Features

Dunedin's quaint architecture and quiet suburbs hide a dark past. This small southern city has had more than its fair share of brutality, with some of the country's most high-profile crimes and horrific happenings occurring right here in the Edinburgh of the South.

The axe murderer that got away with it: the Dewar family massacre
   The Dewar family lived on the northern end of Cumberland Street, which in 1880 was described as “a large and broad thoroughfare on the outskirts of town.” James Dewar, a butcher by trade, lived with his young wife and their baby daughter. Their lives were brutally cut short on March 14, 1880 when an intruder broke into their home, used Mr. Dewar's own axe to hack him and his wife to death, ransacked the cottage, and attempted to burn the evidence. The baby suffocated in the smoke.
   No one was ever convicted of the Dewars’ murder. A man called Robert Butler was tried, but found not guilty, despite very strong evidence against him. There was speculation at the time that the jury were influenced by the politics of that period: capital punishment was in force, but unpopular with many people, and there was suggestion that the jurors were unwilling to send a man to his death.
   Robert Butler, even if he didn't kill the Dewars, was no saint. He arrived in Otago after a criminal career in Australia, having been born somewhere in Great Britain. Soon after his arrival, he was sentenced to four years’ hard labour for burglary. After his acquittal, he spent another 16 years in penal servitude for burglaries committed at around the same time as the Dewar murders. On his release he returned to Australia, where further crimes led to another 13 years in prison. Finally, he was hanged in 1905 for the murder of Mr. William Munday in Queensland.
 
   He almost committed the perfect murder: Colin Bouwer
   Colin and Annette Bouwer seemed like the perfect couple. Married for nearly twenty years, they moved to Dunedin from South Africa in 1997 with their two teenaged children. He was Head of Psychiatry at the University; she was a homemaker. But a few years after their arrival in New Zealand, Annette started to get sick.
   Mrs. Bouwer suffered from hypoglycemia, condition where blood sugar levels can fall low enough to starve the brain of fuel. Her husband would bring her into the hospital very ill, often in a coma. Doctors could not figure out what was wrong. They thought it could be a tumour in her pancreas making insulin. Eventually, Mrs. Bouwer underwent major surgery to remove part of her pancreas. Afterward, she made a rapid and thorough recovery – but two weeks later, she was dead.
   Colin Bouwer almost got away with it. The coroner wasn’t willing to give Mrs. Bouwer a forensic autopsy based on her doctor's suspicions, and her medical history was consistent enough with her death that if Dr. Andrew Bowers hadn't pushed the matter, she could have been buried before anyone questioned the way in which she died. Fortunately, the autopsy was completed, and Bouwer's story began to unravel.
   Tests done during the police investigation showed that Annette died of an overdose of anti-diabetic drugs – the same drugs that must have been causing her previous illness. Chillingly, Dr. Bouwer had led a class discussion in 1999 about how it would be possible to commit the perfect murder, using exactly these drugs. He had even called the National Poisons Centre to find out how long the drugs would remain traceable in the body. Having made his plans, Bouwer set about acquiring the drugs by writing prescriptions for past patients, not one of which was diabetic. He then slowly poisoned his wife to death.
   It's not clear why. Bouwer was allegedly having an affair with another local psychiatrist, and he had a large life insurance policy out on his wife. But for any normal person, this would not be enough reason to take another person's life, let alone someone who loved you and was the mother of your children.
   Bizarrely, Colin Bouwer Jr., the original murderer's son by his previous wife, was convicted of murdering his own wife by strangulation a few years later.
 
