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The crime I’ll never forget is a listener.co.nz series in which our police write about cases they’ve investigated which have changed their perspective on life and work. Today, Detective Sergeant Chris Allemann shares his story of investigating the murder of a son killed by his father, and why, 11 years on, the case still plays on his mind.
From time to time on the Taranaki coast, human bones will wash up and it’s always a consideration for me: “Is it Aaron?”
It’s been 11 years since Aaron Roigard went missing and 10 since his father, David, was convicted of his murder. But despite extensive air, land and coastal searches, Aaron’s body has never been found.
Not having found a body is no good for anybody, really, so of course, I want to find Aaron but it’s a question of how far do you go and how much time do you spend looking? I’m with the Taranaki Child Protection Team now, and I have a pile of files sitting next to me that need to be investigated.
But back in 2014, I was based in Hāwera. That day – there were two of us working –we got a call from a young woman, Julie Thoms. She was upset and a bit confused, saying, “Aaron’s gone missing. I don’t know where he is and his dad’s acting strangely.”
We get a lot of missing person reports and most missing persons turn up. I had no idea it would become the first murder case in Taranaki where a person would be tried and convicted without a body being found.
Aaron was 27 years old, the father of two boys – a young baby and a toddler – with partner Julie and had wanted his own farm ever since he was 16. On the day he went missing, a moving truck was booked. Aaron thought that he and his family were moving to a new farm bought with money he had saved, and his father had invested for him. The timing made sense because it was Gypsy Day, when sharemilkers all over the country move to new farms.
I talked to David on the phone, and he said he didn’t know why his son had gone missing; he said that Aaron thought he was moving on to a farm, and, “He kept paying me money even though I told him not to.”
That seemed a strange thing to say, so I thought we should interview David in person – get the interview on camera – and try to gather as much information as we could. He arrived with bank statements, which again was odd to me. It was almost as if David was explaining too much.
He told us that Aaron had come to see him at his home in Ōpunake, expecting to move to his farm that day but David had told him he didn’t have any savings and there was no farm. He claimed that Aaron was upset, hopped in his car and drove down to the end of the driveway where he parked his car, walked out on to the road and hitched a ride with a passing blue or green car.
Aaron had been working since he was 16, giving half of the money he earned to David, who told him he was investing it into a huge scheme that was paying well above market rates of return. Aaron had set up automatic payments to David under the name Sovereign Investments. A local real estate agent gave evidence that David had contacted him, saying he was looking for a small farm for his son to buy and appointments were made to view some properties. David never kept those appointments.
It turned out that David had stolen about $66,000 from Aaron, and he was convicted of eight counts of theft by a person in a special relationship as well as murder. Aaron was a trusting young person who had a dream – a goal – to own his own farm. He loved farming and wanted it to be his life.
I had sleepless nights because I was afraid that Aaron’s disappearance would be treated as a suicide, but that just didn’t make sense to me. I thought someone was going to get away with murder and I had a few sleepless nights. After David was convicted in 2015 and sentenced the following year, he appealed the conviction all the way to the Supreme Court where his appeal was dismissed in a majority decision.
We’ll never know what happened between Aaron and David; I’ve got my thoughts on that, but I’ve dealt with a number of murders and none of them have stuck with me like this one, mainly because of the father-son connection. I’ve got a son – he’s 22 and a fourth-year medical student – and I can’t fathom stealing from him or ever hurting him.
I feel for Julie and the boys, who still don’t know exactly what happened to their father. Aaron had a really good group of friends around him who created a memorial seat with a bench in memory of Aaron “Smiley” Roigard on the Ōpunake coastline. It overlooks his favourite fishing spot. Just how loyal his friends were stuck with me, too.
There’s another murder investigation that I was involved with where a young boy tried to save his father from being stabbed. It was more than a decade ago and that young boy is now 22. His mum called me recently to ask if he could come in and talk to me about the case, so these things never leave you.
The murders, the families involved, they almost become part of you.
If you have any information about this case, please contact 021 191 4531 or Christopher.allemann@police.govt.nz
