Murder Most Foul #3 in a series - David Wayne TAMIHERE- Murderer / Rapist / Robber

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"][/caption]

Just after I arrived in NZ there was quite a sensational murder mystery that unfolded. The "Swedish Backpacker Murders" And the Starring role was taken by one David Wayne Tamihere. Today I was reading an "exclusive" article in Metro Magazine, adn so it's time I got my thoughts together on this. For me.

David TAMIHERE was convicted of the 1972 Murder/Manslaughter  of Mary Barcham, 23 (stripper),  by Hitting her on the head with a rifle.

Also assaulted a 62 year old woman in her home in 1985.
Also has some other sexual assault and assault convictions on record,  including a conviction for assaulting another woman in her home in the 1980s

And so to the 1989 conviction of Murder of Sven Urban Höglin, 23, and his fiancée Heidi Birgitta Paakkonen, 21, both from, Sweden, travelling in NZ as  tourists. For which he was  sentenced to life imprisonment with a 10-year non-parole period in December 1990.

The body of Heidi Birgitta Paakkonen remains missing at this time.

Some of the background;

On 8 April 1989, backpacking tourists Höglin and Paakkonen from Storfors, Sweden went into the bush near Thames. They vanished and were reported missing in May.

The disappearance led to an intense police investigation under the name Operation Stockholm, and attracted substantial media interest. Police, local residents, search and rescue and military personnel carried out the largest land-based search undertaken in New Zealand, performing grid-searches centred on Crosbie's Clearing, 12 km from Thames.

Tamihere, a fugitive for skipping bail for a 1986 rape, admitted stealing the Subaru car belonging to the couple. There was only one known key to the car that was found in the possession of David Tamihere, and he claims to have broken into the car with a bit of #8 wire and found the key in the glovebox.  It would seem that there are 3 "experts" who were unable to replicate the feat of getting into the car with the same method.

He was arrested, and tried for their murder starting in October 1990. At the trial three witnesses (fellow inmates of Tamihere's, granted name suppression by the court) gave evidence that Tamihere had confessed the murder to them.

Two trampers also identified Tamihere as a man they saw with a woman believed to be Paakkonen in a remote clearing. The court also heard Tamihere tied Höglin to a tree and sexually abused him before raping Paakkonen.

Contention:

In October 1991, ten months after the conviction, pig hunters discovered the body of Höglin near Whangamata; Paakkonen's body has never been found. Höglin's body was recovered 73 km from where police alleged the murders took place.

With the body was a watch which police claimed at his trial Tamihere had given to his son following the murders. Discovery of the body also contradicted the testimony of a (Secret) prosecution witness who said Tamihere had confessed to cutting up the bodies and throwing them into the ocean.

I understand from reading an article in Metro Magazine  that in prison David Tamihere told various stories and variations on a theme to various people in an effort to cath outr anyone who "ratted on him".

In the book Hard Cases, the theory Tamihere did not act alone is forwarded, on the basis that as there were no defensive cuts to the bones of his hands, Höglin may have been held from behind while being stabbed from the front.

Most bizarrely is this contention:

Documents obtained from the estate of a deceased Investigate reader have thrown new light on a 23 year old cold case – the disappearance of Swedish tourists Urban Hoglin and Heidi Paakkonen.

The couple disappeared in April 1989 on the Coromandel peninsula, and David Wayne Tamihere was arrested soon after on suspicion of their murders. The body of Urban Hoglin was subsequently found by pig-hunters at the foot of a bluff in the Coromandel ranges in 1991, but Heidi’s body has never been found.

For years it has been presumed Heidi Paakkonen is also buried somewhere in the Coromandel bush, but the documents passed to Investigate suggest that is not the case – she was last seen alive north of Auckland.

The story begins on Kawau Island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf, and a Christian couple’s suspicions in the mid 1980s that a local criminal with drug and organised crime connections had constructed a house complete with a large underground facility. The couple, who’d accidentally discovered the facility while visiting the property on business, felt the complex could have been used to hold people against their will, and because of its remote position primary access to the outside world was via the sea and a private jetty.

