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 scene is them giving evidence in their own court case.’
Former Detective Inspector Harry Quinn
Detectives working in Wellington in 1983 were baffled when a body was found in the Hutt River with peculiar welts on his body. ‘The body had these red dotted lines/injuries around the neck and on the stomach. And we just couldn’t for the life of us work out what they were or what had caused them.’ Former Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Whitford
By fingerprinting the body detectives started unpicking the grisly crime, eventually leading to three convictions. This case reiterates the importance of convincing people to talk in the interview room.
Natural story tellers like Former Detective Sergeant Terry Batchelor discuss the art of interviewing and the value of informants. Their experiences are unexpectedly candid and sometimes wildly unorthodox.
‘Without informants the police couldn’t exist. Some people can run informants very very well, and it’s an art.’ Detective Sergeant Colin Matthews
Flipping back in time to ‘the Golden Age’ where detectives were literally drinking with the enemy, a stabbing in a nightclub ultimately ends when the offender is shot by Police. This homicide inquiry spirals from a nightclub full of dodgy characters from Wellington’s underworld scene; to the discovery of a dead man with multiple stab wounds, to a high speed chase where the police are forced to shoot the axe yielding killer. A novel way to spend Christmas Eve.
Before surveillance cameras were watching our every move, detectives were forced to rely on traditional methods such as area canvasses, informants and encouraging people to ‘cough’ – confess to the crime. But when the body of a young Chinese man is found floating in a suitcase in Auckland harbour, security surveillance plays an integral part in the investigative process. Recorded on film, this damning evidence is beyond legal debate.
Pitting their wits against the offenders, detectives need to be men and women for all seasons – as Former Detective Superintendent Neville Stokes recounts, in the investigation that saw him horse-riding with a killer. The bravery of these detectives faced with precarious unexpected situations is extraordinary. They must negotiate with people who have little or no respect for the law. Doing their job with a gun to their head.
Telling Tales touches on the subtle ramifications of being a detective – how do they cope and how does the work affect them. Of course, never-ending exposure to violence and death takes its toll.
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