A group of prominent and respected New Zealanders has backed calls to reopen the most notorious and still unsolved murder case in New Zealand criminal history.
Rochelle Crewe, who was 18-months-old when her parents, Harvey and Jeannette Crewe were murdered in their Pukekawa farmhouse south of Auckland in 1970, wrote to the Police Commmisioner Howard Broad, last week asking for the case to be re-investigated.
Arthur Allan Thomas was twice convicted of the Crewes' murders but was pardoned in 1979 after serving nine years in prison and onone else has been charged. Mr Broad said that he would consider Rochelle Crewe's request.
Yesterday that call was backed by some of the country's most prominent citizens.
A survey by the New Zealand Herald of 16 members of the Order of New Zealand found eight wanted to see the 1970 murders solved and the other half did not oppose Rochelle Crewe's bid to have the case reopened.
Those supporting Ms Crewe's bid included former All Black captain Sir Brian Lochore, two former governors-general Sir Paul Reeves and Dame Cath Tizard, award-winning writer and literary critic Professor C K Stead, children's author Margaret Mahy, and founding president of the NZ Council of Trade Unions, Ken Douglas.
Rochelle Crewe was found crying in her cot five days after her parents' murder.
She said she wanted police to re-open the investigation to look into police corruption in the case and find out what happened to her parents.
Their bodies were found in the Waikato river in August and September, 1970.