True Crime Collection

Bain Family Murders

Robin Irving Bain and Margaret Arawa Cullen were married in 1969 in Dunedin, New Zealand. They had 4 children: David (born 1972), Arawa (born 1974), Laniet (born 1976) and Stephen (born 1980). In 1974, they moved to Papua New Guinea, where Robin worked as a missionary teacher. The family returned to New Zealand in 1988. 3 years after his return, Robin became the principal of Taieri Beach School, a 2 teacher school about 50 kilometres down the coast from Dunedin. 

In June 1994, the family lived at 65 Every Street, Andersons Bay, Dunedin. The house was old and 'semi derelict'. At this time Robin and Margaret were estranged. Robin was initially sleeping in the back of his van at Taueri, but more recently in the schoolhouse 3 nights a week. He returned to the family home at weekends but slept in a caravan in the back garden. 

David was studying music and classics at Otago University and had a part time job delivering morning newspapers. Arawa was attending a teachers' training college and Stephen was at high School. Laniet had a part time job in Dunedin and lived away from home, but had returned to the family residence on the Sunday evening of 19th June to attend a family meeting. 

On the morning of 20th June 1994, David called the 111 emergency service number at 07:09am in a distressed state and told the operator: "They're all dead, they're all dead."

When the police arrived they found 5 members of the Bain family had been shot to death - Robin (58), his wife Margaret (50), their daughters Arawa (19) and Laniet (18), and their son Stephen (14). There was evidence of a violet struggle involving Stephen, who was partly strangled as well as shot. A message was found typed on a computer that said "sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay". 4 days later, David, aged 22, was charged with 5 counts of murder.

David's first trial lasted 3 weeks and took place at Dunedin High Court in May 1995. The Crown put forward that David shot to death his mother, 2 sisters and brother in undetermined order before going on his morning paper run. On his return he waited for his father to come in from the caravan and go into the lounge to pray and then shot him from behind the computer alcove curtain, typed the message on the computer, arranged the scene to make it look like a suicide, and called 111. The defence submitted that while David was out on his paper round, Robin killed the other family members, typed the message and shot himself.

David testified that after his morning paper run he entered the house without turning on the lights, and went downstairs to the bathroom where he washed his hands, which were covered with black newsprint, and put some clothes in the washing machine. David said that he noticed bullets and the trigger lock of his rile on the floor of his bedroom when he went back upstairs and turned on the light. He found his mother dead in her room, heard Laniet gurgling and found his father dead in the lounge. At 07:09am he rang 111 in great distress. 

In his closing address, Crown Prosecutor W J Wright said that David murdered his family to gain his inheritance, which the parents had put aside for the new house. In summing up, Justice Neil Williamson told the jury that the Crown had said "... that these events were so bizarre and abnormal that it was impossible for the human mind to conceive of any logical or reasonable explanation". 

Little in the way of motive was presented for Robin. In a formal statement, Dean Cottle told police that Laniet had confided in him that her father had been having an incestuous relationship with her and that she was planning to "blow the whistle" the weekend before she and her family were killed. Dean failed to show up at court when called, and when he did turn up, Justice Williamson found him unreliable as a witness and ruled against admission of his testimony.  The defence instead submitted that, "Robin was a proud school teacher who had been rejected by his family and had snapped after months of pressure."

At the conclusion of the trial, David was convicted by the jury on 5 counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a 16 year non-parole period.