New Zealand – further.crimezzz.net https://further.crimezzz.net Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:36:59 +0000 de hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 Williamina „Minnie” Dean https://further.crimezzz.net/serial-killers/williamina-minnie-dean/ Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:21:20 +0000 https://new.crimezzz.net/serial-killers/williamina-minnie-dean/ Minnie Dean has the dubious honor of being the only woman to be legally hanged in New Zealand.
Christened Williamina Dean, she was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847. She married and had two daughters. What happened to her daughters is unknown. In 1868 she emigrated to New Zealand and lived in Southland with an old woman she called Granny Kelly. In 1872, she married Charles Dean, an old Southland settler. In 1886 the Deans moved to a 22-acre estate known as The Larches, at East Winton. Winton is situated 19 miles from Invercargill on the railway that then ran from the Southland capital to Kingston. A fire destroyed their home when they first moved in and a small twenty-two feet by twelve feet dwelling was built. Minnie Dean set up a baby-farming business, advertising children for adoption.The babies she took into care were illegitimate children brought from their mother’s, provided no more questions were asked. In October 1889, Minne Irene Dean, came to the attention of the authorities after a six-month-old baby died three days after being taken ill whilst in Dean’s care but the death certificate showed natural causes due to convulsions. Two years later, in May 1891, a six week old baby died, again in Dean’s care. An inquest was held but it found that death was from natural causes. Dean became more secretive with her dealings and began advertising using false names. In May 1895, a railway guard reported he had seen a woman board the train with a baby but disembark without it.This happened within the train range of East Winton and police began their enquiries. This led police to a Mrs Hornsby who resided in Dunedin. She told police she had handed over her one-month-old grand-daughter with money to Dean at Milburn, four miles north of Milton. Police brought Mrs Hornsby to The Larches, Dean’s residence. There she recognised not only Dean but a piece of baby’s clothing belonging to her grand-daughter. Dean was arrested and sent to Dunedin to await trial. Police searched the flowerbeds and found two babies bodies buried. Charles Dean was also arrested and the six children in their care were taken away by police. The two bodies were identified as Eva Hornsby (Mrs Hornsby’s grand-daughter) and Dorothy Edith Carter (handed over to Minnie by her grandm On August 12, 1895, Minnie Dean, at Invercargill prison , was marched to the gallows. Her final words were „No, I have nothing to say, except that I am innocent“. The search continued and another baby’s body was found. Dean was charged with the murder of two infants. After further examination of the case, the charges against Charles Dean were dropped. The police theory was that she had taken the Carter infant on the train from Winton and changed trains to get to Lumsden. During the trip to Lumsden she had killed the child and concealed it’s body in a hat box she was carrying. Staying overnight in Lumsden, she boarded the Waimea Plains train to Gore, where she then boarded the Dunedin Express. At Milburn, she met Mrs Hornsby, leaving the hatbox and it’s contents in a waiting room. She was accompanied by Mrs Hornsby on another train to Clarendon, the next station on the way to Dunedin. She alighted with Eva Hornsby in her arms and waved goodbye to Mrs Hornsby who continued on to Dunedin. It is here, where Eva Hornsby was smothered. Dean wrapped her body into a parcel and boarded the train back to Clinton. On the way she picked up the hatbox from Milburn. Now carrying two dead babies, she went back to Winton. The case was heard at Invercargill. Many witnesses stepped forward to deliver their testimony. The jury heard: Oilcloth found wrapped around Dorothy Edith Carter’s body was from the Dean’s home. The railway guard who saw Dean get on the train with the hatbox and baby and leave carrying a hatbox only. A friend who lived with the Deans for fourteen years identified Minnie’s handwriting as the signature ‚M.Gray‘ in the Bluff poison register. Dean claimed she had carried flower bulbs in the hatbox – but the woman who Dean said she had got them off said she had only given her flower cuttings. The clothing found in Dean’s possession was identified as that of Dorothy Edith Carter. Several bottles of laudanum and chlorodyne were found in Dean’s bedroom. Even though Dean was identified by both grandmothers as the woman they gave their grand-daughters to, she denied it, but finally admitting it under duress and with the evidence of the clothes. The verdict was guilty of the murder of Dorothy Edith Carter. The sentence – death by hanging.

