What happened to Amber-Lee?
PODCAST ADAPTATION: Pt 4
Desperate and battling drug addiction, Nicola Cruickshank had nowhere left to turn. Police couldn’t solve the disappearance of her daughter.
So, 15 years after Amber-Lee went missing from a house in Kingston, she put her faith in Sensing Murder.
The premise of the controversial TV show is that psychics tap into the spirits of murder victims to find evidence to solve cold cases.
Not a single case has been solved as a result of the show.
But Nicola is a spiritual person and genuinely believed they could help unravel the mystery.
Nicola was filmed speaking about Amber-Lee and what happened at the lake that day in 1992. Then psychics Kelvin Cruickshank and Deb Webber gave readings on the case.
Warwick Walker, the cop initially in charge of the investigation, went with Nicola and sat in on those readings.
After filming, Nicola was invited back for a one-on-one reading with Kelvin Cruickshank.
The pair share a surname but are not related.
Kelvin told Nicola that Amber-Lee had been killed by a man known to her family.
He had dark hair and a beard or moustache.
He was in his 30s, tall and slim and smoked self-rolled cigarettes.
He hunted, was fit and worked in a place where he did a lot of heavy lifting. He was married with kids of his own. He was connected to the cannabis scene, and his birthday was in April, August or December. The letter K was important. Kelvin told Nicola that this man abducted Amber-Lee from the house at Kingston and took her to his four-wheel drive parked close by.
He bundled her into the front passenger seat, covered her with an oilskin jacket and drove away.
Then, he strangled Amber-Lee to death.
The reading led Nicola to one conclusion, one man. Ken Barrett.
NICOLA CRUICKSHANK
What happened there it was after the reading with Kelvin Cruickshank and I was on the plane home and all I could think of in my head was, “you know the person, you know the person” because that was drilled into me from Kelvin that I knew who the culprit was.
Well, his name just came to me out of the blue. I don’t know why I thought of Barrett and the more I thought of him I thought “oh my God, him and his partner looked after Amber, they looked after her a lot”.
T he person that took her and did this to her she knew, she went willingly to them, according to the psychics.
At the time, Barrett was the partner of Nicola’s good friend Lyn Walter.
The couple lived in Otautau with their son.
Barrett was tall, slender, dark-haired and his birthday matched the psychics’ readings.
He grew dope, he hunted, he smoked rollies. And his first name started with K. The police had never linked Barrett to Amber-Lee’s disappearance.
And, Nicola said she hadn’t considered Barrett being involved until the TV show.
After she got home from filming, Nicola rang Lyn Walter, by then separated from Barrett.
Walter kept detailed journals and Nicola asked her to check the weekend Amber-Lee went missing.
Nicola says she was told Barrett had been away hunting that weekend — and that he had an oilskin jacket.
Barrett and Walter later gave statements to police saying he was home that weekend.
Nicola believes what she claims is a shift in their story is suspicious and says Walter cut off contact after that phone call.
In 2008 Barrett was named as one of several suspects in the case by Ian Wishart’s Investigate magazine. And locals talked — like they do. There was chatter of Amber-Lee being killed over drugs or a drug debt, that Barrett took her, killed her and buried her in Long Bush near Otautau until things settled down.
That he buried her at a family property and built a shed with a concrete floor on top of her. There is absolutely no evidence to back any of that up. It’s all speculation. But in Nicola’s mind, as a result of
Sensing Murder, Barrett has been number one suspect for a decade.
She told me she received further information solidifying her theory last year. A man known to Barrett was allegedly overheard at an Invercargill pub talking about how he helped bury the vehicle Amber-Lee was killed in.
That information was passed on to Nicola, and then the police.
The person who overheard the conversation was interviewed. Absolutely nothing came of it. Police say there is no evidence, and never has been, that Barrett took, harmed or killed the little girl.
He’s never spoken publicly about the accusations levelled at him by Nicola, other media or locals.
