Arrest Made

Napier detectives arrested a Hutt Valley man on 26 February 2002 for the abduction and murder of six-year-old Teresa Cormack. The 43-year-old man appeared in the Lower Hutt District Court charged with abduction, sexual violation and murder.

 

Background   7 August 2001

Advances in DNA technology have lead to the upgrading of the Teresa Cormack homicide investigation.

Fourteen years ago six-year-old Teresa Cormack was abducted and murdered near Napier. The file on the homicide has never been closed said Detective Sergeant Brian Schaab, head of the reformed homicide investigation team.

"At the time of the original investigation it was thought that future technological advances in DNA research would make it possible to identify the offender," said Detective Sergeant Schaab.

"Police and Teresa's family have always been confident that those advances would one day provide the evidence necessary to identify the man responsible for this horrendous crime."

Police will re-interview those people spoken to earlier in the investigation to seek their co-operation in providing blood samples.

"We appreciate that our approach to these men will cause them some embarrassment but we would stress that their co-operation is absolutely crucial to enabling the investigative team to keep moving forward to find the real offender."

"It will also enable us to positively eliminate those people from the inquiry. DNA technology also establishes innocence and dispel suspicions," said Mr Schaab.

Contact:
Brian Schaab
Detective Sergeant
Napier CIB
OPERATION CORMACK

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Teresa Cormack murder inquiry - 19 June 1987

• Some time just after 9 a.m. on 19 June 1987, six-year-old Teresa Cormack was abducted from a street in Maraenui in Napier. A week later her body was found in a shallow grave at Whirinaki Beach, about 16 km north of Napier.
• A post mortem examination established that she had died of suffocation after having been subjected to a sexual assault.
• The Police reconstruction is that, she was taken to the beach by her abductor where he played games with her before sexually assaulting and then suffocating her. He then buried her body with shingle. Teresa's red coat and her school bag were never found and Police believe she left those in her abductor's car prior to walking down to the beach.
• An extensive Police inquiry conducted over the ensuing months captured the attention of New Zealand. Appeals for information brought a large number of responses. Over 950 people were nominated as possible suspects and spoken to by Police.
• At that time there was no indisputable method of eliminating people from the inquiry.
• Advances in DNA technology and scientists at ESR have been able to establish the offender's DNA profile and make it possible to establish an elimination process.
• On the basis of this new evidence, Police have reformed an investigative team tasked with locating the offender.
• Police are asking members of the community to come forward with any information they think might be relevant to solving the murder of Teresa Cormack.
• Police are also asking the person who committed this crime 14 years ago to come forward.