Two a penny

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The millionaire reality TV star accused of murdering a former swimsuit model and stuffing her naked, mutilated body in a suitcase, has been found dead in a motel in British Columbia.

It appears the reality TV star “took his own life,”RCMP Sgt Duncan Pound, spokesperson for the RCMP’s federal border integrity programme said. Any further details will not be released at this time as this investigation remains in its infancy.

“At this present time the investigation into the circumstances of his death is continuing, but preliminary evidence suggests that he took his own life. His body was found in a room at the out-of-the-way motel.”

Jenkins’ body was found in The Thunderbird Motel on a secluded road on the outskirts of Hope British Columbia, at the entrance to the province’s mountainous interior.

Jenkins, 32, disappeared last week but his boat was found Wednesday at a marina not far from the US-Canada border south of Vancouver.

The Thunderbird was surrounded by police with a coroner’s van, said Mark Lojeski who works at the close toby Lucky Strike Motel. Crime scene investigators identified Jenkins through fingerprints, she said.

Jenkins had apparently hanged himself, said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in California, which is contact with Canadian police.

The 32-year-old real estate developer and investor from Calgary is suspected of strangling Jasmine Fiore and then reporting her missing the evening of August 15 before fleeing.

Just three hours earlier, Mounties met with the media to confirm that the reality TV star was hiding out in western Canada and had urged him to give himself up.

Authorities believe Jenkins fled via car, boat and on foot to enter Canada.

Fiore’s naked, mutilated body was found in a suitcase inside a rubbish bin in Buena Park, about 32km southeast of Los Angeles. Investigators used the serial numbers on her breast implants to identify her, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Fiore’s teeth had been pulled out and her fingers cut off, apparently to impede her identification. The couple separated shortly afterward, but had reportedly recently reconciled.

Jenkins and Fiore met in Las Vegas in March and they married a few weeks later. She also was an aspiring actress and had a bit part in a small 2008 horror science-fiction movie, The Abandoned, according to the Internet Movie Database. .

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All Blacks coach Graham Henry has refused to condemn French rugby player Mathieu Bastareaud for his deceitful claim he had been attacked in the streets of Wellington by a group of New Zealanders.

Henry was today philosophical about the whole unfortunate affair involving the Frenchman and his tall tale of woe following last weekend’s second test in the capital.

“It’s just young guys making bad decisions isn’t it,” said Henry’s at today’s captain’s's press conference at AMI Stadium in Christchurch. . These things happen whether you’re a Frenchman, an Australian or a New Zealander from time to time with young people.

“In this case they made a very bad decision.”

Henry also felt it was not up to the All Blacks to point any fingers, despite the fact that they too had been duped by Bastareaud’s false accusations. They make bad decisions, and they’ve copped it. It’s a difficult situation, and I feel for French rugby people.

“We’ve been in similar situations in the past where our guys have made decisions. But let’s be honest about this, we’re not all squeaky clean all the time. There is some relief that it wasn’t New Zealanders involved. But sometimes they don’t.

“We hope our young guys do make good decisions most of the time.

He returned to France after the incident to recover from his injuries.”

Bastareaud told police he was attacked from behind, leaving him with a serious eye injury, but his recollection was patchy. However, it seems he has only owned up following police pressure.

He has now admitted he lied about the attack and instead says he injured himself by falling over a table in his hotel room.

“I owe the truth to everybody.

“I have to return to the events in New Zealand,” said Bastareaud in a statement.

“I fell in my bedroom and scarred my cheekbone on the table in the room.

“On Saturday evening, I returned to the hotel after having drunk too much.

“I recounted the original story because I thought it would be believed, but given the coverage it has subsequently received I thought it would be better to tell the truth,” added Bastareaud.

“I was ashamed and panicked and I thought I would be sent packing by the team management.

“I did not want my family to be ashamed,” he said.

“I did not want my family to be ashamed,” he said.

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The Government is defending its job-saving programmes in the face of rising unemployment.

Oamaru-based Summit Wool Spinners yesterday joined the taxpayer-subsidised nine-day fortnight scheme, saving 57 jobs, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said.

Bennett said that 117 jobs had now been retained under the nine-day fortnight, under which workers and employers agreed to a cut in hours in return for a $62 a fortnight payment from the Government.

Another small manufacturing firm not identified has also joined, retaining six jobs.

“Summit Wool is Oamaru’s second-biggest employer.

