The Mark of a Good Mentor
One of my mentors as a budding young detective was my first Detective Senior Sergeant; the late John Hughes. He became a household name in 1989 as the officer who led Operation Stockholm, the investigation into the disappearance and murders of Swedish backpackers Heidi Paakkonen and Urban Hoglin. Two things he taught me were; “if you do the basics and do them well you will get the right result” and “ATD – Attention to Detail”.
One case where these principles served me well was the investigation into the abduction and rape of a young women taken from her bed in a Papatoetoe street during the early hours of a Sunday morning. Both the victim and her boyfriend were assaulted, gagged and tied up, and she was driven away by the two assailants to a beach at Weymouth. The offenders discussed the disposal of her body. Thankfully the victim was able to escape. Her car was found burnt out next to an alleyway in Manurewa. Accelerants were used.
The enquiry was set up under homicide investigation protocols. My team was called in a few days later. We were assigned “General Enquiries”. Evidence gathered during the first 24 hours of such an investigation forms the basis of further enquiry phases. One area of focus for us was a party on the night of the abduction in the same street; and another was collecting CCTV footage of small purchases of petrol from local service stations.
While my team pursued those phases I sought to review the crime scene evidence to see what other phases should be considered. Paper work for the abduction scene examination had not been submitted, so I asked the detective concerned whether he found anything of interest. He opened his desk drawer, pulled out an envelope and showed me the head of a men’s watch found on the victim’s bedroom floor. He said it did not belong to the Victim’s partner. Nothing else of interest was found, so I was told.
I arranged access to the house and completed my own scene examination. In the garden under the window used by the offenders to gain entry I found several remnants of Steinlager labels and cigarette butts. Inside I crawled under the bed and found two pins; the sort that connects the head of a watch to its strap.
By this time my team had interviewed the party hosts. They reported two gate-crashers who drank Steinlager and caused trouble. One guest commented about their habit of peeling off labels. We got a lucky break. The gate-crashers were shown in photographs taken by guests.
Our enquiries at a service station also produced fruit. We had CCTV footage of a man buying a tin of petrol at right time who bore a remarkable resemblance to one of the party gate-crashers and his clothing. Further enquiries identified this person and his mate.
We executed search warrants on their homes. I was in charge of searching one of our suspect’s home located 50 metres from the other end of the alleyway where the victim’s car was found. While the team were searching and interviewing family members I flicked through the family photograph album in the lounge. In it were photographs taken of the suspect’s father displaying watches he bought as gifts for his sons at a street market in Glasgow while visiting his mother for her 80th birthday.
I later met the suspect’s father who made a statement identifying the watch as one he gave his son upon returning from his trip to Scotland. He was a decent and honourable man knowing the significance of his testimony.
Both offenders pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and received minimum non-parole sentences of 11 and 13 years imprisonment. By doing so they spared victim the ordeal of testifying.
Criminal investigations and trials are often referred to as jig saw puzzles. It is the task of detectives to find the pieces for a jury to later fit together. This can only be achieved by doing the basics, such as examining scenes and doing those basic enquiry phases well. More often than not this is painstaking and meticulous work. In the end our evidence was so over whelming a jury was not required. Nor was DNA analysis of the cigarette butts.
There were many times during my career that I reflected on the mentoring advice I received from John Hughes and others of his generation. They taught us well in the art and practice of investigating serious crime. My hope is that I was able to pass on similar wise counsel to the next generation of investigators.
Dave Pizzini