Today we venture to New Zealand to find our crime story. As always let us start with the legal system in New Zealand., a country whose law grounds itself, like America, in the English common law. But unlike the USA, New Zealand has a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy and revolves around three integrated principles: parliamentary sovereignty; the rule of law; and the separation of powers. The judiciary system remains independent, non-corrupt but not always non-biased.
New Zealand lies in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and around 5 million residents reside their today. Known for beautiful landscapes, sheep and progressive politics the country has three official languages, English, Māori, and NZ Sign Language. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to allow women to vote!
Today’s crime story comes in as New Zealand’s biggest, most expensive and most controversial investigations. The story takes place in Marlborough Sounds, a network of sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. If in Marlborough Sound to ring in the new year, only one place, the Furneaux Lodge in Endeavor Inlet, fits the bill. Only accessible by water, the 100-year-old building has hosted legendary parties.
Our first primary character, Ben Smart, a 21-year-old civil engineer loved music and who played the guitar was generally known as a good guy. Our second primary character, Olivia Hope, age 17, had recently received admission into the University on Otago with the hopes of pursuing a Law degree. Known for her intelligence and ability to play the piano, Olivia served as head prefect at her school in 1997. Her father, George Hope, a local politician, described his daughter a realistic young woman with a strong inner strength. Ben and Olivia grew up in the same town, knew each other, and considered each other a friend. How close, I do not know but with a four year age difference, we do not know if they “liked” each other romantically.
Anyhoo, Olivia Hope left her parent’s Grovetown, Marlborough home on the 30th of December to go to Whatamonga Bay where she boarded a chartered yacht, the Tamarack. Her sister and seven others joined her. The next day the yacht picked up 3 additional people and headed towards Furneaux Lodge to ring in the new year. An estimated 1500-2000 people attended the bash. Meanwhile, Ben Smart arrived with a group of friends and had plans to sleep in a nearby beach shack. At some point during the evening Ben met up with Olivia and they ended up going back to the yacht. They took a water taxi driven by one Guy Wallace to get from the Lodge to the Tamarack but upon arrival found that 12 individuals already asleep on boat, so they returned to the water taxi to try to figure out where to go next.
Ben and Olivia were not alone with Guy Wallace on the water taxi; in fact, three other passengers rode with them, one Hayden Morresey, a Sarah Dyer, and another man. According to Guy Wallace, Ben and Olivia asked to back ashore but the unnamed man offered them beds aboard his yacht. They accepted. Wallace described the mystery man as having dark wavy hair with an unshaven face and as being drunk; he dropped the threesome off and stated that they boarded a 12-meter wooden, two masted ketch painted white with a blue stripe and round portholes. Tied among 160 or so other vessels also there for the party this becomes the last time anyone saw Olivia Hope and Ben Smart.
Concerned that Olivia did not rejoin the Tamarack on New Years Day, her parents became concerned and reported her missing on January 2. Ben’s parents also reported him missing and an investigation ensued. Code named Operation TAM, short for Tamarack, the police quickly located Guy Wallace and recounted his story from his interaction. The Picton police force initiated a coordinated search for Ben and Olivia on January 3 and as concern mounted, Blenheim Area Controller Inspector Steve Caldwell took charge. The inspector asked commercial fishermen, boating clubs, and waterside lodges to keep an eye out for the ketch, and even asked the air force and the navy to do the same. The media speculated that authorities would upgrade the missing person case to a homicide investigation. When the investigation shifted, Inspector Caldwell later explained that this change meant that he could bring in additional resources for investigation. Focus remained on identifying the two-masted yacht Ben and Olivia boarded. Police also asked citizens for pictures taken at Furneaux Lodge and Endeavor Inlet to help track their movement. The public complied and the police received pictures in droves. The police also searched the Endeavor Inlet seabed.
By January 8, the National Search and Rescue Centre in Lower Hutt estimated the mystery yacht could have reached Australia or either end of New Zealand. Detective Inspector Ron Pope entered the case, confirming it as a homicide case as this is the role of Detective Inspectors in New Zealand. The police started to doubt if the accuracy of the ketch described by Guy Wallace. Rob Pope told the media that police remained convinced the ketch existed but said that they found no photographic evidence among all of the photos collected from party-goers of a boat matching the description. Police developed a montage of boats moored off Furneaux Lodge. They issued an artist’s impression of the suspect ketch showing its two masts, white hull, with blue trim and between five and seven round brass-framed portholes. The detailed rendering described 100’s of yachts, a fact the police readily admitted. Within days the police had provided the sketch to Interpol as well as to port masters in the South Pacific and Australia. Forty-four detectives now worked on the case, making it one of the largest in the history of New Zealand.
A man named Ted Walsh reported a sighting. He stated to authorities: “as he anchored off Cannibal Cove on January 2nd, he saw the ketch pass by, heading for the open sea. It was under motor with no sails. What was distinctive was a young, blond-headed girl sitting in the cockpit at the back of the boat. A guy with very short hair was sitting beside her, very close.” At the time of the sighting, the two had just been reported missing and Mr. Walsh certainly would not know about it. The event registered in his mind because the two sitting so close together seemed strange and they did not return the waves from him and his passengers, a move ‘uncharacteristic of boaties.’ He told a newspaper that there was no way he could say for certain that the two people he saw were Ben and Olivia. Nevertheless, most people throughout New Zealand thought that he had.
