Cold Case Murder Mystery: What Happened to Marion Granville?

In 1980, Marion Granville left her home in Naenae and never returned. His disappearance has been linked to some of New Zealand’s biggest names in crime, but 40 years later, it remains unsolved.

Now, Michael Sneller, a 76-year-old career criminal and Granville’s partner at the time of his disappearance, speaks publicly for the first time about the case that has occupied his thoughts for four decades. He is asking anyone who knows what happened to the 29-year-old mother of three to come forward.

“I hope that if something comes out of this, we can at least find out where she is buried,” he said in his first interview about the case.

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* Notorious criminal Les Green dies
* Body believed to be missing in the search area of ​​a West Auckland woman

At 7:30 am on August 30, 1980, Granville left his Wilkie Crescent home in his pink slippers. He got into his 1971 Ford Falcon GT with a distinctive silver-gray black stripe down the side and drove to the nearby Seddon Street Dairy to buy cigarettes and a copy of The Dominion Newspaper.

She left her children, four-year-old twins Joanna and Kristina, her children with Sneller, and her eight-year-old son Jason, a son from a previous relationship, at home.

But in front of the dairy, Granville spoke to a burly man, who then “transformed” her into a white Holden, a witness who lived near the dairy told police at the time. There was a second man standing near the car. A third man was inside.

Granville was never seen again and her body was never found. Mysteriously, his car was later returned to his Wilkie Crescent home. It has never been established who drove him there.

In many ways, the Granville case was cold from day one.

She was facing drug charges when she disappeared and the police thought she might have organized her disappearance.

Ten days after his disappearance, Detective Inspector Colin Wilson told the Afternoon post there was a “good chance” that Granville was still alive. He also noted that the key to finding her would be to identify the three men in Holden.

Police also suspected that Sneller was involved in some way. Over the years, there have been a number of red herrings following the discovery of bodies in the hills, but the mystery has not been solved.

Sneller was not around long after Granville’s disappearance. He was convicted, along with his partner Wayne Carstairs, in 1983 of murdering Lower Hutt businessman Robert Cancian with a baseball bat. The murder gave Sneller a national profile, although he always argued that he only intended to mistreat Cancian.

For the next 35 years, Sneller would be in and out of prison and would meet and befriend some of New Zealand’s best-known criminals. Jail attorney Arthur Taylor remains a close friend. He also knew Dean Wickcliffe, the only man to escape from Paremoremo maximum security prison twice, and double-killer Graeme Burton, one of New Zealand’s most violent and feared criminals.

While serving a life sentence, Sneller couldn’t get his mind off that bank robber and hitman Lesley Maurice Green, who was known in the underworld as “Old Man,” was responsible for his partner’s disappearance. The police would later come to the same conclusion.

In 1985, Sneller had a Beretta pistol and ammunition smuggled into Paremoremo with the intent to kill Green. He didn’t, but he seems to regret it now.

Sneller followed a different path to justice in 1992, when he went to Superior Court to force the Attorney General to refer Granville’s case to the coroner.

During the hearing, Detective Inspector Norm Cook told Coroner Phillip Comber that Green was associated with both Granville and Sneller, and that Green greatly disliked Granville.

The police also noted that Australian police investigating Green’s involvement in killings related to the Mr Asia union had “named” Green as their killer.

The union rose to prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s, dominating the drug trade in Australasia, with links to Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The union, led by New Zealanders Marty Johnstone and Terry Clarke, left a trail of missing and murdered drug couriers, some of them young women.

When questioned by Sneller’s attorney at the coroner’s hearing, police said Green was a suspect in Granville’s disappearance, but had not been interviewed. Newspaper reports note that at the time, the coroner refused to allow further questions about Green.

The coroner later ruled that Granville died by accident and said she was likely killed shortly after leaving her home.

In the mid-1990s, the police also followed a persistent rumor that Dennis Williams, who was an alleged associate with the Mr Asia drug syndicate, was involved. Police executed a search warrant and dug up his concrete grill in Akatarawa, but nothing was found.

In 2009, Cook, the detective inspector, said Stuff Granville was likely involved in a bank robbery with Green.

Cook said police offered him a deal to testify against Green, speculating that this could have been related to his disappearance. Granville had faced the possibility of losing her children to drug charges.

Green died last year in Auckland. Although he was publicly named as the killer several times, he never commented on or denied his involvement.

Today, police confirm that Green was never formally interviewed. This appears to be due to an Australian investigation into killings related to the Mr Asia union.

Lower Hutt detective inspector Dean Simpson has had the file since 2009 and is “pretty sure” that Granville had helped Green, who was robbing banks at the time.

“The information received would tend to suggest that Marion could have been involved as a driver in a bank robbery with Les Green,” he said.

Simpson, who confirms that Sneller is not a suspect, remains optimistic that the case can still be solved and Granville’s body returned to the family.

Identifying the three men in the white Holden remains the key to unraveling the mystery, he said.

Simpson hopes that Sneller’s newfound willingness to cooperate will encourage others involved in the criminal underworld to come forward.

Sneller served a sentence with Green and asked if he had been responsible for Granville’s disappearance. “Obviously he denied it.”

Taylor also spent time in prison with Green and also asked if he had killed Granville.

“He denied it. I said ‘Mike was your partner and a good partner of mine, so tell the truth,’ “he recalled, adding that Green said” no. ” Taylor didn’t believe him.

Now, 40 years later, Sneller remembers Granville as a good woman who dedicated herself to her children and had a strong circle of friends. For a moment, he lets his tough boy personality drop and his eyes fill with tears as he acknowledges that his lifestyle puts Granville in danger. Now he “regrets” his actions at the time.

“I’m sorry about the situation I probably put her in because it really deprived my daughters of seeing their mother,” she said.

Although four decades have passed since Granville’s disappearance, Simpson hopes that Sneller’s appeal will provide new clues.

“This is still an active investigation and any information will be followed up. Hopefully we can at least identify where she was buried for the family. “

Daughters

The daughters of Marion Granville and Michael Sneller live abroad, where new lives have been created.

Commenting for the two of them, Jo said that life had been very difficult growing up in Naenae due to the publicity about her parents. She appreciates the ongoing efforts to solve the mystery, but declined to comment beyond a written statement provided to Stuff.

“Mom’s disappearance has had a great impact on us. Growing up without a mother and wondering what happened to her has haunted us, her disappearance made all the more moving by having our own children. Our children will never know their grandmother and when they ask us, we cannot tell our children what she was like, as we do not remember her, ”he wrote.

“We have moved on with our lives as one has to to overcome a horrible tragedy, however it would be nice to have closure after 40 years.”

Granville’s son Jason is believed to be still in New Zealand but could not be reached for comment.