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 of his laundry after chopping up his wife. But detectives investigating the scene found minute traces of blood on the floor boards beneath the lino. Then, during their search of Benning’s expansive, well maintained garden, a sharp young detective noticed an irregularity. A freshly planted apple tree with turf removed far from the base of the tree. Sure enough, wrapped in newspaper and buried beneath the apple tree lay the pieces of Mrs Benning.
Without a doubt, excellent detectives have finely tuned antennas for trouble.
Faced with a very public murder scene, covered with fragments of glass and potentially invaluable clues, Former Detective Inspector Harry Quinn found himself protecting the murder scene from a Springbok Tour protest march.
‘An inspector came to see us and said you're going to have to clear the rest of Adelaide Road, get off here because thousands of demonstrators are going to march to demonstrate against the tour outside Athletic Park which is directly up Adelaide Road from the crime scene. And I simply said no, they will not be coming through the crime scene, and we will stand and protect our crime scene to the death.’ Former Detective Inspector Harry Quinn
The Brown Street murder inquiry would be an epic investigation that saw the largest number of people convicted of manslaughter in New Zealand’s history. Met with walls of silence from both the accused and the associates of the dead man, the detectives were forced to rely on science and the cunning matching of thousands of different fragments of glass and fibres.
Detectives from ‘the Golden Age’ were quite commonly seen carting around their own typewriter – so when the computer arrived with its lightening speed and range of functions, it revolutionised the CIB’s investigative process.
The first case to utilise the computer was a hugely complicated case that grabbed worldwide attention. The Rainbow Warrior bombing was the biggest investigation in the CIB’s history.
‘We knew the eyes of the world was on us, I mean there’s nothing more motivating than that.’ Former Detective Sergeant Terry Batchelor
The enormity of the multi-pronged investigation saw one of our female detectives successfully hunting for abstract clues in foreign lands. Without the attention to detail displayed by the New Zealand public, the public overseas and the CIB team a different outcome may have quite possible.
With the age of transparency on us defence lawyers championed the use of video recorders but then, as our detectives explain, the lawyers realised their own error. However, the video would soon come into its own in the Chris Crean murder case, which saw evidence given via a video link from a secret location – unprecedented in New Zealand at the time.
Developments in DNA profiling and blood work made for successful convictions in the late 80’s as in the case of tourist Margery Hopegood. But Former Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Hewett investigating the murder of Maureen McKinnel in 1987 had to bide time waiting for advances in DNA profiling to catch-up, as he hoped it would. More than 15 years later, having never given up, he finally secured a conviction through a match in DNA profiles.
‘I knew that she wouldn't lay down and die, that she’d fight. She would have fought for her life, and that was the case ‘cause she scratched him. And that convicted him, so Maureen was responsible for convicting the person that killed her.’
Former Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Hewett
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