]]> Lisa Jane Turner https://further.crimezzz.net/serial-killers/lisa-jane-turner/ Sun, 11 Oct 2026 20:23:18 +0000 https://new.crimezzz.net/serial-killers/lisa-jane-turner/ Megan Turner was eleven weeks old on January 11, 1980, when her mother rushed her to a hospital emergency ward in Christ-church, New Zealand. The child had inexplicably stopped breathing, Lise Turner said, and help arrived too late to save her life. Physicians could not specify a cause of death, and so they blamed the tragedy on SIDS–the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome that strikes certain newborns without warning or apparent cause. Lise Turners second child, daughter Cheney Louise, was born on January 31, 1982. Seven weeks later, on March 15, a visiting neighbor found the baby dead in her crib, the blanket stained with blood from Cheneys mouth. Again, no cause of death was ascertained. Again, physicians put the blame on SIDS. Lise Turner would have no more children, but bad luck continued to haunt her, stretching out a lethal hand to others in her company. Nine months after Cheneys death, in October 1982, four-month-old Catherine Packer was left with Lise while her mother went shopping. Mrs. Packer returned to find her child vomiting, bleeding from the mouth, but hospital physicians saved her life. At first, Catherine seemed to recover with no ill effects, but the strange attacks were repeated over the next six months, always occurring when Lise Turner came to call. Catherine’s mother finally saw through the coincidence when Lise joined her on a visit to the hospital, her appearance prompting tearful screams from Catherine as she cowered in her bed. Turner was henceforth barred from the Packer residence, but no charges were filed … and there were always more children around. Katrina Hall, five weeks old, was stricken with vomiting and labored breathing in Lises care, but she recovered in the hospital and suffered no more ill effects. Eight-month-old Michael Tinnion was less fortunate, found dead while Turner baby-sat, with sticky fluid seeping from his nose and mouth. This time, physicians diagnosed asphyxiation as the cause of death. prompting police to reexamine other cases from their files. In November 1984, Lise Turner stood trial in the High Court of Christchurch, charged with three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors referred to four other attacks, on children unnamed in the indictments, but the evidence on file was bad enough. No motive was advanced, though Lises crimes are strongly reminiscent of several American killers, all diagnosed as suffering from Munchausens syndrome by proxy. Convicted on all counts, Turner was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, plus five years on each of the attempted murder counts.

Convicted child killer Lisa Jane Turner, 41, was released from Arohata Women’s Prison in August 1997 after serving 13 years for killing three babies and attempting to murder two others. At her trial, evidence was presented that she had tried to kill four other babies.
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Turner, formerly of Christchurch was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three babies, and to three five year sentences for the attempted murder of two others. Two of the murdered children, Megan and Cheney Louise, had been her own. The third was eight months old Michael Clark Tinnion whom she suffocated.
Children under her care developed cot-death syndrome or respiratory problems, some of which were very serious. The circumstances led to authorities asking questions and a case was made against her.
Turner w At the time of her release, Lauree and Kelvin Tinnion whose son Michael was suffocated by Turner, issued a news release saying they felt freeing her was ‘the end of justice’ for their son, who by then, would have been a teenager.as released this year on life parole, under the control of her probation officer. As a condition of her parole, she is not allowed unsupervised contact with children. Dick Ashley, her de facto husband at the time she committed the crimes, waited out the 13 years she was in prison and they are now re-united.
At the time of her release, Lauree and Kelvin Tinnion whose son Michael was suffocated by Turner, issued a news release saying they felt freeing her was ‘the end of justice’ for their son, who by then, would have been a teenager.

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