Mark Lundy

Christine Marie Lundy, 38, and her 7-year-old daughter Amber Grace Lundy were murdered in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on 29 August 2000. Mark Edward Lundy (then age 43), Christine's husband and Amber's father, was arrested and charged with the murders in February 2001. In 2002 he was convicted of the murders after a six-week trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. He appealed the conviction to the Court of Appeal; the appeal was rejected and the court increased his non-parole period to 20 years. In June 2013 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council heard a further appeal, with the decision reserved after the three day hearing. In October 2013 the Privy Council unanimously allowed his appeal, quashed the convictions and ordered a re-trial. In April 2015 a second jury re-convicted him.

Mark and Christine Lundy had been married for 18 years; Amber was their only child. They jointly owned a kitchen sink business. In 1999, Lundy bought a vineyard in Hawke's Bay on which he still owed more than NZ$2 million in 2000.

The murders occurred sometime during the night of Tuesday, 29 August 2000. On that Tuesday morning, Lundy drove to Wellington on one of his regular business trips. He checked into a motel in Petone at around 5:00 pm. His wife or daughter called him on his cell phone in Petone to say they were going to McDonald's for dinner; the call ended at 5:43 pm. His cell phone records also show he made a call from Petone to a business partner of his Hawke's Bay wine-making venture at 8.28 pm. At 11:30 pm he called an escort service in Petone.

Christine Lundy took a call at home just before 7 pm that night. At 7:20 pm a witness described seeing a "suspicious looking jogger" nearby. The computer at the Lundy home was switched off at 10:52 pm.

The next morning Lundy called Christine's brother and asked him to check on Christine since she was not answering the phone. The brother went to the house about 9:00 am; getting no response, he broke in and found the bodies of Christine and Amber bludgeoned to death. Christine's body was on her bed; Amber's was on the floor in the doorway of Christine's bedroom. Both had died of head injuries caused by multiple blows from what was determined to be a tomahawk-like weapon or small axe. No weapon was found. A rear window had been tampered with and had Christine's blood on it. A jewellery box was later determined to be missing.

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