Hutt murder mystery
Can this cold case be solved, 40 years on?
In 1980, Marion Granville walked out of her Naenae home and never came back. Her disappearance has been linked to some of the biggest names in New Zealand crime, but 40 years later, it remains unsolved.
Now, Michael Sneller, a 76-year-old career criminal and Granville’s partner at the time of her disappearance, is speaking publicly for the first time about the case that has occupied his thoughts for four decades. He is appealing to anyone who knows what happened to the 29-yearold mother of three to come forward.
‘‘I am hoping that if anything comes to light out of this, we could at least find out where she is buried,’’ he said in his first interview about the case.
At 7.30am on August 30, 1980, Granville walked out of her Wilkie Cres house in her pink slippers. She got into her 1971 Ford Falcon GT with a distinctive silver grey black stripe down the side and drove
‘‘If anything comes to light out of this, we could at least find out where she is buried.’’
Michael Sneller on Marion Granville
to the nearby Seddon Street Dairy to buy cigarettes and a copy of The Dominion newspaper.
She left her children – 4-year-old twins Joanna and Kristina, her children with Sneller, and her 8-year-old son, Jason, a child from a previous relationship – at home.
But opposite the dairy, Granville talked to a large man, who then ‘‘manhandled’’ her into a white Holden, a witness who lived near the dairy told police at the time. There was a second man standing near the car. A third man was inside. Granville was never seen again and her body was never found.
Mysteriously, her car was later returned to her home. It has never been established who drove it there.
In many ways, Granville’s case was a cold case from day one. She was facing drug charges when she disappeared and police thought she might have staged her disappearance.
Ten days after she vanished, Detective Inspector Colin Wilson told the Evening Post there was a ‘‘good chance’’ Granville was still alive. He also noted the key to finding her would be identifying the three men in the Holden.
Police also suspected Sneller was somehow involved. Over the years there have been a number of false leads following the discovery of bodies in the hills, but no resolution to the mystery.
Sneller wasn’t around for long after Granville disappeared. He was convicted, along with his mate, Wayne Carstairs, in 1983 for murdering Lower Hutt businessman Robert Cancian with a baseball bat. The murder gave Sneller a national profile, although he always argued he intended only to rough up Cancian.
Over the next 35 years, Sneller would be in and out of prison and would get to know and become friends with some of New Zealand’s most well-known criminals. Jailhouse lawyer Arthur Taylor remains a close friend. He also knew Dean Wickcliffe, the only man to escape maximum security jail Pa¯remoremo twice, and double murderer Graeme Burton, one of New Zealand’s most violent and feared criminals.
While serving a life sentence, Sneller could not get it out of his mind that bank robber and hitman Lesley Maurice Green, who in the underworld was known as ‘‘Old Man’’, was responsible for his partner’s disappearance. Police would later come to the same conclusion.
In 1985, Sneller had a Beretta handgun and ammunition smuggled into Pa¯remoremo with the intention of killing Green. He didn’t go through with it, but gives the impression he now regrets that.
Sneller pursued a different path to justice in 1992, when he went to the High Court to force the attorney-general to refer Granville’s case to the coroner.
During the hearing, Detective Inspector Norm Cook told coroner Phillip Comber that Green was associated with both Granville and Sneller, and that Green intensely disliked Granville.
Police also noted that Australian police investigating Green’s involvement
in murders linked to the
Mr Asia syndicate had ‘‘named’’ Green as her killer.
The syndicate rose to prominence in the late 1970s and 80s, dominating the drug trade in Australasia, with links to Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The syndicate, run by New Zealanders Marty Johnstone and Terry Clarke, left a trail of missing and murdered drug couriers, some of them young women.
Questioned by Sneller’s lawyer at the coroner’s hearing, the police said Green was a suspect in Granville’s disappearance but he had not been interviewed. Newspaper reports note that at that point, the coroner refused to allow any more questions about Green.
The coroner subsequently ruled Granville died from misadventure, and said she was probably killed soon after leaving her home. In the mid-90s, police also followed up a persistent rumour that Dennis Williams, who was allegedly associated with the Mr Asia drug syndicate, was involved. Police executed a search warrant and dug up his concrete barbecue pad in Akatarawa but nothing was found.
In 2009, Cook, the detective inspector, told Stuff it was likely that Granville was involved in a bank robbery with Green.
Cook said police offered her a deal to testify against Green, speculating this could have been related to her disappearance. Granville had been facing the possibility of losing her children due to the drug charges.
Green died last year in Auckland. Although he was publicly named as the killer a number of times, he never commented on or denied his involvement.
Today, police confirm that Green was never formally interviewed. This appears to be due to an Australian investigation into murders linked to the Mr Asia syndicate. Lower Hutt-based Detective Inspector Dean Simpson has had the file since 2009 and is ‘‘pretty sure’’ that Granville had helped Green, who at the time was robbing banks.
‘‘Information received would tend to suggest Marion might have been involved as a getaway driver in a bank robbery with Les Green,’’ he said.
Simpson, who confirms that Sneller is not a suspect, remains optimistic the case can still be solved and Granville’s body returned to the family. Identifying the three men in the white Holden remains the key to unravelling the mystery, he said.
Simpson hopes Sneller’s newfound willingness to cooperate will encourage others involved in the criminal underworld at the time to come forward. Sneller served time with Green and asked him if he had been responsible for Granville’s disappearance. ‘‘Obviously he denied it.’’
Taylor also spent time in prison with Green and also asked him if he had killed Granville.
‘‘He denied it. I said, ‘Mike was your mate and a good mate of mine, so tell the truth,’’’ he recalled, adding that Green said ‘‘no’’. Taylor did not believe him.
Now, 40 years on, Sneller remembers Granville as a good woman who was dedicated to her children and had a strong circle of female friends. For a moment, he lets his tough guy persona drop and his eyes tear up as he acknowledges his lifestyle put Granville in danger. He now ‘‘regrets’’ his actions at the time.
‘‘I feel sorry for the situation I probably put her in because it really deprived my daughters of seeing their mother,’’ he said.
Although it has been four decades since Granville disappeared, Simpson hopes that Sneller’s appeal will provide fresh leads.
‘‘This is still an active investigation and any information will be followed up. Hopefully we can at least identify where she was buried for the family.’’
Daughters
Marion Granville and Michael Sneller’s daughters both live overseas, where they have created new lives for themselves.
Commenting for both of them, Jo said life had been very tough growing up in Naenae due to the publicity about their parents. She appreciates the ongoing efforts to resolve the mystery but did not want to comment beyond a written statement provided to Stuff.
‘‘Mum’s disappearance has had a huge impact on us. Growing up motherless and wondering what happened to her has haunted us, her disappearance made more poignant when having kids of our own. Our children will never meet their grandmother and when asked, we are unable to tell our children what she was like as we have no recollection of her,’’ she wrote.
‘‘We have moved on with our lives as one has to do in order to get through a horrific tragedy. However, it would be good to have some closure after 40 years.’’
Granville’s son, Jason, is believed to still be in New Zealand but could not be contacted for comment.