I want to face the Black Widow
Her brother was murdered by the woman he loved. Now, Lee Ann Cartier wants to look his killer in the eye. Shane Cowlishaw reports.
It was at her son’s 21st in Christchurch when Lee Ann Cartier realised her brother Phil had been murdered. But this wasn’t a message from the police, or Victim Support, to tell her something horrible had happened. That had happened five weeks earlier, and the call had come from her father.
Jim Nisbet had rung in a quiet voice to tell her Phil had been found dead in his truck. The police believed it to be suicide.
Cartier and her parents quickly returned to Christchurch from their home in Australia, going through the funeral process and grieving with Phil’s wife, Helen Milner.
A little over a month later in 2009, Cartier was back in New Zealand for her son’s milestone birthday celebration. She was staying with Milner, who had offered her a bed.
While having a drink with her sister-in-law, she was handed the goodbye note from her brother.
Instantly, she realised the signature on the typed suicide message was not her brother’s and that the killer, Milner, was in the same room.
Details of the revelation are revealed in a new book by Cartier detailing the events after her brother’s death and how she had to fight to bring his killer to justice.
Covering the realisation, convincing her family, an initial bungled investigation by police and finally Milner’s conviction, Cartier says now it’s out she can finally put the horrid chapter of her life behind her.
‘‘Now the book’s done, it’s out there, read it. You don’t have to ask me anything, it’s closure, it’s time to move on.
‘‘It’s time for a new chapter, Helen’s rotting in Tawa and it’s onwards and upwards from here.’’
Milner’s eventual arrest and trial played out publicly. The media quickly dubbed Milner ‘‘The Black Widow’’, gruesomely taken from the female spider’s habit of consuming the male after mating.
Sentenced to life in prison in 2014 for feeding Phil an overdose of the drug Phenergan, the road to Milner’s conviction was a long one for Cartier.
Heading to the police to raise her concerns about Milner, her complaint was taken but the detectives investigating made basic errors and the self-inflicted cause of death remained.
It wasn’t until 2011 when a Coroner noted serious concerns about whether Phil had committed suicide that progress was made.
Detective Inspector Greg Murton read about the findings in the media and emailed Cartier to say he would review the file into her brother’s death.
Later, Milner would be charged and was found guilty by a jury.
Cartier was thrilled at the eventual outcome – she celebrated with several bottles of bubbly when Milner was arrested – but it’s clear she is still frustrated with initial efforts by police.
‘‘The face-to-face attitude with the police, they didn’t care.
‘‘Those cops may have been cleaning toilets for a job, or check out chicks at Woolworths; a job that didn’t affect anyone’s life because they just no compassion or motivation to get closure for us. I just had to keep at them.
‘‘You could tell when I rang up . . . you could hear it in their voice ‘oh not her again’.’’
But the matter is behind her, after she settled with police.
The book is next, then a movie on her detective work that received $2 million funding from NZ on Air and will be released later this year.
Cartier has seen a cut of the movie and is content with how the saga and her own part in it is portrayed.
She’s also happy with how Milner has been portrayed, with her true colours laid bare.
‘‘It’s like she’s in another world where there’s no reality, she just thought she was above and DAVID WHITE / FAIRFAX NZ beyond everyone and thought we were all idiots and wouldn’t see through her.
‘‘She thought I was the biggest idiot of all.’’
Cartier would love, more than anything, to have a face-to-face with the woman who killed her brother.
In January she sent a letter to Milner, who is locked up at Arohata Prison in Wellington, asking to meet. But her sister-in-law refused. The pair have had no contact since Cartier voiced her accusations to Milner via text message, after the charade of playing the caring friend became too much.
‘‘I just want to have it out with her because I never got to. I was playing the friend, I lose it with text messages and then I’ve got to stop, I just can’t have any contact.’’
It’s an immediate answer when asked what she would ask if granted a face to face with the murderer.
‘‘Why? At what point did you think this was acceptable? Why would you do such a thing, don’t you have a heart?
‘‘Does life mean nothing to you?’’
‘ It’s time for a new chapter, Helen’s rotting in Tawa and it’s onwards and upwards from here. ’ LEE ANN CARTIER