Justice a phone call away

Scrap metal dealer John Reynolds was bashed to death 22 years ago. Hopes his killer will be found are still alive.

and had no idea a murder had happened there.

Some things remain the same. Locomotives pulling coal trains and the Tranzalpine scenic train still ply the railway tracks just across the road.

The building, in which Reynolds housed his piles of scrap metal and guillotine was demolished after the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.

Reynolds bought the building with the help of his brother Michael not long after he was made redundant from the railways in 1990.

Michael owned the building next door and used it for his electrical contracting business.

The front entrance of Reynolds’ building was a large roller door in which a smaller door provided easy access when the roller door was closed. Reynolds was found lying face down about five metres in from the roller door. He lay in a pool of blood near the scales he used for weighing scrap brought in by suppliers. He was surrounded by drums and a jumble of scrap metal and other items typical of the trade.

Because the roller door was down, police deduced that Reynolds had gone inside through the small door with someone who may have been a supplier and whom he knew. He was then disabled by a blow to the head and struck repeatedly while on the floor.

His office, where he paid most of his suppliers, was just inside the building. It was also the smoko room and a place where he would have a yarn over coffee with his mates. A tray in a drawer of the desk contained cash for paying suppliers. His daughter Lara, who used to love going to work with her Dad, says Reynolds was happy in his yard.

‘‘My last image of him is being face down in his own blood and his head being. . .and that’s not pretty, but my overwhelming image is of him being happy down there doing his thing.’’ Reynolds ran a tight ship and got rid of scrap quickly but the weekend’s haul should still have been on the premises. Police thought they might be able to track the killer by pairing scrap with identified suppliers and seeing what was left over.

They compiled a list of customers and appealed for suppliers of certain bits of scrap to come forward. One witness recognised a piece of scrap as coming from the Lincoln dump.

The strategy did not reap the dividends the police hoped.

Police also searched the building for the weapon used to bash Reynolds to death. Although the yard contained plenty of blunt instruments, the weapon used in the murder was never found. HEAVY METAL CAST An opportunist, a junkie, an angry scrap metal supplier, a gang member, someone from his murky past.

The potential culprits for the murder of John Thomas Reynolds were many and varied.

Doyle says the police had to carefully work through a list of candidates, ruling some out and marking others for further inquiry.

He says the most promising early lead turned out to be a dead-end.

Two delinquent boys, Toa Waihape, 15, and Corey Stephenson, 11, who both lived in a boys’ home, went out on the town for a day of fun on the day Reynolds was killed.

Waihape, who has a cleft palate, came from a highly dysfunctional family. His brother Peter would murder a prostitute in Christchurch in 2005.

Corey Stephenson did not go on to better things and is currently in jail on unrelated offences.

About 1.15pm the boys noticed Reynold’s small truck in Hazeldean Road with the keys in the ignition. By then Reynolds had probably already been killed.

They drove off in the truck leaving it in Hoon Hay about 5.30pm the same day. They were the most obvious suspects but were eventually eliminated.

The police devoted most of their energy to two possible culprits. One was an unemployed man called Ben Johnson.

Johnson, now deceased, was a 41-yearold father-of-five who was struggling to make ends meet. He scrounged scrap for extra income, had connections to Black Power and had been in jail for a bank robbery. He apparently told police he was at home smoking cannabis when Reynolds was killed.

The main person of interest was Kent Gorrie who had been in trouble with police since he was 13, and had, by the time Reynolds was killed, a long criminal record. He was an intravenous drug user and supplied scrap to Reynolds whom he regarded as a ‘‘mate’’. Violent incidents have cost Gorrie part of an ear and an eye.

Other interview subjects in the Heavy Metal podcast include:

Michael Reynolds

Michael was Reynolds’ younger brother who had his workshop next door to Reynolds’ yard. They were good mates and spent two years working together in Australia. Michael helped his brother buy the factory unit out of which he operated.

Russell Baynton

Russell supplemented his benefit by collecting scrap and once worked parttime for Reynolds. He was an alcoholic and heavy smoker and worked with his sister scrounging scrap metal. He knew Reynolds well and they often joked about some of Reynolds’ tricks. He tried to solve the murder himself.

Nigel Harrison

Harrison was almost like family to Reynolds. They spent a lot of time together digging for antique bottles and going to antique bottle fairs. Harrison was as close to a confidante as Reynolds had.

Susan (not her real name)

Susan came from a traditional Ma¯ ori rural background and she and Reynolds married in 1967. They were a loyal couple determined to make their marriage work and had two children. Susan never fully recovered from the murder and is determined to keep a low profile.