The Supreme Court has quashed the murder convictions of David Tamihere, 36 years after he was found guilty of killing Swedish backpackers Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen in the Coromandel.
In a decision released on Tuesday, the court ruled Tamihere’s 1990 trial was fundamentally unfair and ordered a retrial, leaving it to the Crown to decide whether to proceed.
The pair disappeared while travelling near Thames in 1989, triggering one of the largest land-based searches in New Zealand. Höglin’s body was discovered by pig hunters near Whangamatā in 1991 — around 70 kilometres from where the couple were last seen — while Paakkonen’s remains have never been found.
The Supreme Court found there had been a “radical recasting” of the Crown’s case since the original trial, including a likely second crime scene and a significantly expanded timeline that had never been tested before a jury.
It also highlighted the impact of discredited prison informant Robert Conchie Harris, whose evidence was later proven false and deemed highly prejudicial.
“We emphasise that there are simply too many questions on the Crown’s new theory of the case… for an appellate court to reach a conclusion about guilt,” the court said.
Tamihere, who served more than 20 years in prison before being released on parole in 2010, has always denied the murders.
Renewed search efforts
Interest in the case has continued in recent years, including renewed efforts to locate Paakkonen’s remains.
In 2023, HC Post‘s Editor joined a search near Whangamatā led by Ryan Wolf, host of the podcast Guilt – Finding Heidi. The search team included a search and rescue specialist, a former police forensic expert, and volunteers combing private forestry land.
The area was identified after a forestry worker recalled discovering a damaged access gate in 1989 and noticing an odour consistent with decomposition.
Searchers used metal detectors and divided into teams to scan the terrain, focusing on factors such as how scent may have travelled, proximity to waterways, and the impact of decades of forestry activity.
Despite a thorough effort, no remains were found.
“We ended up searching the area as well as we could,” Wolf said. “Apart from a couple of interesting finds, we came up empty-handed.”
He noted the site — a stream area — had likely been heavily altered by storms and environmental changes over more than three decades, making recovery efforts extremely difficult.
The case will return to the High Court in Auckland in May, where the Crown will determine whether a retrial will go ahead.
