Shot dead, buried in shallow grave
Dale Watene was shot and buried in a remote forestry block. Two months after the 40-year-old was last seen alive, his killer or killers remain at large. Blair Ensor reports on a mystery that’s had a profound impact on a small rural town which, for the sec
Deep in a rugged forest, not far from a four-wheeldrive track, searchers looking for missing man Dale Watene spied some loose dirt topped with native fern.
Watene, a father to a 5-year-old boy, had disappeared a month earlier from Otautau, 40 kilometres north-west of Invercargill, in mysterious circumstances.
The patch of disturbed ground in Longwood Forest, a 23,000 hectare area of conservation land to the town’s west, was identified as an area of interest requiring further scrutiny.
Several days later, on May 20, police returned to the site and found the 40-year-old’s body buried in a shallow grave. He’d been shot.
Given the circumstances – the time that had passed, the remoteness of the location and attempts by his killer to cover their tracks – it was a miraculous discovery.
For the second time in less than seven months, Otautau, which is home to fewer than 1000 people, was at the centre of a homicide inquiry.
On October 30, a 9-year-old boy was stabbed to death by his
15-year-old babysitter, who is due to be sentenced on June 29.
Watene’s killer or killers remain at large.
The crimes have rocked the normally quiet town, which services the surrounding pastoral farms and the logging industry.
Otautau is typical of many other backwater rural settlements.
It’s home to two pubs, a small supermarket, an old double brick police station manned by two officers and several farm supply businesses.
A quick search of a real estate website reveals a three bedroom weatherboard home on 2000 square metres of land for sale for
$175,000.
Prior to last year, one of the few occasions Otautau and the word murder appeared in a news story together was when a resident named Scott Watson endured jibes from friends because he shared the same last name as the man convicted of killing Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in the Marlborough Sounds on New Year’s Day, 1998.
Kerrin Jackson, 48, owns the town’s only petrol station – Allied Petroleum 24/7 Fuel on Main St – and says the recent homicides have been very unsettling for residents.
Watene’s death, in particular, has generated a lot of speculation and rumour because it remains unsolved, he says.
‘‘It’s a little bit of a mystery. Is this bugger [the killer] here or around here? The sooner they make an arrest the better.’’
WHO KILLED DALE WATENE?
Watene, the son of a truck driver, grew up in the Waikato town of Huntly, where most of his family live.
He moved to Otautau in late 2001 after securing a job on a largescale dairy farm where his younger brother, Ben, had worked for several months, after responding to an advertisement in the Waikato Times.
Over the next two decades, except for a three-and-a-half-year stint with a local transport company, Watene worked for the same employer.
In recent years, his main job for the farming operation, which milked 3200 cows across four properties within 10km of Otautau, was driving trucks and tractors.
Watene was regarded as a good stock handler who was rarely in a bad mood.
His employer, who does not want to be identified, says he was ‘‘easy going, helpful and considerate to others’’.
People liked working with him because ‘‘when he was there … [everything] fell into place’’.
The employer, who is also originally from Waikato, says the pair often talked about their love of Southland.
Neither had any desire to return to the North Island.
‘‘Why would you, there are too many humans. On a Sunday, you can drive to Invercargill and pass four cars in a 70km [round] trip.’’
The employer says Watene worked the first day of Covid-19 lockdown, but after that refused to come to work.
A woman he’d been seeing, Sandi Graham, apparently told him she didn’t want him putting her two children at risk of infection.
The pair, who met before Christmas via the dating app Tinder, had endured a somewhat turbulent relationship.
Watene told his frustrated employer that he was ‘‘between a rock and a hard place’’.
‘‘I accepted that,’’ he says. On April 15, Watene celebrated his 40th birthday.
There wasn’t much fanfare given the country was still in alert level 4.
One of the highlights was likely a trip to the supermarket in Otautau, about 20km south from the red brick bungalow Watene rented on Waikouro-Wairio Rd, where he spent roughly $200 on groceries.
He and Graham, aged about 30, also went 4-wheel-driving in his blue Isuzu SUV.
The next day Watene went to her rented home in Sorn St, two blocks from the centre of Otautau, where they shared some drinks.
He apparently left there in the evening to go and buy more alcohol, but never returned.
The last call made using Watene’s cellphone was about 9.30pm, but the intended recipient, believed to be Graham, didn’t answer.
His truck, registration CGE 638, was found two days later at Holt Park, a short walk from her Sorn St home.
