Missing Pieces: The Swedish Tourists' Murders

by Ian Wishart

In 1989, two young Swedish tourists, 21 year old Heidi Paakkonen and 23 year old Urban Hoglin disappeared into thin air during their dream holiday in New Zealand. Missing Pieces retraces their steps as investigative journalist and bestselling author Ian Wishart unravels the story in the first-ever book published about this enduring murder mystery. Was convicted killer and sex offender David Tamihere really responsible for their deaths, or was he a quick and easy solution to a difficult and politically-charged case that captured headlines across Australia, New Zealand and Sweden? Discover the new evidence for yourself in this gripping page-turner.

Genres: True Crime

258 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2012

About the author

Ian Wishart is a multi-award winning investigative journalist and bestselling author of more than 20 books, who's now in his fourth decade in the news business. His writing style has often been compared to John Grisham by reviewers.

He's been a radio News Director, a Chief of Staff for TV3 News and a magazine editor. His work has featured in the Times of London, Daily Mail, New Zealand Herald and America's massive Coast to Coast radio programme - to name a few. His books Totalitaria, Air Con and Vitamin D became Amazon bestsellers worldwide.

While writing his first book, The Paradise Conspiracy, Wishart's TVNZ office was discovered to have been bugged, his home was broken into, the manuscript for the book stolen, and an attempt was made on his life. Needless to say, he survived to write the story.

The first four chapters of The Paradise Conspiracy inspired movie director Geoff Murphy ("Young Guns II", "Under Siege 2") to produce the movie "Spooked" starring Cliff Curtis ("Runaway Jury", "Live Free or Die Hard") in a loose portrayal of Wishart's role as an investigative journalist.

He's been shot at, tear-gassed and stalked, but Wishart says his motivation remains telling the stories that "need to be told", whether its new leads on cold case murders, or government espionage.

As well as writing books, Wishart also divides his time between operating the http://www.investigatedaily.com and http://www.ianwishartpublishing.com websites - the latter catering to his writing and publishing clients.

Reviews

[Miz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book due to the press around David Tamihere's Royal Prerogative of Mercy, something that doesn't happen a lot in NZ. I remember hearing about this case over the last 30 years and thinking that the evidence post-trial wasn't consistent with the case that got him convicted, but I never deep dove into the details. False evidence from one of the secret witnesses, a body found that didn't match up with details ... It is a lot of lives that have been effected by this sad sad story.

(https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crim...)

But I admit to being torn over this book. Like all "investigative" journalists, Wishart comes with an agenda. He talks about a police officer (Hughes) being corrupt - without coming right out and saying that - and that leads us to the conclusion that the wrong person was convicted. Wishart is controversial in his own right and makes me personally feel uncomfortable (climate-change denial, intelligent design proponent) but if you can push that aside, he does write well and puts the rats among the pigeons.

I tried to remain objective which I was moderately successful with!! This book did point holes in evidence, but that's because there was more evidence than the jury heard that this book presented. I'm very interested to folly Tamihere's quest for (his) justice. I hope whatever happens the victim's families can have closure.

[Ena]

I’m a relative of Mr Foley ,he died June 18th 2002, In Hawera NZ, he died at home of a brain aneurism,my brother was there when he died. My mother who he made his confession to,died in August 1997.So my brother had been dead for 10 years when Mr Wishart wrote this book.A disgruntled uncle of Tamahere’s Mr Andrew Rangiheuea and his wife were friends of my brothers when he was alive. Don’t waste your money on this pack of lies

[Diane Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing retrospective look at all the evidence in this case. Would have been interesting to have more in the way of updates on the main parties involved - Tamihere himself, the families of the victims, the police involved in the investigation, the main prosecution witnesses, the informants etc. A crazy case - it’s hard to believe it made it into the courts at all, never mind past the reasonable doubt standard. Does not reflect favourably on NZ’s justice system at all

[Lynette · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. I really have no idea who was the culprit but I've always been sad that
Heidi's body was never found, for her families sake. Like the way the book included
extracts from their letters home. They sounded a lovely couple and so sad their dream
holiday ended this way. Hope the mongrel that did it gets their just desserts.

[Joe Nelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This case is a black mark in New Zealand history, and has no doubt had an impact on the country's reputation as a safe place. How many tourists were happy to travel around alone after Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen disappeared as result of foul play?

Ian Wishart has clearly ensured he has had most of the information at his disposal to write this book, and it is with the maximum amount of information that a book like this should be put together. It is largely with this complete information, and a critical view of the information to make a case by both prosecutions and defence, that makes this an interesting read.

In so many cases there are always problems trying to fill in the blanks between the established facts, and this case is no different. The prosecution in this case has hypothesised and asserted a scenario to sell to a jury, an unfortunately necessary exercise, that in this case, at least in part, is so obviously wrong. It was however enough to secure a conviction to the standard of being beyond reasonable doubt, and perhaps even more surprising that there was no retrial with the discovery that would come a couple of years later.

Wishart has put things together well, with topics broken-down and easy to follow. He has managed to offer alternative theories based on a different interpretation of information gathered by police, which to his credit makes a lot of sense. With regards to aspects of the criminal trial central to this case, he does a great job of highlighting issues with eyewitness evidence and the lesser-known research around quality of recall and memory, something that I long recognise as a significant issue with trials in general.

The letters home, written by Höglin and Paakkonen have been dropped in at the beginning of each chapter. This has had the effect of being a wonderful anchor back to the personal aspects of this case, a reminder of those central to this story, beyond the convicted, the mysterious circumstances, and the details of the investigation and trial. It is a pull back to the two lives lost in a sad and unfortunate encounter near the end of their New Zealand holiday.

[Kelly Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid effort from the author here. You can really see the hours of research that have gone into the book. My only real criticism is that the narrative of the police case against Tamihere is a little hard to follow, I had to re-read a few places, but that is pmore a reflection of the case itself than the author.
The experts of letters from Heidi & Urban were a nice touch - a nice way to pull you back into the fact that two people died, one whom has never been found. It's easy to forget that in books like these that are all about the evidence and the offenders.

[Michelle See · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved how the author presented relevant, alternative scenarios - that questioned how ‘facts’ were presented by certain parties to how they could be repositioned.
The police, courts etc want to ‘solve’ crimes, but this book clearly questions if they get it right?

[Michelle T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and also shocking and extremely disturbing at how the case was handled.
Worth reading imo.

[Nova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable, very very sad.