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Solved cases · New Zealand

Solved cases in New Zealand

22case filesUpdated Jul 14, 2026

Casepin holds 22 solved cases in New Zealand. A solved case is one the record closes with a conviction or an equivalent legal finding; each file names who was convicted only where a court did.

22solved
Open in the map
Files
22
Solved
22
Span
1809–2023
With coverage
2
Creators
4
Map of the 22 case files in New Zealand, pinned by legal status
22 files in New ZealandPins coloured by legal statusExplore live

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The files to open first

The files to open first

  • Credit: stug.stugCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListen

    Maungatapu track, near Nelson, South Island, New Zealand · 1866

    Maungatapu murders (1866)

    In June 1866, five men were robbed and killed in two attacks on the Maungatapu track near Nelson, New Zealand; three men were convicted and hanged and a fourth was convicted after an accomplice turned informant.

  • Credit: Government House, Department of the Prime Minister and CabinetCC0SourceSOLVEDListen

    Massey, Auckland, New Zealand · 2020

    Murder of Matthew Hunt

    New Zealand Police Constable Matthew Hunt was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Massey, Auckland, on 19 June 2020. Eli Epiha pleaded guilty to his murder, and Natalie Bracken was convicted as an accessory after the fact.

  • SOLVEDListen

    Dunedin, New Zealand · 2008

    Murder of Sophie Elliott

    In January 2008, 22-year-old Sophie Elliott was fatally stabbed at her family home in Dunedin, New Zealand, by her former boyfriend, who was convicted of her murder in 2009.

  • Credit: Archives New ZealandCC BY 2.0SourceSOLVEDListen

    115 Bassett Road, Remuera, Auckland · 1963

    Bassett Road machine gun murders

    Kevin James Speight and Frederick George Walker, two men connected to Auckland's illegal after-hours liquor trade, were shot dead at a house on Bassett Road in Remuera in December 1963; Ronald Jorgensen and John Gillies were convicted of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.

  • SOLVEDListen

    Victoria Park, Christchurch, New Zealand · 1954

    Murder of Honorah Rieper

    Honorah Rieper was bludgeoned to death in Victoria Park, Christchurch, on 22 June 1954 by her teenage daughter Pauline Parker and Parker's friend Juliet Hulme, who feared being separated from one another.

  • SOLVEDListen

    Furneaux Lodge, Endeavour Inlet, Marlborough Sounds · 1997

    Murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope

    Ben Smart, 21, and Olivia Hope, 17, disappeared after a New Year's Eve party at Furneaux Lodge in New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds on 1 January 1998; their bodies were never found, and Scott Watson was convicted of their murders in 1999 in a case that remains contested.

  • SOLVEDListen

    Panmure RSA, Panmure, Auckland, New Zealand · 2001

    2001 Panmure RSA killings

    On 8 December 2001, William Dwane Bell shot and beat three people to death and seriously injured a fourth during a robbery at the Panmure RSA club in Auckland, New Zealand, two months after being fired from the club.

About these files

Solved cases in New Zealand, in brief

The files run from 1809 to 2023. The 2000s hold the most, with 4 files. The oldest is Killing of Carl Völkner, from 1865.

By type, the largest groups are murder and homicide cases (20), mass shooting cases (3) and hate crime cases (2).

2 files of the 22 have coverage attached: 5 videos, podcasts and documentaries from 4 creators. Coffeehouse Crime, That Chapter and Dr. Todd Grande have covered the most of them.

Every file is written from cited sources and pinned where it happened, and every person named carries the legal status the record gives them. Families and anyone involved can request a correction from any file.

This page updates from the published files, so counts and statuses change the day a record does. Open any file for its timeline, its sources and the coverage worth your time, or play it as a narrated case file.

Every file

All solved cases in New Zealand

17 files

Same place, other outcomes

Every outcome in New Zealand

Archive files5

These files are published and cited but are kept out of search listings for now, either because they fall outside Casepin’s true-crime scope or because they are still being deepened.

Questions

What people ask

How many solved cases in New Zealand are on Casepin?

22. The count covers published files only and changes as new files clear review.

What is the oldest of these solved cases?

Killing of Carl Völkner, from 1865. Open the file

Which creators have covered solved cases in New Zealand?

Coffeehouse Crime (1 case), That Chapter (1 case) and Dr. Todd Grande (1 case), among 4 creators in all.

How current is this page?

It rebuilds hourly from the published files; the newest file change here is dated Jul 14, 2026. A status changes only when the record behind it does.

Every file cited · legal status from the record · our standards · request a correction