Who amid 12 suspects did killing?
Why was Lois Tolley killed?
A year ago tonight four men smashed down the front door of her Upper Hutt unit. She was home alone, and minutes later she was dead, after a brutal attack in which she was shot ‘‘execution style’’ and stabbed.
The offenders were seen on CCTV footage fleeing the scene on Ward St, Wallaceville; one of them yelling in apparent distress ‘‘what have we done?’’.
Police said one motive to the targeted, standover-style killing could be retribution for a perceived wrong. In saying that, police are keeping an open mind to what possessed the people behind Tolley’s death to take such extreme and unnecessary action.
There have been multiple pleas for information to help in the investigation and police now say they are ‘‘absolutely confident’’ arrests will be made.
Head of the investigation Operation Archer, Detective Senior Sergeant Glenn Barnett, said the hunt for the 30-year-old’s killer was narrowing.
The picture was becoming clearer as people who knew about the murder, some of whom had actively resisted aiding the investigation, began opening up to police, he said.
The 12-strong investigation team had worked through more than 130 people of interest and whittled the group down to about 12 people either directly involved in the murder, planning the attack or aiding the killers after the murder. The list included men and women, some of whom were known to Tolley, Barnett said.
Despite a year having gone by and there being no arrests his team was ‘‘absolutely confident arrests will be made’’ and were ‘‘still fully committed to solving this murder’’.
As for a motive, Barnett said while police remained openminded, the standover-style, targeted attack may have been triggered in retribution for a perceived wrong.
‘‘They’ve gone there with a loaded firearm, they’ve gone there with another weapon – which we think may be a knife of some sort – they’ve smashed their way in through the front door. Lois has been at home, on her own, unprotected and then there’s just been a brutal killing.’’
''The pain does not get any easier. We miss Lois so much.'' Lois Tolley's mother Cathrine Macdonald
Barnett said gang associates – both men and women – and patched members of ‘‘a number of gangs’’ had been interviewed but no single gang stood out as having been involved in the slaying.
Police had to be careful in how they advanced the case to ensure first-hand and circumstantial evidence matched with suspects and held up in court.
‘‘We need to make sure when we move on the people we’ve got all our evidence in a line – and we know there’s still people out there who haven’t come forward who know information either before, immediately after or even some months later ... however, we still need more of the people, who have spoken with the offenders, to contact us.’’
Barnett said police had come across no evidence for rumours swirling around the case, which include that someone was under Tolley’s bed when she was killed and that one of the prime suspects had since killed himself. Neither was there evidence she was involved in organised crime or prostitution, he said.
In October Tolley’s mother Cathrine Macdonald and more than 50 friends gathered in an Upper Hutt park to remember a daughter, loved family member and friend.
‘‘Words cannot describe how we all feel, it just feels like yesterday these cowards took her from us, the pain does not get any easier. We miss Lois so much – this has devastated our family and her friends, they stole her future from her and all of us,’’ Macdonald said in a police-issued statement this week. The private rental market is forcing low-income Kiwis to move too often, the human rights watchdog has told the new Government.
In its briefing to incoming Justice Minister Andrew Little, the Human Rights Commission points to housing as a serious human rights issue that is likely stopping New Zealand from meeting its international obligations to uphold human rights.
The commission suggested an increase in secure social housing to combat New Zealand’s rate of ‘‘residential mobility’’ - where almost one in five Kiwis move every year.
This is the highest rate of moving in the Western world, and close to twice the rate in Britain.
Most of this moving occurs in the private rental market, and many of the people moving are part of low-income families.
‘‘Families with children, particularly one-parent and Ma¯ori and Pacific families, experience much higher levels of discrimination in the private rental market,’’ Human Rights Commission officials wrote in their briefing.
Housing in general had developed into a ‘‘major human rights issue with multiple effects on people’s health and wellbeing’’, particularly children.
A 2015 Government report showed 19.6 per cent of households moved every year.
Almost one in three children in low income families moved early in their lives, compared to approximately one in five children in high income families.
Rental laws
The commission noted that current rental laws allowed landlords to kick tenants out without cause and did not impose any responsibility on a landlord over vulnerable families.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford has promised new legislation by the end of the 2018 that would get rid of no-cause terminations and limit rent increases to once per year.
But the commission suggested more than just new rental laws: officials within the document suggested that for the most vulnerable the security provided by state housing was the best option.
The new Government has promised to stop the state-house sell-off and to build at least 2000 new state homes.
A separate briefing on the state housing situation released on Thursday suggested the number of state homes already in the pipeline was not enough to meet current demand.
Close to 6000 eligible families were waiting for state homes as of September 2017, up 72 per cent over the previous two years.
In the view of the commission, the problems in housing were so serious that New Zealand would need to seriously change things in order to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development goal 11: that all people have access to safe adequate and affordable housing by 2030.
New Zealand had signed up for this human rights commitment but was not yet on its way to meeting it.