Friend who found her body speaks out as police hunt for son over mother's death

Wednesday, 26 November 2025

74-year-old Karen Gilbert-Palmer was found dead in her home on August 15. As police offer another update into the ongoing search for her son Jeremy Robertson, wanted in connection with her death, a woman who describes herself as Gilbert-Palmer’s closest friend tells Chris Marriner about the horror of finding her that day and her hope that Robertson can be found so she can begin to grieve.

Pahīatua woman Karen Gilbert-Palmer was 74 when she was killed but you wouldn’t have guessed it, her friend Belinda Cranston told Stuff.

“She was as fit as a fiddle, she'd mow her own lawns. She'd always walk with a straight back,” she said this week, six weeks after she found her friend of ten years lying dead in her own home.

The loss of her kind-hearted friend has been devastating, the grief compounded by the belief that her death could have been prevented and the fear that Robertson may still be out there.

Cranston hadn’t been round to visit her friend at home for a few weeks before that day because her son Robertson had moved back in .

Gilbert-Palmer had been wanting to meet elsewhere as she didn’t want her friend around her son, who had struggled for years with his mental health and was acting out again, Cranston said.

“I guess she was just frightened for my sake, you know, she didn't know how he'd be.”

Gilbert-Palmer had been to stay with Cranston and her husband, finding a refuge from her son’s demons.

But she had gone back home and was planning to take Robertson to catch a bus to Rotorua.

“She was supposed to come up and see me that morning because she was taking him to the bus station and then coming round to see me. And I knew something was up,” Cranston told Stuff.

She texted and called, then went to Gilbert-Palmer’s home with her husband and a neighbour. They called again and heard the phone ringing inside.

“And we broke in and we found her, and it was horrific…. and I miss her so much,” a tearful Cranston told Stuff.

“It's like everybody's forgotten about her, about who she was, what she went through,” she added.

Wanted by police

Police say 52-year-old Jeremy Robertson is a suspect in his mother’s death.

Gilbert-Palmer’s car was missing from her home when she was found and was located at the the Blue and Green Lakes lookout in Rotorua the following day.

Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Thompson, Area Investigations Manager, said on Wednesday that police believe Robertson is likely still in that area.

“We have been making a lot of enquiries to locate Jeremy, and we are planning further police activity in that area in the coming weeks.

“I want to thank the members of the public who came forward with information in the early days of the investigation, including the call that led us to the car within hours of it being parked up,” Thompson said, warning anyone who sees Robertson not to approach him but not call 111 immediately

He said work to find Robertson had not stopped.

“Our focus remains on seeing justice served for Mrs Gilbert-Palmer, and finding Jeremy is key to that.”

‘No resolution’

“We were really close, you know, and now all this time's passed and there's still no resolution. The police still can't find him. I want them to find him because I want to close the door on it,” Cranstold told Stuff.

“I don't think he's alive anyway, but… I do have the odd feeling of what if he came back here, you know. I don't think he would, I don't think he will, I think he's gone.”

She said she still had some lingering fears he may return “because I was her only friend, he knew she’s only got me,” but didn’t think Robertson would set out to hurt her.

Cranston misses her friend every day. “It doesn’t get easier,” she said, sharing that her grief was mixed with an anger that Gilbert-Palmer’s death could have been avoided.

She cited multiple occasions where authorities could have intervened to keep Gilbert-Palmer’s troubled son away from her and she wanted him found so she could get some answers.

“I'm waiting to get up and say my piece because I was there with her through it all.

“She was like my sister, I’ve lost my right arm.”

Cranston said she loved Gilbert-Palmer with all her heart and the pair planned to spend Christmas Day together this year. It would have been her seventy-fifth birthday.

“We’ll just raise a toast to her.”