In 1970, David and Jeanette Crewe disappeared, leaving their 18-month-old daughter, Rochelle, behind in her cot at the family farmhouse in Pukekawa, Lower Waikato, New Zealand. Nearly 51 years later, there are still few answers as to what happened to the Crewe family the night of June 17th, 1970.
In 1966, Jeanette and David, who went by Harvey, married, and began their life together. They bought farmland in Pukekawa, which neighboured Jeanette’s family’s farm.They were living the dream.
However, strange things were happening. Jeanette told friends and family that she was afraid to be in the home by herself. The farm had been burglarized, and had also been victim to strange arson attacks.
By 1970, the incidents had lessened, but it was still not unusual to find the Crewes always on their property. Jeanette was also set to receive her recently deceased mother’s half of her family farm, the Demler farm.
Back in 1962, Jeanette’s father, Lenard, had been fined a hefty fee for tax evasion. In order to meet the liability payment, Lenard had sold his half of the farm to his wife. In turn, his wife had bequeathed the farm to her daughter, Jeanette, in her will. Lenard would still live on the farm, and live off of the profits, but he would not be the owner.
On June 22nd, 1970, a neighbour phoned Lenard and informed him that the Crewes weren’t answering their phone, and this was cause for concern. Lenard went to his daughter’s home, and found her and Harvey missing. Rochelle was in her cot, absolutely filthy.
Unbelievably, Lenard then left Rochelle there, returned to his own farm, and called a transport company in order to cancel the stock transfer that was supposed to take place. Next, Lenard went to fetch a neighbour, Owen Priest, and asked him to return to the Crewe farm with him. Returning to the home, Lenard then takes Rochelle out of her cot, lips dry, eyes sunken in, smelling of urine and excrement, and takes her to a friend of Jeanette’s to car for.
Approximately an hour and 20 minutes after Lenard had first discovered Jeanette and Harvey missing, he finally called the police.
When they arrived, they found blood stained on Harvey’s arm chair, a pool on the carpet, and a long drag mark down the middle of the living room floor. Blood was also found near the front steps, and all over the kitchen – on the floor, cupboard doors, water tap, and two pans.
Police turned their attention to Lenard immediately. His odd behaviour had led to them believing him to be a suspect. They believed his motive to be possession of the Demler farm.
As the investigation continued, they found that no only was Lenard’s behaviour odd, but that he had a scratch mark on his neck, and blood that matched Jeanette’s blood type on the seat of his car.
However, all of the evidence was circumstantial at best. Lenard denied knowing what had happened to Harvey or Jeanette, and he had been present at the farmhouse, having dinner with his family, during one of the odd arson attacks.
Police continued to search through the farmhouse, the garden, and the lands, hoping for clues or leads. Lenard would often appear on horseback, overseeing the investigation.
Police spoke to friends, family, and neighbours. One witness stated that on June 19th, they saw a strange, unknown woman wandering the Crewe property. With little else to go on, the investigation seemed to stall.
Jeanette’s body was found wrapped in a duvet and copper wire in the Waikato River on August 16th, 1970. Exactly one month later, on September 16th, Harvey’s body was found upriver. He was found also wrapped in a blanket, however, he was also weighed down by an axle.
The axle was found to have come from a trailer that used to belong to the father of Arthur Allan Thomas, who was a neighbour of the Crewes.
Police discovered that both Harvey and Jeanette had been shot in the head with a .22 calibre firearm. Jeannette also had broken facial bones.
Once autopsies had been performed, interviews had been conducted, and the crime scene had been analyzed, police figured they had a good idea of what had happened to the Crewe family.
Harvey and Jeanette were last seen around 2:30 PM at a stock sale in Bombay on June 17th, 1970. Later that afternoon, the family returned home to their farm in Pukekawa, where their car was seen parked on the side of the road, around 2 kilometers south of the house.
That evening, Jeanette fed Rochelle, then put her to bed, before eating her own dinner with Harvey. Then, they went about their evening – Harvey sat in his armchair, and Jeanette settled on the couch to knit.
Between 7:30 PM and 9:00 PM, an unknown attacker confronted Harvey and Jeanette in their living room. Police theorize that Harvey was shot in the head from behind. Jeanette was then struck in the face, falling, and hitting her head on the corner of the hearth in the living room. The killer then shot her at close range. The killer, or killers, then dragged Harvey and Jeanette out of the house, wrapping them up in blankets from the bedroom, and securing them with copper wire. They left Rochelle alone in her cot.
Knowing that the couple were shot with a .22, police collected and test fired a collection of .22 firearms from the Pukekawa area. A forensic report could not eliminate two firearms as the murder weapon – one owned by Arthur Allan Thomas, and one owned by the Eyre family.