Barrett lives in a wooden villa on a central Invercargill street.
The large section is filled with old house buses and other rundown vehicles. The doors on the rickety, red garage are covered in old number plates.
I visited with Herald video journalist Mike Scott.
The first time we knocked, there was no answer, no movement.
When we went back we met Barrett’s housemate, his brother Merv.
ANNA LEASK
Hi there, we’re just looking for Ken Barrett?
MERV BARRETT
He’s not here at the moment.
ANNA LEASK
Do you know when he’ll be home?
MERV BARRETT
What’s all this about?
ANNA LEASK
Oh we’re just from the New Zealand Herald, my name’s Anna and this is Mike. We’re just working on a story that we thought he might be able to help us with and we’d like to talk to him.
MERV BARRETT
Well I’m his brother Merv. What’s it to do with?
ANNA LEASK
It’s to do with the disappearance of Amber-Lee Cruickshank.
MERV BARRETT
Oh, okay . . . all that again.
ANNA LEASK
Yeah. So we’re aware that Barrett’s name’s been raised over the years by people. And we’re also aware that no one’s really come to him and given him a chance . . .
Are you able to tell us what you think of all of the rumours and the allegations that have been levelled against Barrett?
MERV BARRETT
Ha. Like you say, rumours.
A lot of hearsay out there — until you’ve got some evidence, you’ve got nothing, you know?
I mean somebody starts a spark, it caused a fire.
I wouldn’t like anything pinned on me because whether you’re guilty or not, people believe it.
ANNA LEASK
And that’s why we’re here to talk to Barrett, because a lot of people are talking.
MERV BARRETT
You leave your name and number and I’ll get him to give you a call or let him know that you’d like to talk to him. Wewent back a few hours later, hoping to find Barrett home from work.
MERV BARRETT
I talked to Barrett, he said if you want any information — talk to the NZ Police.
ANNA LEASK
Okay, we’ve done that, so . . .
MERV BARRETT
He said they should have come and talked to him before the slander started the first time round.
No good coming to me now after all this s***’s gone down.
ANNA LEASK
He knows that we haven’t written PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY PRESSREADER
South Island toddler Amber-Lee Cruickshank disappeared 25 years ago from a small town on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Despite exhaustive and repeated searches, there has never been any sign of the little girl. The Herald’s senior crime and justice reporter Anna
Leask investigated the cold case in a bid to generate some answers for the 2-year-old’s family. In October, to mark the 25th anniversary of Amber-Lee’s disappearance, the Herald released Chasing Ghosts, a six-part podcast series, news feature and minidocumentary about the case — one of New Zealand’s most baffling mysteries. It was our first true crime podcast. This week, we are publishing the full transcript — more than 30,000 words — in a bid to give this case more publicity. We want to bring AmberLee home. Can you help?
I was on the plane home and all I could think of in my head was, “you know the person, you know the person” because that was drilled into me from Kelvin that I knew who the culprit was. Nicola Cruickshank
anything doesn’t he?
MERV BARRETT
No, I said that was Ian Wishart and he said it doesn’t matter, they should have talked to me earlier, they want to know about it now, talk to the police.
Me mind’s made up. Sorry, I can’t help you.
After that trip I wrote to Barrett, explaining why I wanted to speak to him.
I told him I wanted to give him a chance to set the record straight, that I understood why he’d be angry at the media after previous coverage of the case, but I wanted to do things differently. He didn’t respond. We returned to Invercargill one last time, hoping we could convince him to speak to us.
This time he was home.
ANNA LEASK
Hi, just wondering if Barrett is home at the moment?
KEN BARRETT
That’s me.
ANNA LEASK
That’s you. Hi Ken, I’m Anna from the New Zealand Herald.
KEN BARRETT
Oh I know, you sent me a card thing.
ANNA LEASK
Hey look, we’re just down here on another job and we thought we’d call back in and see if you might be interested in speaking to us about . . .
