The case... the wrong ride?
With a scarf around her neck, warm sheepskin jacket and her wavy, dark-brown hair tied back into a ponytail, Birgit Brauer smiled as she took a photo of the gorgeous scenery.
Birgit, 28, was on a working holiday in New Zealand. Originally from Dresden, Germany, she’d been in the country for seven months when she went hitchhiking in September 2005.
Days before, Birgit had been staying with Caryl and Fritz Blomkvist on their farm, helping out with chores in return for board and lodging.
Then she’d set off for the next stage of her adventure, heading north, well rested and with a hug for her two hosts. Hitchhiking was an accepted way of getting around.
‘She said she would ring us that night to say she was OK, but she never did,’ Caryl said.
The last sighting of Birgit alive was in the town of Waitotara.
The next time she was seen was when a jogger spotted her motionless body in Lucy’s Gully, a picnic spot in the idyllic Egmont National Park.
Birgit had been beaten with a metal bar, her neck stamped on, and then stabbed through the heart. Her attacker had tried to rape her, too.
The first step for police was to try to find the vehicle that had picked up Birgit. A black or dark-grey, four-wheel drive, possibly a Toyota Hilux.
Operation Lucy began, named after the place Birgit was found. Birgit’s body left a bloody track where she’d been dragged along the ground. In her pocket was a piece of paper with the Blomkvists’ phone number. The next clue was found at a local service station. The police were told there was CCTV in this rural town. It meant the footage could be shown on TV. And one person who saw it recognised the truck. Brent Cleverley employed a man named Michael Wallace. And he’d let Wallace drive his Toyota Hilux Surf. Turning their attention to Wallace, what the police found was chilling. A prolific burglar, aged 22 he’d broken into a couple’s house, raping the woman and locking her husband in a cupboard. He was also said to have thrown evidence from a crime into a river in 1991. Now, in 2005, not only had a metal bar used to kill Birgit been found in a nearby river, but her backpack and sleeping bag were found by Lake Rotokare. Had Wallace again thrown evidence of a crime into the water? Or was he a reformed character, only in the frame because of past crimes? Police set about talking to his family and friends. Some described Wallace as a hard worker, a decent person. But they said he was a man with a gypsy lifestyle, too. A loner who was often off the radar. Was a picture of a solitary rapist and killer forming? The police believed Wallace needed to be brought in. Barely two weeks after the murder, on 8 October, the
police prepared to arrest Wallace.
They knew he’d be at the small coastal community of Himatangi Beach, in Manawatu. His mother and brother lived there.
The officers were taking no chances. The community centre was on lockdown, cordons set up. Nobody was allowed in or out of the settlement until they got their man.
Michael Wallace was finally arrested at gunpoint. He was charged with the murder, but continually denied the charges.
It took 22 months for the case to come to court and still Wallace denied the charges.
The court heard how his previous convictions also included arson in 1976. Then, five years on, aggravated assault and possessing a firearm.
But they also heard from Wallace’s boss Brent Cleverley.
He described Wallace as a ‘very good worker’, said he’d trusted him to drive his car.
Wallace had worked for Brent since March 2005.
When he’d collected his wages on 19 August, Wallace said he was going away for a few days.
‘I trusted Mike very well,’ Brent said, confirming he’d let Wallace use the Toyota for his trip. But he added that, soon after Wallace left, he realised that he wasn’t coming back.
When asked about a metal bar kept in the car, Brent couldn’t be sure if it was the same as the one used to bludgeon Birgit. So the question remained… Was Wallace a reformed character and only in the frame because of past crimes? This seemed even more possible when a witness said he’d seen Birgit at the time when she was assumed to be with Wallace. He said Birgit was on the beach near his home. So perhaps she’d got out of the Toyota…been picked up by someone else who then killed her. As the contradictory evidence unfolded, Michael Wallace stood in the dock, silent. A loner in the frame – or a violent man brought to account for his latest crime?
He was finally arrested at gunpoint