   It's not a real castle without some good ghost stories: the tragic tale of the Larnachs
   All great castles have a few ghosts. Although Larnach Castle is only a great castle of New Zealand by default, being the only castle in New Zealand, its history has enough sadness to warrant a haunting.
   The castle was built in 1871 by William Larnach, a banker, merchant and politician, for himself and his wife Eliza Guise and their six children. As anyone who has visited it will know, the castle is a beautiful building. The Larnachs’ happiness in their new home did not last long, however: Eliza died at the age of 38, when their youngest daughter Gladys was only a baby. After her death, William married Eliza's half-sister Mary Alleyne. Five years later, Mary was also dead, also at the age of 38.
   Larnach’s third and final wife was much younger than him, a woman by the name of Constance de Bathe Brandon. Following this marriage, things started going downhill for William Larnach. His favourite daughter died in her early twenties, his business endeavours were failing, and there were rumours that his son was having an affair with his young wife. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in a locked room in the New Zealand Parliament.
   Larnach Castle's history continued to be interesting: it has served as a holiday retreat for nuns, a mental hospital, and accommodation for US soldiers, among other things. But the ghost stories tend to centre around the Larnachs.
   One story is that Kate Larnach haunts the ballroom her doting father built for her twenty-first birthday. She died of typhoid shortly after the party. Her mother Eliza is said to haunt the doorway of the room she died in, the South Bedroom. Eliza was said to have died of ‘apoplexy’, an old word that probably suggests that she died from a stroke or heart attack. William Larnach's ghost has been blamed for the mysterious opening and closing of doors in the castle late at night.
   There have been many other ghostly tales associated with the castle. Whatever the truth about ghosts, what's certain is that the Larnachs were a family that suffered a lot during their years in the castle. 
 
   New Zealand's most horrific shooting: the Aramoana massacre
   In November 1990, as it is now, Aramoana was a peaceful seaside town near Dunedin. There was no warning that it was about to become the scene of the worst mass murder New Zealand has ever seen.
   On 13 November, David Gray went on killing spree, taking thirteen lives and wounding three others. The dead included four children, the youngest of whom was just six years old.
   The most terrifying thing about the Aramoana massacre was that it happened with no warning and no apparent motive. David Gray was said to be a quiet animal lover, eccentric but not dangerous. The killing started when he had an argument with his next-door neighbour, Garry Holden, about Holden's daughter wandering onto his property. Gray responded by shooting Holden dead. He then proceeded to kill apparently any person at random that came into his path. During the manhunt and gun battle that eventually led to his capture, Gray shot and killed Sergeant Stewart Guthrie. 
   The Aramoana tragedy was brought back into the public view recently with the release in 2006 of the film Out of the Blue, a dramatisation of the events of that day.
 
   Madness, cruelty, and death by fire: Seacliff Asylum
   Seacliff Asylum was in operation between 1884 and 1973. These years, particularly the early ones, were not good years for the mentally ill, and those who were brought to Seacliff were no exception. The asylum is particularly famous for being the institution that almost gave Janet Frame a lobotomy, a procedure that involves having the front part of the brain destroyed and which generally left the patient permanently impaired. Frame was saved when her first collection of short stories won a major literary prize, which her doctors must have considered evidence that she was not a suitable candidate for the procedure.
   As well as lobotomies, the medical staff at Seacliff performed a number of other treatments that would now be considered inhumane. One such treatment was the 'unsexing' operation performed on some female patients, involving the removal of the ovaries and clitoris. According to some residents, beatings were routine. On the other hand, Seacliff was considered in its time to be a very forward-thinking and humane institution, where the residents were well fed, participated in many activities including working, and could wander the grounds at will.
   In 1942, disaster hit Seacliff. One of the newer wooden ward buildings caught fire, possibly due to an electrical fault. It happened at around 9.45pm on 8 December. Because of a nursing shortage, all the patients were locked in their rooms for the night when the fire broke out. Only two of the 39 women in the ward survived.
 
   Innocent or guilty: the Bain family murders
   The Bain family murders need no introduction. The massacre of Robert, Margaret, Laniet, Arawa, and Stephen Bain on 20 June 1994 is one of the most infamous crimes in New Zealand history, and the aftermath of their murders has continued even into this year.
   The evidence in the Bain case is complex and sometimes contradictory. What is certain is that five members of the Bain family were shot that morning, and eldest son David Bain was the only survivor.
   David Bain was tried for the murders in 1995, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with a 16-year non-parole period. David has always maintained his innocence, and he and his supporters have been appealing his conviction ever since his sentencing. Until 2007, none of his appeals were successful. Finally, in his second appeal to the Privy Council, it was decided that a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred, and a retrial was ordered.
   The second trial happened in 2009, and was in the news constantly throughout the three months of testimony. There a considerable amount of previously unseen evidence presented to the jury. The verdict of 'not guilty' was a huge victory for David and his supporters.
   If David is innocent, then the most likely alternative theory for the murders has always been that Robin, David's father, killed his wife and children and then himself.