KEN BARRETT
Well I don’t see the point in any of this because for the simple fact is they chucked my name in the hat, I wasn’t even involved in it. Nicola recalls being close to Barrett and Walter, that they often looked after her kids. But Barrett says that’s not the case. He didn’t have time for her and even says he banned her from his place after she left drug paraphernalia in his driveway. He says he watched the Sens
ing Murder episode and knew immediately it was pointing at him.
He believes, in his words, he was “stitched up”. That the psychics were led to him by someone wanting to divert attention from themselves.
So when the police got in touch at Nicola’s insistence, he was happy to make a statement.
KEN BARRETT
I even said to the cops get a polygraph f***ing machine out, I’ll do a polygraph test.
But I am, I was pissed off and absolutely f***in’ furious when it come to air because when I watched it I said to my son “f***, that makes it look like they’re trying to fit me up for it”.
As far as Sensing Murder goes, what a load of s*** those people are saying they could see this and that and me involved in the whole thing.
I wasn’t involved in it. I’ve never harmed a kid in my f***ing life.
I’ve got a grandson who’s 10 years old, beautiful wee boy.
I’m not an a***** person like that.
ANNA LEASK
So you went to the police when it came out?
KEN BARRETT
When they asked me to go and see them.
Why didn’t they come and see me when I lived in Otautau? Why didn’t they talk to my ex in Otautau? She’s my ex now but she wasn’t then.
B arrett said he was at home the weekend Amber-Lee went missing. He says he had no idea Nicola and James had even left town.
He found out they’d left only after news broke that Amber-Lee vanished.
He says he was nowhere near Kingston.
In fact, his relationship with Walter was about to collapse and he was having an affair with a young solo mum, so he was probably with her that weekend.
The TV show referred to a man with a four-wheel drive.
Barrett says he owned a Land Rover but sold it before Nicola and James left town.
And, he claimed, the clutch was buggered, that it was in no state for a fourhour round trip to Kingston.
KEN BARRETT
Righto, the Land Rover wasn’t capable of going anywhere further than to the guy I sold it to at Oporo.
It had a burnt-out clutch because I got it stuck up in the forestry months and months prior to this sh*t.
It had no clutch working in it, it had no brakes to it.
And when I sold it I sold it because I couldn’t afford to fix it and my partner at the time wanted some work done on the house.
So I sold my jeep and that’s the only reason I sold it. And I regret selling it now because I could’ve done it up and kept it. B arrett is convinced that someone pointed the finger at him to hide their own secret. He believes Nicola knows more than she is letting on and has information that could lead police to Amber-Lee. Police are confident that’s not the case — but Barrett’s not swayed.
KEN BARRETT
She knows all right, f***in’ oath she does — there’s no way you could not know.
And it’s no good her pointing the finger at me because I’ve had nothing to do with it. And I’ll do a polygraph test whenever. B arrett said the groundless speculation has had a big impact on his life.
ANNA LEASK
It’s obviously affected you having your name put out there?
KEN BARRETT
F***in’ oath it has.
I’ve had all the people in the locker room at work smirking and sniggering . . . saying, “oh look that’s that, yeah it’s him”.
People in the f***in’ street look at ya sideways and think oh yeah, that’s **** Ken Barrett, he’s involved in that Cruickshank bull****. F*** off. I just . . . it has p*ssed me off. It’s f***** my life up heaps of times. You go for another job, people won’t hire you because of this **** — “oh, you could be involved in that. Are you involved in that?”
No I wasn’t.
ANNA LEASK
What do you say to people when they ask you, “did you take Amber-Lee?”
KEN BARRETT
I just say find out the f***in’ truth. I said if I was guilty of this I would be locked up mate.
There’s no evidence of me being involved.
There’s a lot of hearsay and bullshit — people saying “I think Ken Barrett done it . . . I think he was involved.” continued on A18