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.
Credit: stug.stugCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenMaungatapu track, near Nelson, South Island, New Zealand · 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.
Massey, Auckland, New Zealand · 2020
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.
SOLVEDListenDunedin, New Zealand · 2008
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.
115 Bassett Road, Remuera, Auckland · 1963
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.
SOLVEDListenVictoria Park, Christchurch, New Zealand · 1954
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.
SOLVEDListenFurneaux Lodge, Endeavour Inlet, Marlborough Sounds · 1997
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.
SOLVEDListenPanmure RSA, Panmure, Auckland, New Zealand · 2001
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.
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.
Auckland CBD aerial 2016 (cropped) — Credit: Unknown authorCC0Source
File:Maungatapu Monument 01.jpg — Credit: stug.stugCC BY-SA 3.0Source
Waikino school (cropped) — Credit: Unknown, likely New Zealand policePublic domainSource
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.
22. The count covers published files only and changes as new files clear review.
Killing of Carl Völkner, from 1865. Open the file
Coffeehouse Crime (1 case), That Chapter (1 case) and Dr. Todd Grande (1 case), among 4 creators in all.
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.