“The impact of retaining these jobs for at least the next six months should not be underestimated,” Bennett said.

However, the two were the first scheme entrants since Fisher & Paykel signed up the previous month.”

Bennett expected more companies to join the scheme, saying there had been about 60 approaches from mainly manufacturing and construction businesses.

The Government also faced a setback yesterday over another Job Summit initiative, with banks pulling out of a plan to provide some equity for firms hit by the recession.

Despite 57 positions being saved at Summit Wool Spinners, another 48 people would be made redundant at the mill.

He said it was too early to judge the success of the nine-day fortnight scheme, which was “one of those things that will build up over time”.

Prime Minister John Key said banks had decided it was not commercially viable.

He also planned to announce a widening of the nine-day fortnight scheme.

Key said there were other proposals from the Job Summit that Cabinet was considering, but these would not be announced until the Budget next month.

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Labour leader Phil Goff said the Government’s initiatives had flopped, and the public was being fed “gimmicks and slogans”.

Key agreed “unofficial” unemployment benefit numbers were rising and were now roughly 17,000 more than the same time last year.

“The economic crisis is moving faster than the Government’s responses, which have not been adequate.

“The limited success of the Job Summit initiatives to date will concern New Zealanders,” he said.

“Saving over 100 jobs in the present environment is a very worthwhile achievement and the Government should now look at expanding it to allow firms with fewer than 100 workers to apply,” president Robert Reid said.”

However, the Government’s scheme won praise from the National Distribution Union, which yesterday said the nine-day fortnight was a success, and should be expanded. .

The agreement at the woollen mill in Oamaru had resulted in fewer redundancies, Reid said.

Heatley said $23 million of extra work had been issued to the recession-hit building industry in the past three months.”

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Phil Heatley said 935 people were working on 613 state homes in March as a result of the $124 million in economic stimulus funding announced in February.

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Mountain of interest in Hillary home

By EMMA PAGE – Sunday, 01 March 2009

The modestweatherboard house of modest national hero Sir Edmund Hillary will go under the hammer on March 18, just over a year after his death.
The winning bidder will walk away with a slice of history and a block of land on the coveted "golden mile" of real estate in the wealthy Auckland suburb of Remuera.
Sitting at the bottom of a sloping shared right-of-way, the rectangular wood and brick three-bedroom house that Hillary built in 1956, three years after conquering Everest, is flanked on both sides by stately homes.
Hillary's unofficial biographer, Pat Booth, says the simplicity of the house reflected its owner.
Prospective buyers can walk unimpeded down a brick path to the front door of Hillary's house, and press a small black-and-white doorbell to be let in. Unpretentious, efficient, but not leaping out at people saying 'I'm Ed Hillary's house'. "It was Ed really. .
The house, which sits on a 1773m2 section sloping down to cricket nets at prestigious Kings School and has just enough elevation for glimpses of the harbour, has a capital value of nearly $2 million."
Bayleys agent David Rainbow is expecting sightseers to mix with the serious buyers at today's charity open home – visitors are asked for a gold coin donation which will go the Himalayan Trust that Hillary founded.
Some people were tickled by the idea of owning the home where Hillary lived for 50 years. Rainbow says there has been a steady stream of interest since the house, designed by architecture firm Gummer Ford, was advertised last week.
Booth says the house was full of items that told the story of the man who represented New Zealand to the world. Others were keen to snap up one of the last sections left for development on a desirable stretch of road – a factor likely to push up the price as much as the fame of its previous owner.
"The house itself breathed Ed and it breathed the Himalayas.
"The house itself breathed Ed and it breathed the Himalayas.
* To view the property and for auction details go to www."
Hillary's widow Lady June could not be contacted last week, but the Sunday Star-Times understands the house was vacated at Christmas time and that she has moved into a smaller townhouse nearby.co.bayleys.

