Case 17: Baby Kahurautete

True Crime New Zealand (NZ)

LOWER HUTT. WELLINGTON. Saturday. 13th of April 2002. 11.20am. Donna Hall gathered her two nieces, Manumea and Erena Durie to take a morning stroll along the Hutt River with ‘baby Kahu’ and the family dog. The fivesome left their house and wandered through the suburbs of Woburn. The two nieces pushed Kahu in the pushchair a few metres ahead of Donna who walked the dog behind.

Eventually the quintet walked southwest onto Saint Albans Grove. As they made their way down the road towards the riverbank a Mitsubishi Magna passed them and parked ahead at the end of the grove, near the stairs to Strand Park.

As the quintet approached the stairs leading up to the riverbank, a man wearing a balaclava, gloves and weilding a .22 Ruger semi automatic rifle burst out of the Mitsubishi and quickly approached the group. The attacker pointed the rifle at the head of Erena Durie and threatened to kill her along with her sister Manumea if they didn’t leave baby Kahu.

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