True Crime Collection

Lundy Murders

Christine Marie Lundy aged 38, and her 7 year old daughter Amber Grace Lundy were murdered in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on 29th August 2000. Mark and Christine Lundy had been married for 18 years; Amber was their only child. They jointly owned a kitchen sink business. In 1999, Mark Lundy bought a vineyard in Hawke's Bay on which he still owed more than NZ$2 million in 2000. 

The murders occurred sometime during the night of 29th August 2000. On that Tuesday morning, Mark drove to Wellington on one of his regular business trips. He checked into a motel in Petone at around 5:00pm. His wife or daughter called him on his cell phone in Petone; Mark said he was told during the call that they were going to McDonald's for dinner; the call ended at 5:43 pm. His cell phone records also showed he made a call from Petone to a business partner of his Hawke's Bay wine-making venture at 8:28pm. At 11:30pm he called an escort service in Petone. 

Police found a McDonald's receipt in the Lundy home for food bought at 5:45pm on 29th August. Christine Lundy took a call at home from a friend just before 7pm that night. At 7:20pm a witness described seeing a "suspicious looking jogger" nearby. The computer at the Lundy home was switched off at 10:52pm. 

At Mark's retrial in 2015, Christine's brother testified that he went to the Lundy home the next morning to see Christine about a business matter. He said he entered through an open ranchslider and found the bodies of Christine and Amber bludgeoned to death. Christine's body was on her bed; Amber's was on the floor in the doorway of Christine's bedroom. Both had died of head injuries caused by multiple blows from what was determined to be a tomahawk like weapon or small axe. No weapon was found. A rear window had been tampered with and had Christine's blood on it. A jewellery box was later determined to be missing. 

After a police investigation of 6 months, Mark was arrested and charged with their murders. The trial took place in the High Court in Palmerston North.

4 days before the murders, the Lundys increased their life insurance on the advice of their insurance broker. Christine's cover was raised from $200,000 to $500,000. The prosecution contended that Mark killed his wife for her life insurance money because of financial pressure, and killed his daughter because she was a witness. However, the policy documents had not been issued so the increase was not valid at the time of Christine's death.

The prosecution's case was also based on a speck of body tissue found on one of Mark's polo shirts; the shirt was found along with other clothes and miscellaneous items on the back seat of his car. Although New Zealand pathologists could not identify it as Christine's brain tissue, a pathologist from Texas did. The prosecution argued the only way this brain tissue could have got on the shirt was if Mark himself was the murderer. Later reports and tests by other experts cast doubt upon the identification of the material as brain tissue. 

No weapon was ever found, but paint found in the hair of victims matched the paint Mark used to mark the tools in his toolshed. 

The prosecution called more than 130 Crown witnesses.

The defence called 3 witnesses including Mark himself, who emphatically denied killing his wife and daughter. A key defence argument was that Mark could not have possibly have made the round trip from Wellington to Palmerston North and back in 3 hours, pointing out that Mark's phone records prove that his phone was in Petone at 5:43pm and at 8:48pm. Regarding the brain tissue evidence, the defence noted that there was blood and tissue splattered everywhere including on the walls, the bed and the floor around the bodies but "his car, glasses, wedding ring, shoes and other clothes were all tested for blood or other tissue and absolutely nothing was found"; they said contamination could account for the tissue found on Mark's shirt. 

The jury deliberated for 7 hours before finding Mark guilty of the murder of his wife and child. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. Mark's brother Craig, who gave evidence at the trial, publicly stated that he believed Mark was guilty, while his sister and brother-in-law claimed his innocence. 

Mark unsuccessfully appealed to the Court of Appeal in 2002, and the appeal resulted in his non-parole being increased from 17 years to 20 years. 

In November 2012, Mark applied to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council seeking permission to appeal his murder convictions. The appeal was based on 3 issues: the time of death, the time of shutdown of Christine's computer, and the presence of brain tissue on Mark's shirt. The hearing before the Privy Council began on 17th June 2013, with possible decisions being to reject the appeal, thus affirming Mark's convictions and sentence; to overturn the convictions and order a new trial; or to send the case back to the Court of Appeal in New Zealand for determination. The Privy Council reserved its decision after the 3 day hearing. On 4th October 2013, the Privy Council upheld Mark's appeal against his double murder convictions and quashed them, ordering a retrial. It concluded that Mark's convictions were "unsafe" in light of new evidence that had been presented. Mark Lundy was released from prison under probation orders on 5th October 2013 pending a second trial. 

In 2015 Mark was tried a second time. The Crown case was led by Philip Morgan QC. The defence was led by David Hislop QC. The Crown made significant changes to the prosecution case against Mark following the ruling of the Privy Council. They no longer claimed that Mark made a 300km round trip from Petone to Palmerston North in less than 3 hours to commit the murders. Instead, they argued Mark drove up to Palmerston North in the middle of the night after he had been with the prostitute. 

The jury also heard about scientific tests where were conducted on tissue found on one of Mark's shirts. The Crown claimed the stains were brain or spinal cord matter from Christine while the defence argued they could have been stains from a meat pie. The tests were developed by Dr Laetitia, from a laboratory in the Netherlands, specifically for the Lundy case; they had never been used before and have never been used since. The Prosecution claimed the tests proved the tissue was human. 

The jury deliberated for over 16 hours after which, on 1st April, Mark was again found guilty. 

In October 2017, Mark appealed his second conviction at the Court of Appeal in Wellington. Mark was represented in the Court of Appeal by Jonathan Eaton QC, Julie-Anne Kincade, Jack Oliver-Hood and Helen Coutts. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in October 2018. It ruled that the Crown evidence about RNA in the retrial was inadmissible but decided the appeal should be dismissed "on the basis that no substantial miscarriage of justice has actually occurred." 

Mark was found guilty in the second trial after the results of 2 different tests, immunohistochemistry and mRNA, conducted on tissue found on 1 of his shirts were present to the jury. The Court of Appeal subsequently ruled this evidence was novel science that had never been used before, or since, and should not have been presented to the jury - but upheld Mark's convictions anyways. This was the 'proviso', the mechanism that allowed the Court of Appeal to dismiss Mark's appeal. Mark's lawyer, Jonathan Eaton QC, then argued to the Supreme Court that Mark had become the victim of 'junk science' and in May 2019, he was granted leave to have his appeal heard by the Supreme Court - solely on the proviso argument. 

On 20th December 2019, the Supreme Court of New Zealand dismissed Mark's appeal, stating in its concluding paragraph that "The other evidence establishes beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Lundy murdered Christine and Amber Lundy."