Post by Lux on Aug 9, 2008 16:43:15 GMT 12
Murder case remains a mystery
By GLENN MCLEAN - Taranaki Daily News | Saturday, 09 August 2008
An 18-year-old Taranaki murder mystery appears destined never to make it to court despite police having multiple confessions from their prime suspect.
As well as the confessions, police have a witness prepared to testify that the same suspect confessed to her as well and begged her for an alibi minutes after his brother had been bludgeoned to death.
New Plymouth woman Katie Kidd said Cambridge man Selwyn "Joe" Oemcke turned up at her Stratford house on January 3, 1990, and asked her to lie to police.
In the car outside the house was Oemcke's brother, ex-con David Oemcke, whose body lay slumped in the passenger seat.
He had a 10cm wound to his head and a broken arm.
The force of the blow smashed his skull, exposing the brain. "He (Joe) just stood in the door and said: `I need your help. I've killed David, he's dead.' He knew exactly what he was saying and he wanted an alibi," Kidd said.
Fairfax reporters spoke to the officers who interviewed Oemcke that night.
They say Oemcke's version of what happened that night changed several times.
"From that alone, I thought it was worth putting it in front of a jury," one said. "It was apparent that what happened that night happened pretty close to the car. I don't know if the car was the scene (of the murder).
"There was never any suggestion he was out of his brother's company," the officer said. The Taranaki Daily News understands Oemcke confessed to police to killing his brother the next day.
Police took their evidence to Crown solicitor Tim Brewer.
"In 1990, I reviewed this file and advised the police there was insufficient evidence at that time to proceed. I won't say who the suspect is or who we were looking at," he said.
Asked why he thought there was insufficient evidence, given that he had three key parts to build his case on, Brewer had no comment.
"I am bound by confidentiality to my client, which is the police. I could not comment on that."
Crown Law spokeswoman Jan Fulstow, of Wellington, said cases that were rejected by Crown lawyers were often peer-reviewed. Oemcke's never was.
Once the grounds for prosecution had been rejected by the Crown, the officer in charge of the case, Detective Senior Sergeant Ross Pinkham, made an unsuccessful national plea for more information when he appeared on popular television show Crimewatch in March 1990.
The Oemcke case then appeared to go no further.
Pinkham was promoted to detective inspector and transferred to Napier.
Now one of the country's top cops as southern crimes manager, he is leading the investigation in the retrial of accused mass murderer David Bain.
Pinkham referred all questions to head of New Plymouth's CIB, Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward, who would only say that it was an ongoing investigation and he could not discuss it because it could prejudice any future trial.
Oemcke was reluctant to talk about the case when approached at his Cambridge home.
"David's death had nothing to do with me. He was a bully, a thug, and if he got killed by being donged over the head by somebody, it wasn't by me," he said.
"As far as I'm concerned, that was 18 years ago and I had nothing to do with it."