.nz and enter the property code #360901

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Itinerant’s secret nest-egg under scrutiny

The Thursday, 19 February 2009

An occasional itinerant thought to have nearly $1 million invested under an alias risks losing his grip on his tightly held nest-egg.
Robert Erwood, also known as McDonald and perhaps Wood, was declared bankrupt not because he could not pay his debts, but because he would not.
Now thought to be living in Auckland, but having stayed in Nelson and Wellington, Mr Erwood had sometimes claimed he was destitute with only a welfare benefit as income.
While Mr Erwood dug in his heels over paying about $220,000 to a family member and his former lawyer, two more creditors have stepped up saying he also owes them $100,000.
Mr Erwood was one of the investors who lost money in the collapse due to fraud of Upper Hutt law firm Renshaw Edwards in 1992.
"The extent of the assets that he apparently owns might come as something of a surprise to those who have been dealing with him," a Court of Appeal judgment said this week.
He still disputes he owes his former lawyer and that case is back before the High Court next month. It led to lengthy court action with the Law Society and eventually his own lawyer. .
The Official Assignee, which administered bankruptcies, had collected or identified more than $900,000 apparently belonging to Mr Erwood, though it was held under the name Robert Wood, the court said.
His failure to pay and the emergence of the two new creditors meant the public interest now required that the bankruptcy follow the usual course so any other creditors could be identified, the Court of Appeal said. It was previously thought he had only two creditors and if he had paid his debt to them about $220,000 the bankruptcy would have been annulled.

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Bus tunnel hit-and-run car was blue

By Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Supplied
FORENSIC ANALYSIS: Fabric from the clothing of hit-and-run victim Earl Krauskopf shows blue paint residue.

Police check paint flecks from hit-run

Victim may not walk again

Police are now examining for a blue vehicle involved in a recent hit-and-run accident in the Mt Victoria bus tunnel which left a Wellington man critically injured.
Mr Krauskopf, 41, is still in intensive care at Wellington Hospital.
This follows forensic tests of clothing worn by accident victim Earl Krauskopf, who was hit from behind as he was walking through the bus-only tunnel at the top of Pirie St just before 4am on the morning of Saturday January 31.
He said police would like to hear from anyone with information about a vehicle with blue paint that has recently been damaged.
Detective Senior Sergeant Thornton said he hoped paint analysis of fragments from the victim's jacket could help find the driver.

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Killer beat 17-year-old before Aim murder

The Friday, 06 February 2009

TRACEY ROBINSON
GUILTY PLEA: Jahche Broughton initially denied any involvement in the death of Karen Aim, but yesterday he admitted murdering the Scottish tourist.

FAMILIES’ NIGHTMARE: The mother of the killer of Karen Aim, pictured, said it was a nightmare for her family and the Aim family and she was finding it hard to understand what had happened. It’s not something a family should go through . ‘It’s like D-Day for us, and it would be like that for the Aim family as well…
Two weeks before he bashed 26-year-old Miss Aim to death, the 14-year-old attacked and seriously injured another young woman by hitting her on the head with a rock.’

Security guard helped protect Aim’s killer

Teen pleads guilty to Karen Aim murder

Scottish tourist Karen Aim was not Jahche Broughton's only victim.
He faces life imprisonment when he appears for sentencing in Rotorua on March 6.
This was revealed publicly for the first time at a pre-trial hearing in the High Court at Auckland yesterday where Broughton entered an unexpected guilty plea to both offences murdering Mis Aim, and injuring the 17-year-old with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
He was "very well loved" as a child, she said.
His mother, Eugenie Broughton, who arrived at court too late for the brief hearing, is struggling to understand what happened.
It was a nightmare for her family and the Aim family and she was finding it hard to understand what had happened. He had a good upbringing and was not spoilt. It's not something a family should go through .
"It's like D-Day for us, and it would be like that for the Aim family as well…"
As for her son, she said: "He will be trying to comprehend what has happened. yes, it's a bit of a nightmare."
Lawyer Bill Lawson said Broughton pleaded guilty because "it was the right thing to do". He is so young, he is only a child and children often don't fully understand.
"Part of the process of being able to carry on is to find out exactly what happened that night.
Miss Aim's father, Brian, was relieved he did not have to sit through a long trial but he still had questions he wanted answered."
Mr Aim praised the work of detectives involved in the case."
Mr Aim praised the work of detectives involved in the case.
The murder of Miss Aim on January 17 last year shocked two communities half a world apart Taupo and her home town of Holm, in the Orkney Islands. Police said she had farewelled friends at a Taupo bar to walk home and was just 50 metres from her flat when she was bashed twice on the head by Broughton.
The last sighting of her was a closed-circuit television image showing her walking out of a service station eating a pie.
Miss Aim was found critically injured by a security guard and police investigating vandalism of smashed windows at Taupo-nui-a-Tia College.
She died before reaching Taupo Hospital.
Police say she had walked close to or through the school, about the time the school windows were being smashed.
Within an hour of her death police had identified Broughton as a prime suspect, based on the attack of the 17-year-old girl a fortnight earlier.
Details of this assault have been legally suppressed until now.
The victim had been walking home from a party when she was attacked from behind.
Broughton hit her 10 times on the back of the head before she staggered to a house to call for help.
Broughton had been evicted from the party earlier in the night because he was drunk.
After the attack he went to the house of a friend, Leigh Herewini, to wash off the blood.
Broughton told Mr Herewini he had been in a fight and was taken back home.
By coincidence, Mr Herewini was working as a security guard at Taupo nui-a-Tia College the night Miss Aim was killed. .
Broughton's arrest came after police watched closed-circuit television footage from the college leading up to the murder.
It showed a young male riding a chopper-style bike, and wearing a diamond earring similar to one described by his first victim. He was arrested a fortnight later.
Police later searched the house where he lived with his grandparents and found a bloodied baseball bat and Miss Aim's black handbag and camera.