The police kept searching the waters near Endeavor Inlet in the next couple of weeks, and the two families organized private searches. On January 23rd, Olivia’s father told the press that “his and the Smart families refused to give up hope that the pair was still alive despite police conceding to them, that they were looking for bodies.’ He said police had advised for over a week to expect the worst; he also asked the media and the public to have confidence in the police and the investigation. By February 20th, 1998 Operation TAM exceeded a million-dollars spent.
In early March Detective Pope stated that the ‘mystery ketch’ did not exist and that the investigation would focus on a sloop (a different type of boat). Detective Pope said witnesses convinced they saw a ketch might have become confused in the wee hours of the morning after partying. Police tested those accounts against relevant, established facts and it became clear some interviewees were genuinely mistaken. Water Taxi driver Guy Wallace who took the trio to the yacht, strongly and publicly rejected this conclusion. Police questioned Guy Wallace extensively but ultimately ruled him out.
A suspect, however, did start to emerge: A local 27-year-old man. One Scott Watson attended the New Year’s Eve party at the Furneaux Lodge . His boat, named Blade, had been built by Scott himself and was his pride and joy. Police seized his boat early on in the investigation, on January 12 and two days later the media had named him as the owner. Guy Wallace had described the mystery man as European, around 32 years old, and 5’10, and having a medium build. Clean shaven and short haired Scott Watson’s boat only had one mast. Something was fishy.
When cases do not resolve quickly criticism occurs. A woman who stated that she had heard screaming the night of the party had never been interviewed even though she reached out to the police. Another citizen, a man states he supplied significant information in mid-January did not receive a follow up call for at least six weeks. Other witnesses reported that the police did not want to hear about their sightings or information.
Perhaps under pressure and despite lack of evidence, the police arrested Scott Watson on June 15, 1998, nearly 6 months after the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. During the deposition hearing to determine if there was enough evidence to go to trail, some interesting “evidence” came to light:
· Of the 1,612 people present in the Marlborough Sounds on that New Year’s Eve, only Scott Watson’s movements are not accounted for over the critical period that the pair went missing.
· Scott Watson repainted his boat blue on New Years day and cleaned the boat with the help of his sister thoroughly throughout – even down to his tape cases. There was no fingerprints found on the boat even in places police would normally expect to find them.
· A blanket found on Watson’s boat has revealed two blonde hairs and three in a scrubbing brush - these are to be part of major testimony that will state that the hairs through forensic testing are 28,000 times mores likely to have come from Olivia Hope or a maternal relative of hers. Other tests in Britain are still being done on the hair fibers
· 176 scratch marks have been also found on the underside of the boat's hatch cover and these are believed to be fingernails scratches.
The defense argued
· A witness stated that he had heard Watson return to his boat on New Years day as he had to cross the campionway between the witness’s boat and his. He heard no other people with him and no talking or disturbances.
· Another witness also said that the she saw a blue and white ketch with round portholes in the Endeavour Inlet around 9pm. It had two masts and was close to 40 feet in length. It did not match any of the photos of the boats taken by police at the time of the initial enquiry.
· Water taxi driver, Guy Wallace , also says that he delivered the pair, Ben and Olivia, to a large white and blue ketch with two masts - a description that does not match Scott Watson’s own boat.
· No direct identification of Watson with Ben Smart and Olivia Hope.
Nevertheless the case goes to trial in 1999 and in an 11-week trail where over 500 witnesses testify . The trail focused on the yacht Ben and Hope allegedly boarded. The prosecution argued the two boarded Watson's one-masted yacht, Blade; but other witnesses, including Guy Wallace, maintained Wallace had dropped the young pair off at a two-masted ketch. Olivia’s father who sat through the trial, saw much of the prosecution case as "pure theatre". Nevertheless the jury convicted Watson of their murders in May 1999 the judge sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of seventeen years.
I have read the affidavit of complaints by Scott Watson and his legal team and all of them to me seemed grounded and legit to me. I see reasonable doubt in this case. Scott Watson a model citizen: no. But based on the evidence presented in court I just do not believe enough evidence to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt exists. The hair found on the blanket serves as the best evidence against him, but authorities found the hair after a second search. Many believe someone planted the evidence. While eyewitness accounts are often sketchy, 2 passengers and the water taxi driver state that the man the two victims left with was not Scott Watson.
In the year 2000, Appeal Court judges decided that no new evidence exists to recommend a second trial. In November of that same year, a witness who testified at Watson's trial tells the NZ Herald that his evidence in court was "nothing more than an act" and that the police pressured him testify. LIKE WHAT?! In 2009, Watson petitioned the Governor-General for a royal pardon to no avail. In June 2015, the parole board denies Watson parole due to two failed drug tests and a psychological report that places him at "a very high risk" of committing violent acts if released. In 2016, the Board denies him parole again. And, just this year, in June 2020, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced that the Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy has referred Watson's case back to the Court of Appeal. This will be the fourth time Watson has challenged his convictions for the murders of Ben and Olivia.
Sources: Oxford Lib Guides, Evidence Locker Podcast, RNZ, True Crime DNA, The New Zealand Herold, North and South, New Zealand Police Government Website, New Zealand City, Otago Daily Times
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