A witness also came forward and stated that they heard three gunshots ar around 8:30 PM on the night of the 17th. When asked about his whereabouts at the time, Arthur Allan Thomas stated that he had been home with his wife and cousin at the time of the murders. Both his wife an cousin corroborated Arthur’s alibi.
Police began shifting their suspect view from Lenard, to Arthur. They’d learned that Arthur had harboured romantic feelings for Jeanette when they were in school together. Jeanette turned him down gently, and, by all accounts, they remained friends. But police began believing that his romantic feelings hadn’t gone away, and Arthur had finally done something about them.
Police continued to search the farmhouse, garden, and property for clues, hoping beyond hope for something – anything – that could shed light on the horrible murders.
Finally, on October 27th, 1970, police found a spent cartridge casing in the garden. The case was linked to Arthur’s rifle. This was more than enough for police to pin the murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe on Arthur Allan Thomas.
He was arrested on November 11th, 1970, and charged with the murders. He pleaded not guilty.
At trial, the prosecution posited that the strange, unknown woman that had been seen on the property was Arthur’s wife, and they maintained this theory, despite the original witness stating without a shadow of a doubt that she was not the woman they saw.
The prosecution put forward Arthur’s romantic interest in Jeanette as the motive for the murders, despite evidence to back it up. To bolster their case, they presented their cartridge casing evidence as, of course, the smoking gun.
Arthur was found guilty of the murders, but the conviction was overturned immediately on appeal.
In 1973, Arthur underwent a second trial for murder. Once again, he was convicted. This time, he was sentenced to life in prison.
Arthur’s supporters were quick to begin their campaign to free him. They wanted to bring attention to all of the inconsistencies in the investigation, stating outright that Arthur had been framed.
On December 17th, 1979, Arthur Allan Thomas was granted a free pardon, and was released. He was compensated $950,000 for the time he spent in prison, and the loss of use of his farm.
In April 1980, a Royal Commission of Inquiry was ordered to investigate what had gone wrong during the investigation. The Inquiry ultimately found three counts of police corruption.
The first count related to the cartridge case found in the garden, known as Exhibit 350. The Inquiry found that Detective Inspector Bruce Hutton and Detective Sergeant Lenrick Johnston planted the cartridge at the Crewe property, and falsely identified it as having come from Arthur’s firearm.
The second count stated that during Arthur’s second trial in 1973, Hutton switched the cartridge from Arthur’s firearm with another that matched Exhibit 350.
The third count of police corruption found that Hutton, Johnston, and other officers had all perjured themselves.
The Inquiry report went on to state that Exhibit 350 simply had not had the kind of wear and tear that would be expected from a cartridge that had been lying in a garden for months at a time. The report also found that the type of ammunition used to murder Harvey and Jeanette was not made after 1963. The type of cartridge presented as Exhibit 350 at both trials was known to be made from 1964 or later.
The report also found that Exhibit 343 – a cartridge that had been found in Arthur’s garage – was in the process of being examined by a forensic scientist, and was determined to be a Category 3 cartridge. As it was being analyzed, according to the forensic scientist, Hutton had stormed in and demanded that the evidence need not be examined.
Figuring something was odd with Hutton’s behaviour, the forensic scientist etched a tiny, microscopic fish on the cartridge, and then put it away. When Exhibit 343 was examined again, by a different forensic scientist, it was determined to be a Category 4 cartridge, and no etching was found.
However, it is impossible to go back and review this evidence. Hutton had it destroyed in 1973. It is believed that Hutton had the evidence destroyed in order to cover up the planting of Exhibit 350, and the switching of Exhibit 343.
Both officers vehemently deny any wrongdoing, and no charges have every been laid against them, despite the Inquiry describing the framing of Arthur Allan Thomas for murder as “an unspeakable outrage”.
In 2014, police reviewed the investigation from top to bottom. They concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring about any new prosecution.
The review officially ruled out Lenard Demler as the killer. The review found that the exhibits presented at both of Arthur’s trials had been fabricated, but did not accept that the original investigation had been on the wrong track.
In 1970, Harvey and Jeanette Crewe were horrifically murdered in their home, and their daughter left behind. A family member was suspected, and one man was framed. Nearly 51 years later, the case remains unsolved.
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Sources:
Crewe cold case: Fifty years and no answers in infamous Pukekawa whodunnit – Anna Leask – NZ Herald
Crime Junkie podcast – MURDERED: Harvey and Jeanette Crewe
A Moment in Crime podcast – The Crewe murders: New Zealand’s most infamous cold case
Murder of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe Wikipedia page