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Suspicious blazes strike Invercargill

Police investigations begin as rash of call-outs stretches fire crews

By JARED MORGAN – Wednesday, 28 January 2009

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FIGHTING TO GET IN: Firefighters struggled to get into a shed on Bluff Rd during a large fire at 3.30am yesterday.

Invercargill police are investigating four suspicious blazes, including a home targeted as a family slept inside, after a rash of call-outs stretched city fire crews yesterday.
The question of whether a firebug was responsible for the suspicious blazes was something police and Fire Safety investigators would not be drawn on last night.
Between midnight and 7pm firefighters received 11 call-outs to six structure fires, including the four being investigated, one callback to the scene of an earlier fire, one car crash and three false alarms.
Firefighters were called to the first fire in a hayshed on Severn St about midnight.
Detective Fred Shandley, of Invercargill CIB, said joint investigations were continuing on whether the fires were connected. .30am destroyed a storage shed on Bluff Rd.
The second fire about 3.
In the fourth blaze, which broke out between 6am and 9am, an uninsured business premises in the South City Mall on Elles Rd was damaged after a refrigeration unit on the roof of the building was set alight, he said.
A home in Bain St was the third property hit after wood against an exterior wall was set alight.
"If you look at the time and location there is more similarity between the (first three) fires.
It was unclear whether the fourth fire was linked to the first three, Mr Shandley said."
Gary Rodgers, the owner of the Bluff Rd shed, was yesterday counting the cost of the blaze."
Gary Rodgers, the owner of the Bluff Rd shed, was yesterday counting the cost of the blaze."
His tenant, who rented half the shed from him and lost a $90,000 street sweeper and personal effects, alerted him to the fire about 5.
"It's more than $100,000 worth of gear without the cost of the shed.
"My son passed me the phone and he said `I've got some bad news for you.30am, Mr Rogers said.
"He said `it's worse than that it's gone'.' I said `the bastards have broken into Bluff Rd haven't they?'," Mr Rogers said. "It's not a life it hasn't got a pulse."
While insurance had yet to assess the extent of losses, he was remaining positive, he said.49am."
In Bain St, Glenys Williamson, her 26-year-old son Manawa and three grandchildren Joshua Kerr, 16, Marcus Kerr, 14, and Tyler Kerr, 9, were all woken by a neighbour thumping on the door at 6. I said `what?"'
Her son and eldest grandson rushed outside with buckets of water to douse the flames while she called 111, she said. I said `what?"'
Her son and eldest grandson rushed outside with buckets of water to douse the flames while she called 111, she said.
The fire, which scorched the eave of the house but caused little damage, had rattled her and her family, Ms Williamson said.
"It's scary I've got to get young Tyler to bed tonight and say it's going to be all right."
At Impuls-d, a South City Mall bag retailer, owner Warren Skill said he was aware youths sometimes hung out on the roof. and believed they were responsible for the blaze.
He was uninsured.
Invercargill Fire Service chief fire officer Brendan Nally said the volume of call-outs had taxed firefighting resources.
Rostered fire crews, one at the Kingswell station in south Invercargill and two at the fire service's central city headquarters, had to be supplemented by volunteers and off-duty firefighters to deal with the blazes particularly those that happened yesterday morning, which tied up firefighters for hours, he said.
"We activated Invercargill volunteers we've got 17 (people) available and had to call in staff who were off duty."
Many of the additional staff mobilised to fight the fires were rostered to begin work at 8am and were beginning to feel jaded by yesterday afternoon, Mr Nally said.
"We are having to manage a fair bit of fatigue."
SUSPICIOUS FIRES Midnight: Firefighters are called to a hayshed in Severn St, an excavator is used to bury burning hay and fire crews maintain vigil at the scene until 6am. 3.25am: Fire crews called to a large shed on Bluff Rd opposite the intersection with Hyde St to find it well ablaze. Tight security on fences and the structure itself hamper efforts to douse the blaze. An explosion and the sound of gas cylinders venting in the heat mean firefighters build an improvised dam around intact cylinders to hold water and keep them cool. They remain on the scene until 8am. 6.53am: Firefighters douse the remnants of a deliberately lit fire against the exterior wall of a house. 10am: A fire in the housing for a refrigeration unit on the roof of a Elles Rd business goes up in smoke. Firefighters are forced to dismantle the housing and break into the roof cavity to reach the seat of the blaze.

