Black Widow, The: How One Woman Got Justice for Her Murdered Brother

by Lee-Anne, Cartier,

  10 July: Helen finished work, after tendering her resignation at the start of the week. It seemed to be that everyone received a different story on each matter surrounding Phil’s death, Helen’s work, her financial situation and the sale of the house, to name just a few topics.

  ON THE AFTERNOON OF MY last day in New Zealand, I went to the Christchurch South Police Station to see the detective who was in charge of Phil’s file. He was expecting me, but I was nervous; from my calls to him I’d found him slightly rude and arrogant. In person he was no different — he was very condescending.

  I firstly gave him my phone so he could read the text messages from when I lost it with Helen. He said her lawyer had called him about my abusive texts and that they would take action if they continued. I laughed and said all I did was state the truth. He looked at the texts and copied them down.

  I informed him about my conversation with the neighbour Ray and the information his wife had about the morning Phil was found, and also about my phone call to Lyn at Helen’s old work and the concerns she and other employees had around Phil’s death. I got the feeling he couldn’t wait to get rid of me. I felt he was totally lacking in the people skills the situation required. My gut feeling was that he did sort of believe me but didn’t care about getting justice for Phil. I felt frustrated, and didn’t trust him to investigate properly — but he sure as hell wasn’t impressed by me telling him how to do his job!

  Phil’s 21st birthday, March 1983, with Mum and Dad.

  Ten

  Theft as a Servant

  The next few months were busy. Lance shifted back to Australia to live and I headed off for a seven-day cruise with Bernadette for my 40th birthday.

  In between trying to get on with my life I contacted the courts to get an understanding of the process of dealing with an estate when there is no will, and found that Helen’s lawyer would have to be granted letters of administration in the High Court. I then called Coumbe. I told him I knew how anal Phil was with paperwork, and that if anything had been destroyed he would be held personally responsible. I promised him that if I got so much as a hint that he hadn’t followed the letter of the law I would make sure the courts gave him a legal enema.

  In October my landlady advised me she would be shifting back to the coast and needed the house back by February. It would have been four years since we shifted in. I loved the house and it had been a wonderful home for my family, but I knew Helen had been to the house and might well remember where it was, so I took the opportunity to shift as soon as possible.

  We shifted 10 km away to a home in the hinterland, built in 8 hectares of rainforest. I felt safe there even though we were surrounded by snakes and possums. I just kept busy with work as Christmas came and went, waiting to hear back from the detectives.

  I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the inaction of the Christchurch police. They came and interviewed Karen, but didn’t seem to want to check Ben’s phone for any relevant text messages. I rang the detectives on many occasions to discuss where they were with the case, and two of them individually acknowledged that they knew Helen had murdered Phil but didn’t have the level of evidence required to convict her. One told me that he had had two meetings with the coroner and had been sent back to look for further evidence.

  I waited to hear more but gave up. The next time I called them I was informed the matter was now in the hands of the coroner and an inquest was the next step.

  In all the time of my investigation, no contact with me was ever initiated by the police. It was always me chasing them for answers on what they were doing, which seemed to me to be stuff all. The police never contacted my parents or brothers for information, and when I spoke to them they had attitude. I felt like they didn’t chase up leads I gave them for the sole reason that they weren’t going to be told by a nobody in another country how to do their job.

  THE TWINS’ 10TH BIRTHDAY, ON 20 March 2010, which would have been Phil’s 48th and his first birthday since his death, wasn’t easy. Somehow we managed to get through the day without ruining it for the girls. Rajon and Lacau had a group of friends over for a sleepover and family arrived late morning. We had a great birthday lunch and family stayed till after dinner. I managed the day by not getting into any conversations with Mum and Dad about Phil. It wasn’t easy, but I didn’t want the girls to dwell on what had happened to their uncle; I wanted them to enjoy the day. Unfortunately, this was the only birthday since his passing that I have managed that.

  In April, after the boys went their own ways, I shifted into holiday accommodation at Kings Beach on the Sunshine Coast with the twins while I waited for a job transfer to the Gold Coast to come through. In the June/July school holidays, we shifted to the Gold Coast.

  IN AUGUST 2010, HELEN’S MOTHER Anne and her partner Gavin made their yearly trip to the Gold Coast. I picked them up from the airport and dropped them to their accommodation. They had brought over some stuff from New Zealand for me, including a VCR tape from Karen of the latest episodes of Outrageous Fortune for me to catch up on.

  Anne also gave me a folder of paperwork she had about Helen for me to copy. We caught up several times while they were over, with them having dinner at my place one night. They were both such lovely people, it was hard to believe that this lady could have given birth to the woman who killed my brother. They also spent some time with Mum and Dad while they were over.

  Anne had written extensive notes about issues they had had with Helen over the years, right from when she was a child, trouble she had got into at school and run-ins with various employers. It made for depressing reading. From everything I could gather, Helen had a long history of lying, deception, fraud and theft.

  THIS WAS REINFORCED WHEN THE police laid charges against Helen of theft as a servant, for stealing from her previous employer. Lyn, Helen’s former boss, emailed me at the start of August to let me know how the court hearing had gone.

