playing an online video game.

Morris-Bamber drove for about 45 minutes south on SH1 to Waldron’s farm. Cellphone data and CCTV from NZTA cameras plotted his movements.

The same car was tracked heading back to Rakaia, at 1.04am.

The jury heard Morris-Bamber had “at least four minutes” at Waldron’s house, which was “ample time” to go inside and fatally assault him while he was sleeping.

A post-mortem examination suggests Waldron was struck by a solid weapon at least three times on the side of his head, ear and neck.

Waldron suffered a fractured skull – dislodging a 4cm x 2cm fragment of bone - along with other multiple cracks and a broken jaw.

The murder weapon was never found.

Bamber’s defence counsel Kerry Cook told the court she was not there when her husband died – and does not know what happened.

He said she did not want Waldron dead, or hurt, and “whatever happened was not her wish, not her involvement, not her desire, not her design”.

However, a jury believed the Crown case and found both Bamber and her cousin guilty of murder.

Bamber was sentenced to life behind bars with a minimum period of imprisonment of 13 years.

Pack killers

Natalie Fenton, Katrina Fenton, Daniella Bowman - murder

Sisters Natalie and Katrina Fenton and their cousin Daniella Bowman were sentenced to life in prison in 1999 for murdering Raymond Mullins.

He was stabbed 19 times, beaten about the head with a hammer and other weapons and left with the letter N or W carved into his chest.

All three offenders were sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder.

Katrina Fenton was 20 at the time of sentencing, her sister was 15, and cousin 18.

The court heard the Fenton sisters met Mullins, 59, after he became friends with their mother.

Natalie Fenton, who was participating in sex work at the time, claimed she had slept with Mullins and became pregnant but had a miscarriage.

On the day of the murder, the trio went to see Mullins, demanding cash so they could travel to Northland for a 21st birthday party.

Mullins was fatally attacked when he refused.

The violent young women then dragged Mullins body out of his home, wrapped him in a sheet and dumped his body in the boot of his own car.

Daniella Bowman was repeatedly denied parole as the board was not satisfied she would not be a risk to public safety.

She was released briefly in 2014 but recalled to prison after breaching her conditions. She was not released again until 2019.

Katrina Fenton was released in 2012.

Natalie Fenton was released on parole in 2016 but was recalled to prison for breaching her conditions in April 2022.

Renee O’Brien - murder

Puti Maxwell, Kararaina Te Rauna - manslaughter

The brutal killing of Keith Piggott in 1993 was carried out by three teenage girls and shocked New Zealanders.

Renee O’Brien was just 15 when she was found guilty of murdering the Waitara man.

Puti Maxwell and Kararaina Te Rauna, both 14, had earlier pleaded guilty to his manslaughter.

The body of the 60-year-old was found in the Waitara River on the afternoon of March 11 1993.

At O’Brien’s trial, the court heard the teen had not been to school for the best part of year, was used to roaming the streets late at night and was an experienced drinker.

The night Piggot was killed she had gone out planning to steal a car.

She met up with her friends, hooked up with friends Te Rauna and Maxwell, and they headed off into the night to drink and find a suitable car to pinch.

Meanwhile, Piggot had fallen asleep in his 4WD after having a few drinks with mates at a local pub.

The teenagers chanced upon him and woke him.

Te Rauna distracted the 60-year-old while O’Brien got a hammer.

She then struck Piggott over the head eight times, the other girls kicking him when he fell to the ground.

The trio then dragged his dead body over a stop bank and threw him into the river.

The driver disposed of, the teenagers took the 4WD and went joyriding around Waitara.

They visited friends and even drove past the local police station tooting the horn.

It took a jury just three hours to find O’Brien guilty of murder.

She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years.

Te Rauna was sentenced to eight years and nine months’ jail, and Maxwell to eight years and three months.

Friend killers

Naomi Morrison - murder

Dunedin hairdresser Naomi Morrison stabbed her friend to death and buried her in a shallow grave in the backyard.

But she cannot explain why.

In October 2022 Morrison, 44, was jailed for life for the murder of Ameria Prunella Aroha Charlene Whatuira, 41.

On August 6 last year, Morrison and the victim drank alcohol and smoked cannabis at the defendant’s Glenleith home.

Whatuira sent a message to a friend saying she was “with a good mate”, but just hours later Morrison stabbed her to death.

The woman was pierced seven times in the chest and several times in the head.

Naomi Lee Morrison in court at sentencing. Photo / Christine O'Connor

Morrison then taped a bin bag over Whatuira’s head, wrapped the body in bedding and left it on the deck beside her lounge for several days.

She poured paint over her victim to mask the odour.

Eight days later, Morrison invited another friend to her house to drink, telling her she had something to show her.

She revealed the body and what she had done.

Morrison and the friend worked together to roll Whatuira’s body over the deck then dug a shallow grave and buried her with perfume to cover the smell.

They cleaned the garden tools and then resumed drinking.

On September 1 police got a tip that a murder had occurred at Morrison’s home.

A team searched the house and its steep, bushy backyard but they did not find the grisly remains.

Ameria Prunella Aroha Charlene Whatuira. Photo / NZ Police

Two weeks later, however, Whatuira’s family reported her missing and an investigation commenced.

On October 8, police again scoured the property and this time found the victim.

Justice Jan-Marie Doogue ordered Morrison to serve a minimum non parole period of 12 years.

She described the killing and the concealment of the body as “callous”.

“[It] will only have compounded the anguish her death has caused her friends and family,” she told Morrison in court.

“While they agonised over her fate for 62 days and police continued their search you did nothing as the body lay beneath your house.”

