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The purpose of any investigation is to establish the truth. In many cases that can be quite problematic. Telling Tales explores one of the most fundamental skills a detective needs – the ability to communicate effectively on many levels. ‘To get a rapport with people – to have them tell you things that sometimes they’ve never told anybody else.’ Detective Senior Sergeant Tusha Penny When a handless corpse is found at Red Rocks in Wellington detectives are faced with an immense task. Detective Inspector Mike Arnerich heading the team remembers going to the scene ‘ There’s just a beach with a drag mark coming out of the beach and we had a special search group doing the search. And there’s about 10 of these guys on the ground, freezing cold southerly coming in, all suited up in protective cross-contamination clothing and they’re going through stone by stone every piece of pebble along these drag marks. And I actually thought to myself what the heck are they ever going to get out of there?’ Their finds include a cigarette butt which would prove to have the killers DNA on it. The painstaking work would provide other critical leads. Unravelling the mystery Mike Arnerich enlisted the media – clocking up several front pages stories and prompting the public to call in with pivotal information. Covert surveillance teams were assigned to one particular individual and again it was a member of the public working at a hardware store who would recall the purchase of the secateurs used to sever the hands. Operation Red Rocks reveals that the key to an investigation can lie in excellent communication on many levels. Likewise, in the state of death the victim’s body can also provide detectives with an enormous amount of information. ‘When there’s a homicide there’s a post-mortem …and the investigators are there, to look at the body, and what they can tell us in their state of death about how they died and what went on at their crime s
Attention To Detail explores the marrying of two separate but critical components in the detectives tool box. The attribute known collectively by detectives throughout the years as Attention To Detail (ATD) and the scientific advances that became known as DNA. With the advancements in DNA analysis, science could and would play an invaluable role in investigating serious crime. ATD is about practical precision in the investigative process. ‘I think that attention to every detail is probably one of the most critical attributes that you can have in a detective.’ Former Detective Superintendent Neville Stokes A case that brilliantly highlights the absolute burning need for attention to detail is brought to life by Former Detective Sergeant Colin Matthews who, with his team, were faced with one of the most horrific crime scenes in which a bomb delivered in a parcel killed a young mother and very nearly killed her friend. The severity of the blast saw the detectives combing through rubble for clues. ‘People don’t get blown up for nothing’ Former Detective Sergeant Colin Matthews Searching the bomb site, the detectives literally sieved all the debris for clues. Bringing in explosive experts and scientists they trawled through the scene. Working against time as body matter decomposed, the investigators began to unravel the mystery. Fingerprints – the original ‘invisible signature’ – were miraculously gleaned from the chaos and the links began to stitch together. So strong was the case that the killer changed his plea to guilty before the trial started– there was no way his lawyers could find a hole in the detectives’ work. Their attention to detail and their dogged determination to find the truth was too thorough for debate. Recognising the tiniest details can be critical to investigations, as illustrated in the case of Alf Benning. He may have considered he’d committed the perfect crime when he carefully cleaned the blood out o
Teamwork celebrates the team approach that enables the CIB to maximise their efforts. From the core team of detectives – each with a specific assignment – to the specialist teams within the police such as Profilers and Armed Offenders Squads, to the co-opting of the media into the team and ultimately, the public at large. We work as a team to create our luck by seeing a huge range of people. Interviewing a lot of people looking for the little thing, or the things that will break the investigation and give us the result. Detective Superintendent Rod Drew Operation Mist will go down in recent CIB history as one of the most baffling cases. When a sinister bunker is discovered in the bush, detectives find themselves on a most peculiar mission. ‘We didn't know who was involved, we didn't know the intent it was going to be used for. But we needed to make sure that no one was in immediate danger in the time we were doing these initial enquiries as well. So we had to deploy staff up there amongst the bush watching the bunker. Twenty four hours a day.’ Former Detective Sergeant Murray Porter It seemed that a kidnap was about to happen but detectives didn’t know who the target was, or where or when it would take place. In the end a hunble block of cheese would help lead the team to stopping the crime before it happened. Again it is the tiny details that must be considered. But with no leads the detectives investigating the case of south Auckland serial rapist Joseph Thompson were feeling the inevitable pressure. ‘Every rape that happened you felt like you’d failed the victim because you hadn’t caught the guy, he was still out there going.’ Former Detective Sergeant Dave Henwood Faced with a very sinister and elusive rapist, the detectives set up the Criminal Profiling Unit. This profiling created a suspect list and led to a ‘blooding’ phase that ultimately got the much-needed DNA hit on Joseph Thompson. The criminal profiling
To solve the most serious of crimes – murder – detectives use dedication, community support and detailed forensic work. To Catch a Killer features cases that not only reveal the tenacity and attention to detail of the detectives, but also the challenges that they grapple with in their work.
While drug dealers never sleep and the drug of choice changes over time, the demand for getting high does not. High Times and Lowlifes takes ground-breaking cases that illustrate the leaps and bounds made by criminals over the years in New Zealand’s fertile drug scene. The lure of drugs knows no social, moral, legal or international boundaries.
Existing only to make money and raise hell, gangs are entrenched in our society. In The Business of Crime, the stakes keep getting higher. The cases featured in The Business of Crime pinpoint the depths detectives must go to get the result society needs. Criminals who truly believe they are untouchable – and the detectives must prove them wrong.
