new zealand unsolved

true crime cases from new zealand (as well as some from around the world) feel free to use the ask button to request particular cases or just ask me things

[lizardsfromspace]

The best resolution to a missing persons case ever was that developmentally disabled person who walked off in 1986 saying he "wanted to be a cowboy in Texas", starting a twenty-one year search for him on the assumption he died somewhere in the desert or was murdered, only for everyone to discover that he had spent those decades working as a cowboy on a ranch in Texas. Missing persons investigators rarely consider that maybe they achieved their dreams

[epilepticsaints]

[newzealandunsolved]

the Bain family murders

who died: parents Robin and Margaret Bain, and their children Arawa, Laniet, and Stephen

who (maybe) did it: David Bain was their fourth child, as well as the sole survivor and suspect

what happened: a brutal murder, where the victims were shot to death

when: 20th June 1994

where: their family home in Dunedin, New Zealand

The murders of the Bain family is one of the most iconic legal cases in New Zealand history. Almost everyone alive at the time was following the news. Brutal homicide is not overly common in the country, so this shooting death of an entire family sans eldest son was shocking news for the country. It is a unique case in that it led to the conviction, and then the acquittal of the one and only suspect.

the backstory:

Let us first explore the background that leads up to the main event, in order to give some context to the family environment.

Robin and Margaret Bain were married in 1969 in Dunedin, and throughout their marriage, they had four children: David (1972), Arawa (1974), Laniet (1976) and Stephen (1980). They moved to Papua New Guinea in 1974 where Robin worked as a missionary teacher. In 1988 the family then returned to Dunedin where Robin became the principal of a local school.

In June of 1994 (when the murders occurred) the family lived at 65 Every Street in Dunedin. The house was described as old and semi-derelict. Many trial photos showed the home being fairly messy, with family belongings strewn about in disorderly heaps. At the time, Robin and Margaret were estranged due to Margaret’s increasing interest in new-age spiritualism. She had referred to him as “a son of Belial - one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell”, which really gives you an idea of her mental state at the time. Another important note was that David seemed to be her favourite child, so you can imagine that some of this interesting outlook rubbed off on him, but anyway. Robin and Margaret fought frequently, and shortly before the murders Margaret had even told an acquaintance that she would shoot Robin if she could (yikes). He would often sleep in the back of his van near the school he worked at as Margaret would not let him sleep in the house. When he did sleep at home, it was in a caravan in the garden.

Fellow teachers described Robin at the time of the killings as deeply depressed, often impairing his ability to do his job. Cyril Wilden, a former teacher and registered psychologist had visited the school and noted that “Robin appeared to be increasingly disorganised and struggling to cope”, noting the piles of unopened mail on his desk and his “dishevelled, disorganised and untidy” classroom.

Child Laniet was flatting in Dunedin but would also live with her father in the schoolhouse. She had returned to the family house on the 19th of June, the day before the murders, to attend a family meeting in order to disclose that her father had been committing incest with her prior to the murders.

David was studying music and classics at Otago University and had a part-time job delivering newspapers (remember this, this will be extremely important later). Arawa was attending teachers’ college, and Stephen was in high school.

Needless to say, the family was, overall, not without their issues. This was picked apart in the trials as the only two suspects were son David and father Robin.

the murder:

Now to the murders themselves. The following description is the official, legally documented circumstances of what occurred. Further theories that state other circumstances may have happened are discussed later.

On the morning of the 20th of June, 1994, after returning from his morning paper run, David called 111 at 7:09 am in a distressed state, and told the operator “They’re dead, they’re all dead.” 

When the police arrived they discovered a truly shocking sight. Five members of the Bain family were dead - Margaret, aged 50, Robin, aged 58, Arawa, aged 19, Laniet, aged 18, and Stephen aged 14. All were dead via gunshot wounds. A message was discovered typed on a computer that said “Sorry, you are the only one that deserved to stay”. Four days later, David, aged 22, was charged with five counts of murder. 

Very unhelpfully, the house was burned down two weeks after the murders, at the request of other family members. In the process, vital evidence, including a carpet containing bloody footprints, was destroyed.

the legal dramas:

David Bain’s first trial lasted three weeks at the Dunedin High Court in May 1995. The Crown case was that David shot his mother, two sisters, and brother before going out on his morning paper run at about 5:45 am. There was a struggle with said brother. He returned from the paper an hour later, typed out the aforementioned message on the computer, and then waited in the lounge for his father to come in from the caravan, before shooting him in the head. He then rang emergency services. 

