New evidence in historic murder case 

The shooting of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe in their farmhouse south of Auckland in 1970 saw a local farmer framed, jailed and pardoned in a case that shook the trust ordinary New Zealanders had in their police force and the justice system.

A commission of inquiry found Arthur Alan Thomas innocent but the case refused to die with lingering doubt and questions about why the police seemed reluctant to re-investigate the brutal double murder.

Thirty five years after the Crewe killings, it remains one of New Zealand's most sensational murder mysteries. And the brother of Arthur Alan Thomas, Des, is obsessed with the case - an obsession which could force the police to reopen it.

"I was about 18 or 19 and I was working on a pig farm up north...and I can remember dad coming out from what we called an office and he come out and I said 'what's wrong' and he said the bastards have arrested Arthur," says Des.

It was a day Des will never forget and he says police picked on the wrong family.

The case hinged around what turned out to be the deliberate planting of evidence that brought shame on the New Zealand Police.

Arthur Thomas was pardoned and the government set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the police handling of the case. The commission sat for 64 days but police were still trying to blame Arthur Thomas for the murders even though he had been pardoned.

But if he didn't do it, who did? Sunday has uncovered an incredible new twist in the case that might move us closer to answering that question.

The new evidence completely overturns a critical finding by the royal commission of inquiry into the case. It's evidence that puts a rifle back in the frame.

The commission agreed to the police request to bring world expert Peter Prescott, a British ballistics scientist, to New Zealand to give evidence.
Prescott's presence was important to police because until then their expert Donald Nelson was adamant that of all the rifles police seized, two of them could have killed the Crewes. One belonged to Arthur Alan Thomas and the other to another local family.

Twenty five years ago Prescott dropped a bombshell at the inquiry. He swore that the New Zealand Police expert, Dr Nelson, was wrong in saying two rifles could have fired the death bullets. In his opinion there was only one rifle involved - the one belonging to Arthur Thomas.

Prescott's evidence was exactly what police wanted to hear. Although Thomas had been pardoned and police had fabricated evidence there were still lingering doubts about his innocence.

Investigative journalist Pat Booth helped to free Thomas and has a clear recollection of Prescott's damaging testimony.

"He had a very professional and convincing air about him... It was a big moment," says Booth.

It was that moment that turned Des Thomas into a self appointed detective determined to get the case reopened.

Years of anguish have led him to hold very strong views about the ballistic expert's evidence.

"Now we can discredit Peter Prescott. He gave evidence which is tantamount to perjury and whatever else goes with it," says Des Thomas.

The cold-blooded killing at a Pukekawa farmhouse on a wintry evening gripped public attention. Jeanette and Harvey Crewe's weighted bodies were tossed into the murky depths of the Waikato River until they floated, almost free, months later.

The two key pieces of evidence in the case were an axle used to weigh Harvey Crewe's body down and fragments of the death bullets found in the bodies.

The axle, the bullet fragments and two locally owned rifles persuaded police that local farmer Arthur Thomas was now their prime suspect. To nail him,  police fabricated evidence by planting a cartridge case in the Crewe's garden.

Thomas was convicted and went to prison for nine years.

But there were many who were certain Arthur Thomas was innocent and after a major film, several books and nine years in jail he finally got justice.

The government endorsed a recommendation from the Minister of Justice that the Governor General pardon Thomas for the Crewe murders. The government was suspicious of the way police investigated the case and appointed a commission of inquiry.

But while it cleared Arthur Thomas it didn't completely clear his rifle.

At the inquiry Prescott said he test fired the two rifles and concluded the bullet from the Thomas gun matched the bullets that killed Harvey and Jeanette Crewe. The commission of inquiry said the police local ballistics expert, Donald Nelson, got it wrong, but it accepted Prescott's evidence that it was highly probable the Thomas gun killed the Crewes.

And that is where it would have remained, but Des Thomas wouldn't let go. He found an independent forensic scientist, Nick Powell, and asked him to look at the test bullet Prescott used to exclude one gun from suspicion - leaving the Thomas rifle alone in the spotlight.

The investigation found that the other rifle ruled out by Prescott could have been the murder weapon. And two weeks ago police finally agreed to meet Des and the independent scientist to inspect the Prescott bullet.

They met police forensics boss John Walker and ESR scientist Kevin Walsh.

Des and Powell say Nelson was right with his initial findings with regard to the Remmington rifle and the police agree.

Booth says everybody just accepted the British expert must be right but he was wrong.

The axle, used to weigh down Harvey's body was the other key piece of evidence used to convict Arthur Thomas. After finding the axle police searched the Thomas dump and found nothing. But five days later two detectives searched again and within minutes, one of them, Detective Johnston, found two matching stub axles.

The commission was very concerned about this evidence and was also troubled by the evidence of five young men who swore they took the axle from the Thomas farm well before the murders. It was information that should have been highly relevant to police but they never followed up on it.

Engineer Rod Rasmussen was a key police witness 30 plus years ago in the Thomas trials. He worked on a Thomas family trailer that police said the axle came from. He says he matched the axle to the stubs but now he's not so sure how the police came to find the stub axles during a second search of the Thomas dump.

Len Johnston, the man who planted the cartridge case, searched the dump twice.

"I'm not going back on what I said originally and the trailer and the axle is 100%. What I believe now is different," says Rasmussen. "I believe Arthur Alan was wrongly convicted."

Des Thomas believes he has also solved the other nagging question around who fed the Crewe's baby daughter - a two-year-old left crying in her cot for five days after her parents were slaughtered. He believes he knows who fed baby Rochelle and his belief is based on what he discovered in Johnston's's notebook.

A local farm worker saw a woman outside the Crewe's house soon after the murders. Police later asked him to pick her out in an identification parade.

Des Thomas has obtained an original notebook of Detective Johnston - the policeman who found the stub axles on the Thomas property and planted the gun cartridge to frame Arthur Thomas. It says they already knew who the woman was who fed the baby. But the woman was never put in an identity parade.

It appears from the notebook entry that police didn't follow through on their suspicions and evidence that was given to them.

Sunday has also obtained a secret  police document that says a police officer was told not to interview the woman identified in Johnston's notebook.

She can't be named for legal reasons but denied feeding Rochelle.

And Sunday has obtained documents from a policeman who worked on the discredited murder investigation. He admitted police were interested in the owner of the other rifle and said it's true that person was never fingerprinted nor their house searched.

But no further action was taken because of Prescott's evidence suggesting the Thomas rifle was the only probable murder weapon.

Police now say they will try to recover the second suspect rifle that Prescott fired and ruled out.
 
"I want the police when they see this bullet in the archives, to understand that there is a person still living in Pukekawa that was quite capable in 1970 of murdering Jeanette and Harvey Crewe," says Des Thomas.

"I'm not saying that he is guilty. I'm saying that we've got as much, or I believe more, on this fellow than the police had on Arthur when they originally started to investigate him. So why are they not doing this in this case?"

Police never close murder inquiries until they are solved but it seems some want the Crewe murders to go away.

A Counties Manukau crime report calls for the file to be put to bed once and for all. "The time has come to forthrightly state the police file is closed."

Des Thomas says it has to be tidied up and justice has to prevail in the interests of everyone in New Zealand.

"There needs to be closure."