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Gay sex-seekers ruin it for Rabbit Island nudists

The Thursday, 08 January 2009

MARTIN DE RUYTER/
NUDE, NOT RUDE: This man who agreed to be photographed on Nelson’s Rabbit Island says he is part of a community of genuine nudists there, but said there was a group of men who ‘disappear into the bushes’ and he found their behavour offensive.

Men meeting for sexual encounters and spying on others at Nelson's Rabbit Island run the risk of bringing stigma on the gay community, says the president of the Nelson gay group Spectrum. .
Wayne Bartram said the eastern end of the island was so well known as a meeting place for gay men that he would tell visitors examining to contact others to "go to the beach and turn right".
"We don't need animosity because we are not all dirty people, we are just gay," he said.
He had many gay friends who visited Rabbit Island to play cards, swim, read or talk, with or without clothes.
There was enough space at the beach to enjoy a nudist lifestyle, he said.
A nudist who agreed to be photographed but not named said he had been practising nudity there for about five years and was part of a group of "genuine folk who don't want to make a scene".
They often hid behind bushes to stare at other beach users, he said.
But there was a group of "hide and seek guys who disappear into the bushes" and he found their behaviour offensive.
A woman who oftenly rides her horse on the beach said she often saw naked people and had been told by other beach users that "all sorts" went on under the pine trees.
Wellington labourer Josh Scott told The that he wasn't too bothered when he glimpsed a nudist while walking back from a swim at the eastern end of the beach, but "wondered what was going on" when he walked past a group of five naked men.
A number of people had been issued trespass notices over the years, he said.
Sergeant Craig Barker of Richmond police said there were one or two complaints about nudity at Rabbit Island each year and an occasional report of offensive behaviour.
If it receives any, it is ready to put up signs reminding people that the beach is not clothes optional.
The Tasman District Council has not had any complaints about nudity this summer.
Members of the public should contact the police if they saw anything objectionable occuring in the area, he said.
Mayor Richard Kempthorne said he was aware the eastern end of the beach was used as a gathering place by the gay community, but not of any complaints.

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Fire ban looms for Hawke’s Bay

The Wednesday, 24 December 2008

A total fire ban looms in Hawke's Bay as the region struggles to cope with very dry conditions.
However, a meeting of the former Hawke's Bay drought committee in Hastings yesterday concluded the region is not yet in the grip of another drought.
"Many areas on the Heretaunga Plains and near the coast are verging on extreme fire conditions," he said.
Hastings District Council deputy principal rural fire officer Paul Hawke said soaring temperatures had made the district which covers a large part of Hawke's Bay one of the driest in the country.
Fire permits were now being issued only for barbecues and traditional cooking fires such as hangi. Maraekakaho, Crownthorpe, Waimarama, Ocean Beach and Putorino were the areas worst affected.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule, who chaired the drought meeting, said parts of Hawke's Bay were very dry but others were doing well. A total ban would follow if the hot, dry conditions continued, Mr Hawke said.
Farmers were making use of their experience of recent droughts and selling off stock if they were short of feed.
"The worst areas are Mahia and parts of Central Hawke's Bay," he said.
Last year had been financially bad but recent price rises had helped, he said. "If they haven't got green grass then surplus lambs should go," Mr Yule said.
"You have to go back to 1914 to find a drier spring," Mr Wyn-Harris said.
Takapau farmer Steve Wyn-Harris, who keeps comprehensive rain records, said his area had received a total of 78 millimetres of rain over September, October and November. . "But it's patchy there were some thunderstorms in Central Hawke's Bay and some people got the rain, some didn't