The battery had been removed and diesel was pooling on the ground.
However, it was several days later, when the vehicle hadn’t been shifted, before police began making inquiries.
By then, some of Watene’s worried friends had taken to social media appealing for help to find him.
He was known to dabble in drugs – methamphetamine and cannabis – and some were concerned he’d found himself in debt to the wrong people.
Others feared suicide, as he’d struggled at times since parting ways with the mother of his son last year.
Several friends, including Graham, visited Watene’s Waikouro-Wairio Rd property on Tuesday, April 21, and discovered the truck battery beneath the bonnet of a black BMW car he had access to.
He only had one battery and was known to switch it between the two vehicles.
Police inquiries revealed Watene’s bank card hadn’t been used since his April 15 supermarket visit.
However, they couldn’t find any of the groceries he’d bought, which meant the theory that he’d gone bush or was in hiding couldn’t be discounted.
It’s unclear why, but on May 16, a month after Watene’s disappearance, police and search and rescue volunteers turned their attention to the Longwood Forest, an area popular with hunters, trampers and four-wheeldriving enthusiasts.
It was that search that led to the discovery of his body.
Police have revealed few details about their homicide investigation.
Stuff understands detectives are exploring the possibility that those involved in Watene’s death staged the Holt Park scene to look like his truck broke down.
In the two months since his disappearance, police have searched several properties and seized a number of items, including a .22 calibre rifle, which are being tested forensically.
Graham’s Sorn St home and another on Papatotara Rd, near Tuatapere, where her friend, George Hyde, lives, have each been searched twice – before and after the discovery of Watene’s body.
Investigators were seen closely examining bricks at the Papatotara Rd property during their most recent visit late last month. It’s unclear why.
Graham this week declined to comment when approached by Stuff.
Previously she said she had nothing to do with Watene’s death and was doing everything she could to help police.
Graham said on the night he disappeared two people were at her home and witnessed him leave to buy alcohol, but she wouldn’t say who they were as she didn’t want them to be subject to public scrutiny.
‘‘I’ve got nothing to hide. We all want to know who’s done this. He was a dearly beloved man to all of us. He treated my children like a dad.’’
Hyde, a four-wheel-driving enthusiast aged in his early 20s, could not be reached for comment.
This week Detective Sergeant Chris Lucy said more than 20 police staff continued to work on the investigation.
‘‘We remain fully committed to holding those responsible to account for Dale Watene’s murder.’’
For the first time, Lucy appealed for sightings of Watene’s BMW car in the Otautau and Woodlaw areas on April 16.
He also urged a mystery person who recently called Crimestoppers, an anonymous 0800 tip line, with information to make contact again.
‘HE WOULDN’T HURT A BLOODY FLY’
Watene’s death has had a profound impact on those he knew.
His employer says no-one can understand why anyone would want to kill him.
‘‘There wouldn’t be too many people who didn’t like Dale – that’s what we’re struggling with.’’
Initially, he tried to piece together what had happened, but eventually decided it’s ‘‘not worth the stress and the effort’’.
‘‘Nothing we do now is going to bring him back.’’
He’s told grieving staff to ‘‘focus on the cows’’.
‘‘It’ll be much better for you.’’ Watene could often be found drinking at Railway Hotel on King St, Otautau, where he’s remembered as a man who was ‘‘always on a high’’ and never too busy to have a yarn.
The pub’s owner, Joanne Clapp, hosted his mother a few weeks ago when she travelled south to retrieve her son’s ashes.
Clapp says Watene’s death, coupled with the child’s murder and Covid-19, has made life in the town ‘‘really tough’’.
‘‘There’s a really sombre mood around here.’’
Watene was best man at his mate Karl Moore’s wedding seven years ago.
The pair met at a pub not long after he moved to Southland and struck up a friendship.
In recent years, they hadn’t seen much of each other because ‘‘we just started living our lives’’.
Watene always seemed happy when they caught up on the phone or bumped into each other on the street.
‘‘He wouldn’t hurt a bloody fly. I’m just really, really gutted, especially for his family and his boy. People need to be brought to justice.’’
Watene’s mother, who’s asked not to be named, is devastated at the loss of her son, but relieved his body was found.
She declined to comment this week other than to say she remained in close contact with police and was waiting patiently for an arrest.
Anyone with information about Dale Watene’s death should contact Detective Sergeant Chris Lucy on (03) 211 0400 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.