The defence case was that father Robin shot and killed his wife and children, turned on the computer, wrote the message to his son, and then committed suicide. David returned from his paper run, found his family members dead and then rang emergency services. 

Dean Cottle, a witness who was expected to testify for the defence that Laniet was going to expose an incestuous relationship with her father, failed to show up to court when called. Cottle provided a written statement to this effect but the Justice found him unreliable as a witness and ruled against admission of his testimony, meaning that Laniet’s supposed disclosure was not presented to the jury. 

As a result of this, neither the prosecution nor the defence could present a motive for their respective suspects. In fact, the Crown prosecutor told the jury, “It is beyond comprehension. We can’t understand it. Your job is to work out who did it, not to worry about why it happened. We will probably never know why.” The trial concluded with David being convicted by said jury on five counts of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a sixteen-year non-parole period. 

This is not the end though! Nay, this is merely the beginning of a complex and, honestly, entertaining legal drama for the ages. It is a series of events I am shocked has not been turned into an award-winning Netflix series yet. 

After the trial, former All-Black Joe Karam became interested in the case after reading an article about some university students raising money for David’s appeal. He studied the evidence presented and stated that something felt wrong, spearheading a lengthy campaign to have David’s convictions overturned. He visited David in prison over 200 times and wrote four books on the case. His support helped bring about a subsequent retrial in 2009. It’s important to note that Karam’s support of David did come at a great personal cost. He lost an estimated 4 million dollars, as well as his wife and investment properties. 

The first application for an appeal was made in 1995, mainly on whether the judge had made an error in refusing the testimony of Cottle. The court refused this appeal on the basis that the “Crown case appeared very strong, and the defence theory not at all plausible.” 

In June 1998, David petitioned the Governor-General for a pardon, which was then passed on to the Ministry of Justice. In 2000, Justice Minister Phil Goff stated that the investigation had shown a number of errors may have occurred in the Crown’s case against David. 

In March 2007, Karam and David’s legal team then travelled all the way to London to lay out nine arguments before the Privy Council as to why David’s convictions should be cleared. Two of their reasons include Robin’s mental state and possible motives, outlining how he was possibly facing public and serious sex offences against his own teenage daughter. The Privy Council said there was some doubt that David would have been convicted had this information been given to the jury. 

The Privy Council concluded that a substantial miscarriage of justice had taken place, David’s convictions were overturned, and a retrial was ordered. Overall, David wound up serving almost 13 of the 16-year non-parole period of his life sentence. 

The retrial took place at the Christchurch High Court, where David pleaded not guilty to all five murder charges. The defence presented evidence about Robin’s state of mind, arguing that he committed all five murders and then suicide, because of the supposed incestuous relationship with his daughter that was about to become public. The trial lasted about three months, and the jury took less than a day to find David not guilty on all five charges. 

After the acquittal, David went on a three-month European holiday (just like many 20-something New Zealanders), before returning to the country and struggling to land a job (obviously). 

Further applications for financial compensation were filed, and an overseas judge (Canadian Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie) examined David’s application for compensation. Binnie concluded that Dunedin police had made a number of errors that lead to the wrongful conviction and that, on the balance of probabilities, david was innocent of the murders and should be paid compensation. Judith Collins (talofa), who was now the Justice Minister, disagreed with these conclusions, which led to the two criticising each other in the press. David then filed a claim seeking a review of Collin’s actions, which was part of the reason she resigned as Justice Minister in 2014. A second report, from an Australian judge was commissioned this time, which found Davud not innocent on the balance of probabilities. At the conclusion, a payment of $925,000 was offered to David to settle the matter and bring closure. 

And that is the end of this insane case. Overall, the trials and reports cost taxpayers nearly 7 million dollars, with several polls showing that the majority of people believe that David should be compensated for the time he spent in prison. Nowadays, David is a married man who lives somewhere in Australia, for obvious reasons. The case itself has remained in the public consciousness to the point that I, someone who was not even born at the time of the murders, already knew the broad strokes of this case before I even researched it. Cozy grandpa sweaters are also ruined for all Kiwis, as David wore horrendous (or iconic, you choose) sweaters to his trials, which has become a mainstay joke in New Zealand culture. In conclusion, this case is pretty much an unsolved mystery. Everyone has their own opinion on the case, but we will never know what happened in Dunedin on that day.