  Helen pleaded guilty to both charges of theft as a servant. She comes up for sentencing on 15th of October at 11:45 AM. She was bailed to her new address of ———. She moved to the new address on Friday, 30 July. It was interesting that she had no one in court to support her. She has reverted to her maiden name of Milner, so that’s something, at least your family name is not being dragged through the mud. [Helen had been calling herself Helen Nisbet up to this point.] When the detective came to see me for the last statement he did say that after her interview with the police for these charges, that she then booked herself in Hillmorton [psychiatric] Hospital. His words were ‘she’s obviously going down that track now!’ After the interview and being bailed the police then visited her at home that night and removed her passport as they saw her as a flight risk. So at least she won’t be coming over to visit you for a while.

  The removal of Helen’s passport was a giant relief for me.

  IN LATE AUGUST 2010 WE were given a date for Phil’s inquest: Wednesday, 17 November. I was told it would last two days. I booked tickets for myself and the girls to fly over a week before the inquest and stay until the week after, in case we got the findings quickly after the inquest.

  I had had a big overseas trip booked for February 2011 to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bali with Aaron, the twins and a group of friends. With the expense of attending the inquest, I chose to cut my losses and cancel the trip. The important thing was getting the inquest result we needed to reopen the case. And it’s not like I could have enjoyed a holiday if I hadn’t attended the inquest.

  It was all suddenly real: this was my small window of opportunity to prove Helen had murdered Phil and have his death ruled as not being suicide. No pressure … yeah, right!

  When I first spoke to the coroner’s office about the date, they mentioned the coroner would like to meet with the family earlier in the week. This was confirmed in our written notice of the inquest. The letter stated:

  At the inquest it is the Coroner’s role:

  To establish a person has died, their id
entity, when and where, causes and circumstances of death. It is not to determine civil, criminal or disciplinary liability …

  Generally evidence will be presented to the court by a member of the police, mainly in the form of written statements and reports. The coroner may receive and admit any evidence from any person who offers evidence in respect of the death concerned. A person who gives evidence at an inquest must do so orally on oath or affirmation, unless doing so by a written statement already confirmed on oath or affirmation.

  It is the intention of the Coroner to hear the evidence from various witnesses.

  Following the inquest Coroner Johnson will make her findings. A finding is a written determination by the Coroner setting out the facts of this case in the cause of death and reasons for the decision.

  The venue was the Environment Court No. 2, Armagh Street, Christchurch, which was located next to Christchurch’s main court building. This beautiful building was unfortunately one of the fatalities of the second Christchurch earthquake, in February 2011.

  I emailed Helen’s lawyer Coumbe on 5 October and told him:

  I will call into your office at 1 PM on Thursday, 11 November 2010 to pick up all Phil’s financial paperwork including all bank/credit card statements, receipts, tax returns and Inland Revenue correspondence and business paperwork et cetera as per our telephone conversation over a year ago. Any paperwork you need to keep please make photocopies of it for me.

  I wasn’t asking: I was telling him.

  He replied very quickly, saying he could not release the documents or any other items from the estate to me, as I had no legal claim to them. The estate was being administered by the Public Trust as Helen had instructed them to act on her behalf, due to her personal circumstances. He said he would continue to hold all items and would dispose of them in accordance with the Public Trust’s instructions, and that I would need my solicitor to file any claim to the contrary.

  ‘Costs or security for costs incurred by the estate in defending any such claim will no doubt be sought from any claimant due to the nature of the estate.’

  He finished with:

  It is not appropriate that I continue to communicate with you on this matter. Please therefore address any questions to the Public Trust or through your solicitor.

  In a way I was relieved that Coumbe had realised he was playing on a field he had no experience in; as far as I knew he was usually just a conveyancing lawyer.

  I sent Helen a letter of demand for the amount it had cost me to do our own DNA test, plus interest calculated to 17 November, with full payment required in cash or bank cheque on that date at the Environment Court. I never really thought she’d pay out, but it was my way of letting her know I was going to always be there, fighting, till I got justice.

  I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM Lyn in the afternoon after Helen’s sentencing on the theft as a servant charges. Helen’s lawyer had told the court that they needed to take into account her mental state due to the grief of losing her husband, then went on to talk about her grandchild and that she was truly remorseful for her actions.

  The judge said he had taken into account Helen’s offer of paying $15,000 reparation, and the fact that she had said she had taken the money to provide for her grandchild, Adam and Kasey’s baby, which Lyn didn’t even think had been conceived at the time of the theft.

  On the first charge, obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception, there was a provision to impose a jail term of 16 months, but as Helen had entered a guilty plea that was reduced to 11 months. The judge then said that the reparation offer reduced it to nine months’ jail, as long as full reparation was paid, at a rate of $10 a week on the balance. The sentence was then reduced to five months’ home detention with six months’ post-detention conditions.

  On the second charge, of theft by a person in a position of responsibility, Helen received one month’s home detention, to be served concurrently.

