Arthur Thomas
New Zealand
Date of Crime: June 17, 1970
Arthur Allan Thomas was convicted of the shooting murders of
Harvey and Jeanette Crewe. The married couple were killed on or about
June 17, 1970. At least one of the them was shot inside the Crewes'
farmhouse in Pukekawa and both bodies were dumped in the Waikato River. Jeanette's body was found in the river two months later (Aug. 16) and her
husband's body another month afterwards (Sept 16). An axle which had
been used to weigh down Harvey's body was also found. The Crewes'
disappearance was reported to the police by Jeanette's father and neighbor,
Lenard W. Demler, on June 22, 1970. The Crewes' 18-month-old daughter
Rochelle was found alive in the house and it is believed that an unknown
woman had fed her between the 17th and 22nd. On June 19th, a farm
laborer, Bruce Roddick, saw a fair-haired woman outside the house.
The axle which weighted Harvey's body was identified as coming
from a 1928/9 Nash motor car series 420. Such an axle had once been
used on a vehicle trailer owned by Thomas's father. On Oct 20, 1970
during a second search of a dump on Thomas's property, two stub-axles were
found which had welds that matched similar welds on the recovered axle. On Oct. 27, when the garden at the Crewe house was searched for a third
time, a bullet cartridge case was found. Marks on the case showed it
had been fired from a rifle owned by Thomas. Due to the evidence,
Thomas was convicted of the murders in 1971 and again in 1973.
Investigation established that in 1965 Thomas had a mechanic
remove a 1928/9 Nash 420 axle from his father's trailer and replace it with
a different one so that the trailer could be outfitted with standard tires. The mechanic initially remembered keeping the axle parts as part payment for
his work, but then decided that he must have given the axle parts back to
Thomas after he learned stub-axles were found on Thomas's property. Evidence indicated that the axle parts removed by the mechanic were in
working condition while the axle parts recovered by police had been heavily
used, presumably on another trailer, to the point where they were beyond
repair. Thus it would appear that someone besides Thomas or his father
had owned and used the axle in the 5 years prior to the murders. Because of this evidence, and because the found stub-axles appeared to have
been planted on Thomas's property, it would be unsafe to draw a connection
between Thomas and the axle found with Harvey Crewe's body.
Forensic work also showed that bullets found in the Crewes'
bodies did not match the found cartridge, and also that the bullets did not
come from cartridges that were manufactured together with the found
cartridge. Additional evidence indicated that investigating officers
had test fired Thomas's rifle on the Crewe's property. Thus the
presumption is that the found cartridge case had been planted at the scene. Thomas was pardoned in 1979 after serving 9 years of imprisonment. A
Royal Commission of Inquiry found that the cartridge case was planted by
Detective Inspector Hutton and Detective Sergeant Johnston.
Three books were written about the case in the 1970s plus a
2001 book entitled The Final Chapter by Chris Birt and a 2010 book
entitled Arthur Allan Thomas: The Inside Story by Ian Wishart.
[11/10]
________________________________
References:
NZ
Herald, NZ
Listener,
Royal
Commission Report, Networked
Knowledge, Video
Posted in:
Victims of the State,
Australia/New Zealand Cases
|