New DNA testing cost at least $55k in Marlborough Sounds murder case
Wednesday, 3 September 2025
The cost of extensive DNA testing that failed to link Scott Watson to the Marlborough Sounds murders has been revealed.
Police recently spent between $55,000 and $65,000 on the forensic testing - the equivalent of a police trainee’s annual wage - despite already having a conviction, and the culprit being in prison.
Watson was convicted of murdering friends Olivia Hope, 17, and Ben Smart, 21, on January 1, 1998, after a New Year’s party at Furneaux Lodge, even though their bodies have never been found.
The most crucial evidence against Watson was two hairs DNA-matched to Hope, that were found on a tiger-patterned blanket on Watson’s yacht, despite Watson denying he had ever met Hope and Smart.
Watson has always maintained his innocence, and the case is one of the country’s most controversial convictions.
In December 2023, in the lead-up to Watson’s most recent appeal, police decided to go back to the hairs that had been collected from the tiger blanket 25 years previously, and DNA test many of them in an effort to further link Watson to Hope or Smart.
The following year, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), now known as PHF Science, began testing 30 hairs from the blanket.
Results showed none of the hairs contained any DNA from Hope or Smart.
By contrast, many, as expected, could have come from Watson.
DNA profiles were unable to be obtained from numerous other hairs but this wasn’t unusual, because if a hair had been shed naturally, it was past its growth phase, and therefore little or no cellular material remained attached to the root.
In addition, one hair was later discovered to have come from an ESR scientist in a contamination event that sparked a quality investigation at ESR.
The hair was believed to be an eyelash from a senior forensic scientist involved in the initial sample processing, that somehow became mixed with the tiger blanket hairs.
In response to an Official Information Act request from The Post, police said the cost of testing the tiger blanket hairs last year was between $55,000 and $65,000, which came from the Tasman District police budget.
A police trainee’s annual salary is about $60,000, with superannuation topping this up to $66,000.
Police refused to say whether they considered the testing appropriate spending of public money, or what value there was in the testing given the case is resolved and Watson remains in jail, saying they couldn’t comment because Watson’s appeal was still being considered.
They previously noted they were always looking to see whether new techniques could help advance historic cases.
But Watson’s father, Chris Watson, can’t understand why such extensive and expensive testing was done after someone had been convicted, and believed police were trying to prop up a crumbling case.
“It’s completely odd, and appears to be a waste of money, and I don’t sleep any safer in my bed at night because of it.
“It’s just the general weirdness of it. And where the hell does the money come from?”
Chris Watson has previously questioned how Smart could have been violently killed on the small yacht without losing any hairs, or leaving any DNA.
Police turning to new testing to try to sustain controversial convictions isn’t uncommon.
They did extensive forensic testing:
Prior to the 2023 appeal of David Tamihere, convicted of murdering Swedish tourists Heidi Paakkonen and Urban Hoglin.
After the appeal of Gail Maney and Stephen Stone, found guilty of murdering Deane Fuller-Sandys (with Stone also convicted of murdering Leah Stephens), whose convictions were later quashed.
In the case of Teina Pora, wrongfully convicted of murdering Susan Burdett.
- Before the retrial of Mark Lundy for murdering his wife, Christine, and daughter, Amber.
However, police readiness to re-test evidence when their case is challenged contrasts with their apparent reluctance in some cases to test items that may indicate another offender.
In Lundy’s case, police never tested 21 hairs found in Christine Lundy’s hands, before destroying them; and they haven’t tested fibres found in a bloodstain where the killer gained entry to the Lundys’ Palmerston North house.
Investigator Tim McKinnel, whose work resulted in the quashing of convictions for Pora, Maney, Stone and Alan Hall, said he had concerns about the selective way science was used by police in cases where there may have been wrongful convictions.
“I’ve seen instances where significant and important testing isn’t done where it should have been, and, conversely, in other cases, there’s almost a blind pursuit of a particular suspect, in searching for scientific evidence like DNA.
“The money seems to be able to be found when they need more evidence to bolster a shaky case.
“I just wish they were as enthusiastic about the benefits of science on some of the problematic cases.”
Meanwhile, PHF Science is refusing to release details of how the tiger blanket hairs became contaminated with one of their own staff’s hairs, during recent testing.
The Post requested all correspondence and reports regarding the contamination incident, under the Official Information Act.
The government-owned research organisation refused to release anything, saying the information was part of an “active investigation”, and could “prejudice the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences, and the right to a fair trial”.
The Post pointed out there is no active investigation into the disappearance of Hope and Smart as the case has been resolved, a conviction obtained, a person remains in jail for the murders, and the trial was 26 years ago.
But PHF Science continues to withhold the information. The Post has made a complaint to the Ombudsman.
The latest contamination event has added to long-standing controversy around ESR handling of the hairs from the tiger blanket.
At Watson’s 1999 trial, it was revealed the scientist examining the nearly 400 hairs from the tiger blanket, Susan Vintiner, didn’t see the 15cm and 25cm blonde hairs eventually linked to Hope, among the mainly short dark hairs, until a second examination.
Moreover, on the day Vintiner did find them, she had been examining reference hairs from Hope, taken from her bedroom, on the same ESR work bench, wearing the same laboratory coat.
Further concerns there may have been accidental contamination of samples arose when it was acknowledged there was a mysterious 1cm slit in the bag containing Hope’s reference hairs.
Vintiner said the most likely explanation was that she inadvertently cut the bag when using scissors to open the envelope it was in.
At Watson’s 2024 Court of Appeal hearing, Vintiner admitted for the first time the initial search of the tiger blanket hairs was mainly conducted by a technician and not her, despite having indicated at Watson’s trial and in other material that she did the work. The technician made no notes about this.
Watson’s lawyer, Nick Chisnall KC, pointed out this meant two sets of eyes had actually looked at the hairs during the first examination, without anyone seeing the crucial 15cm and 25cm blonde strands.
And the fact Vintiner didn’t document or mention the technician’s involvement until more than 25 years later meant the technician was never able to be called as a witness at Watson’s trial, Chisnall said.
The Court of Appeal is yet to release its judgment on Watson’s appeal.
Watson was originally sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 17 years. He has now spent 27 years in prison for murdering Hope and Smart, and been denied parole four times.
His last parole hearing, in March, had to be abandoned because the Parole Board ran out of time.