  Lyn said that while she would have preferred Helen to have been locked up, even if it was only for a month, at least she now had a criminal record, and there was an official record of the type of dishonest behaviour which many people had believed Helen was capable of.

  Helen and Phil in Australia, March 2009.

  Eleven

  The Inquest

  Things were insanely busy leading up to my trip to the inquest. I was trying to do as many hours as I could at work that week before we flew out. I was so stressed that on the day before we left — my birthday — I managed to park my car on a slight slope without leaving the handbrake on. While I was inside visiting a friend, it rolled about 200 metres, crossing to the other side of the road onto the curb, hitting a small tree and rolling onto its side. Thankfully the street was empty so it didn’t hit anyone or anything else. This was the last thing I needed with an early flight the next morning to New Zealand, but the show had to go on.

  We stayed most of the time in Christchurch with Karen and Ben. The city was a mess from the 4 September earthquake. One night when the girls stayed with another friend, they experienced an aftershock which Rajon described as feeling like King Kong was hanging onto the side of the house and shaking it. Thankfully they were more intrigued than scared. They had both been saying before we went, ‘I hope we feel an aftershock’, so they should have been careful what they wished for!

  As with the majority of my trips to Christchurch, my first port of call was Lance, my hairdresser. There is no better confidence-builder than a great new hairstyle and Lance never failed to deliver on that. It was great catching up with Lance; he was so encouraging and the faith he had in me to do what I needed to do at the inquest was empowering.

  Mum, Dad and Andrew arrived in Christchurch over the weekend. We met at the coroner’s office on the same street as the court at 2.30 p.m. for the family meeting. I was armed with a notepad and the birthday cards Phil had given the twins five weeks before his death, which I planned to use as evidence of Phil’s handwriting.

  This was the beginning of the make-or-break time: with the inquest, first impressions and everything after were all going to count. I knew Helen had murdered Phil — I never doubted it for a second — but I needed to show the coroner that.

  I found the coroner, Sue Johnson, to be an amazing, caring, inspiring lady. She greeted us all at the door, hugging us all and expressing her condolences.

  Sue explained her role and the procedure of the inquest. She explained that it was not to attribute blame, and that Helen would be warned if she was asked any questions that would incriminate her — that is, I could ask Helen anything, even if she had killed Phil, but the coroner would have to then warn Helen that she didn’t need to answer such a question. That was good to know: I’d need to be very strategic about what questions I asked and how. She also explained that Helen didn’t legally have to answer any questions I put to her. This was a worry, but I decided I would go in to court hoping she would.

  Sue asked if we had any questions, and I explained that I had brought the birthday cards Phil had given the twins for her to compare with the signature on the suicide note. As she opened her file, which was a ring binder about 10 cm thick, she invited me to come around next to her.

  I opened the cards and looked over to the folder as she turned to the suicide note. I lost it when I saw that the note in the coroner’s file didn’t have a signature — ‘Phil’ was typed, not handwritten as in the note Helen had shown me. Also, the typing was spaced out differently to the note I had seen. How the hell could she do this?

  I looked up to my parents and got them to confirm to Sue that they had also seen a note with a handwritten ‘Phil’. The coroner’s assistant handed me a box of tissues as I tried to come to terms with the fact that something I believed would be crucial evidence had been switched by Helen and replaced with a second forgery.

  Sue had to believe the note Helen had shown me on 9 June 2009 ended with a handwritten ‘Phil’; it was part of my evidence in the statement I gave to the police on 15 June 2009, and fro
m my genuine reaction of shock and disgust and my parents’ confirmation, my honesty and sincerity on the matter could not be doubted.

  I was glad the inquest wasn’t for another two days, as it was going to take a bit for me to refocus after the signature blowout. On the Tuesday I met reporter Giles Brown from the Christchurch Press at the Cathedral Café and discussed the case. When I had originally rung the paper regarding Phil’s death and the inquest I’d spoken to a different reporter, but by the time I got back to them with a date he was no longer there but had left information with Giles to take it over.

  Giles had made an application to the coroner to take a photographer with him to the inquest. He explained that he wouldn’t be able to report on the inquest until Sue Johnson released her findings, and if it was deemed suicide he wouldn’t be able to print anything. Giles was a lovely guy and was intent on getting the facts out in the public arena as soon as he could legally do so. I said I would keep him posted on any information I got after the inquest and would send him a full copy of the findings.

  THE INQUEST WAS ATTENDED BY: Mum and Dad; Andrew; Zak (Phil’s oldest son), his partner Kayla and his mother Vicki and grandmother Val; Ben (Phil’s other son) and his mum Karen; myself and two friends Andrea and Shannon; and Helen’s mother Anne Milner. The courtroom was set up similar to a criminal court. We entered directly into the public gallery, which was only two rows. Then there was the serious playing field, with a desk and two seats to the left for media, which were occupied by Giles and a photographer. There were a couple of rows of tables and chairs in front of us for lawyers, a witness stand over to the right and of course the judge’s bench at the other end, overlooking it all.