Anna Browne - murder

Repeat violent offender Anna Browne was jailed for life after she was found guilty of murdering Carly Stewart at a “pamper party” in West Auckland.

The 36-year-old was killed at a Te Atatu home where a group of nine women and some of their children had gathered for a boozy day in October 2016.

She died from uncontrollable blood loss when Browne plunged a large butcher’s knife deep into the left side of her face.

The party started as a fun time, but Browne became increasingly agitated as the afternoon progressed.

Some arguments and scuffles ensued and some partygoers had seen Browne abusing other guests before Stewart came to restrain her.

Stewart dominated and intimidated Browne during the scuffles, telling her, “you f***ing disrespectful b****, my nieces are f***ing here”.

“Carly was angry,” Stewart’s cousin, Patricia Stewart told the jury at Browne’s trial.

“[Carly] said, ‘Well, I don’t care. I’m not scared of her’. Then she said, ‘I’ll be the bigger person and walk away’.”

Soon after, Browne made her way to the kitchen and selected the largest knife she could find.

She then entered the living area of the home, her hands behind her back, clutching the knife.

Browne walked right up to Stewart and plunged the knife into her face.

She denied a charge of murder but after a high-profile trial in the High Court at Auckland, a jury was unanimous in finding her guilty.

She was later sentenced to life in prison with a 12-year non-parole period.

Gwenda Sloane - murder

Michelle Hoffman-Tamm, 51, disappeared in November 2012 after leaving the Rotorua home she shared with her long-term partner to visit Gwenda Sloane.

Police found her body weeks later in a forested area just off State Highway 38 near Murupara.

The police summary of facts revealed the two women, who had been friends for more than 20 years and were having a casual sexual relationship, had been drinking together at Sloane’s house on the evening of November 7.

Gwenda Sloane pleaded guilty to the murder of Michelle Hoffman-Tamm. Photo / Stephen Park

Sloane told police she “lost it” when she thought Hoffman-Tamm had taken $20 from her wallet.

She launched a frenzied attack that left Hoffman-Tamm with 33 stab wounds and her ears severed and one shoved in her mouth.

Hoffman-Tamm’s body lay on her kitchen floor for more than a day before Sloane wrapped up the body, put it in her car and buried it in a ditch near Murupara.

In February 2013 Sloane was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole of 17 years.

At sentencing, Sloane’s offending was described as brutal and callous and it was said Sloane’s intention could only have been to mutilate Hoffman-Tamm.

Melissa Wepa - murder

Melissa Anne Wepa was jailed for life for killing a friend who dobbed her into police about her involvement in a burglary.

She stabbed Porirua woman Caroline Gardiner 50 times before dumping her body down a bank.

Nine months into her life sentence, Wepa - who had affiliations with the Mongrel Mob and Deadly F***ing Bitches gangs - was also charged after nearly biting off another inmate’s nipple during a fight.

In 2005, she escaped from prison with another inmate when they used a dummy in their cell beds to fool guards.

Wepa escaped again while serving a three-month corrective training term at Arohata in the early ‘90s but was caught nearby.

The convicted killer was initially released from prison in 2012 but has been recalled to continue serving her life sentence a number of times.

Mercy killers

Leslie Martin - attempted murder

In 2004 prominent euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin was sentenced to 15 months in jail for the attempted murder of her terminally ill mother.

Martin, a former intensive care nurse, was found guilty after a high-profile trial of one count of attempting to murder her mother, Joy Martin, by injecting her with a quantity of morphine.

Joy Martin had rectal cancer and died on May 28 1999.

Lesley Martin (left) and her mother Joy. Photo / Supplied

A police investigation followed her death, but no arrests were made, until three years later when Martin published her book, To Die Like A Dog.

In the book she described her reasons for helping her terminally ill mother Joy die.

The book led police to open a homicide inquiry into Joy Martin’s death, which eventually resulted in Lesley Martin being sentenced to 15 months in prison. She served seven and a half months.

At the time, Martin said she knew her book could lead to jail, but prison didn’t scare her as much as knowing someone could die a cruel and painful death.

Donella Knox - murder

Donella Knox, 49, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment after she admitted to murdering her 20-year-old daughter Ruby in May 2016 at their Blenheim home.

Ruby was severely disabled her whole life and had chronic behavioural difficulties including over-the-top aggression, a propensity to self-harm as well as harming others, and no ability to empathise.

Knox was her sole caregiver.

Donella Knox, 49, admitted murdering her 20-year old daughter Ruby on May 17 at their Blenheim home. Photo / Supplied

She drugged and suffocated Ruby after battling for all of the young woman’s life with her violent outbursts, round-the-clock care, poverty, and feelings of being let down by the health system.

Before Ruby died, Knox self-published her book Rubies and Pearls, which graphically described five years in the lives of the mother and daughter.

The book was written in diary form and spanned from October 2001 to February 2006, outlining how Knox would try to control her “surging rage” and frustrations over repeated attempts to get help and further diagnosis of Ruby’s health problems.

It also describes how Knox becomes so frustrated that she has thoughts of “blowing up the hospital” or of taking “serious violent action”.

Knox was released on parole in 2018 on a number of conditions, including not speaking to any media about her daughter’s death.

Do you need help?

Child abuse

If you are worried about a child or have information about any young person being abused, please contact the police.

Information can be passed on to your local police - https://www.police.govt.nz/contact-us/stations/a2z’ target=’_blank’>click here for a list of stations and contact details - or anonymously through the Crimestoppers reporting line on 0800 555 111.

If you’re worried about a child you are urged to contact Oranga Tamariki immediately on 0508 326 459; or email contact@mvcot.govt.nz.

If the child or young person is in immediate danger, call police on 111.