Well yes of course, secret underground lair.  Having said that undoubtedly the Police did botch up parts of the case. But I would be very surprised if David Tamihere was not responsible for the killings or has other knowledge that for reasons unknown he hasn't or will not share.

David Wayne TAMIHERE Released on parole on November 15, 2010, currently denies involvement in these murders. Current a cause célèbre with Metro Magazine and some other media outlets.

In the court of public opinion - #1

In the case of a 16yo in Turangi A particularly tasteless sex crime against a girl 5.

Thankfully public opinion and sentiment isn't the deciding factor in what if any punishments are due. There isn't much doubt about guilt, the teen, by all accounts, turned himself in, and is in custody, bail declined, for the duration.  The story will be one of why, and how. And we will all have an opinion on that.

But is you've been unfortunate enough to read some blogs then you'll find things like this, all anonymous all ignorant and all rabid;

• "Hopefully this scumbag will be jailed. He will last about 5 seconds in prison."


• "He should be fucking shot"


• "he big pity is ... the cunt is only 16 and  will create a feeding frenzy for lawyers, psychiatrist and the like all at our expence, besides that in jail nowadays most of the crims are in for similar shit, they will just fuck him."


• "16. Disgusting. And of course will likely not be convicted due to his age. Appalling."


• "I REALLY hope that the judge refuses name suppression in this case."


• "It's well past time minors got automatic name suppression. Hang em high"


• ime for a little social justice me thinks....Should get a lynch mob together outside Taupo youth court for a public castration and flogging. What a piece of trash cant wait till his lawyer (probably tax payer provided) blames his tragic upbringing."

And that's just from just one blog!

Twitter had is share of agony aunts and uncles, with one long and ill-informed back and forth about nature over nurture that I was (As was the whole of connected twitter) watching (or participating in).

Bottom line is not a one of us knows, and not a one of us will get to decide on this. The worst thing about this whole episode, in my opinion, is the level of faux outrage that  people have. The crime was sick and distasteful, all crimes against children are, but with a little nudge from the media and we have a circus born. And to the circus come the freaks, freaks with opinions, bloated, self-important or ill-informed, all there at one outlet or another.

This is the price we pay for democracy on the internet of course, we're all allowed our say and we're all at liberty to share it with who ever we like, where we like, and how we like.

Casting aside even our own sense of moral right and climbing on the high horse of public outrage doesn't end well. We're increasingly like a school of  sharks who encircle the next victim with a savage onslaught, only to move away quietly to the next victim, out faux outrage dissipated.

We've had this Faux Outrage at events such as, Pike river, Michael Laws, Garth George, The Tea Cup fiasco,  the Rena accident, and just about any time there is a child abuse case spread across the media.

It's ok to be disgusted, and to be confused by events that you don't have any control over, really it is, however it's not ok to assume that you are the arbiter of outcomes. It just doesn't work that way.

just saying.

A Commercial venture and the public purse. #2

Here's a thing.  We're all familiar with a user pays model. You want something, a goods or service, then you should be expected to pay.

Seems the Police are considering charging the organisers of future big commercial
events, such as the Rugby World Cup, large concerts and the Wellington sevens, for policing.

These Events soak up significant police resources, which leave other areas short-staffed.

And it's free!!. So you can organise the biggest commercial money spinner, and the police will show up, en masse, gratis. Courtesy the tax payer.

That's not at all right by any definition of right.

Crying ensues The cost of recovery would therefore be included in the cost of the ticket. Which will add-on a dollar or two to the ticket price, depending of course on the number of people and the amount of police you had turning up.

Of course being how we're all super scared and all about mitigating problems the real issue is the over-enforcement and the over-policing of events where heavy-handed appears to be the approach, why not use a sledge-hammer to crack a nut.