ARAMOANA, OTAGO. Located 27km north of Dunedin, tucked away at the mouth of the Otago Harbour in the South Island of New Zealand, you will find the small seaside village of Aramoana. The village which translates to ‘pathway to the sea’ is made up of approximately 260 residents who affectionately refer to it as ‘The Spit’. The village is truly remote with no street lights, shops, hotels or a police station. A vast array of wildlife also populate the area as Aramoana and its beach provide an important feeding ground for black swans, spur-winged plovers, banded dotterels, white-faced herons, kingfishers, and yellow eyed penguins.

By the late 20th century, Aramoana was home to all kinds of people, many were ‘townies’ just trying to get away from ‘the big smoke’, some were families just looking for a quiet, peaceful place to raise their children, and others were folk just looking for that ‘small, country town’ feeling. 

Nevertheless the ‘pathway to the sea’ will be forever synonymous with one man who is more complicated to categorize, an enigma who carried out one of New Zealand’s most grotesque and calamitous massacres. The crimes committed those Spring days in November 1990 are forever remembered as ‘The Aramoana Massacre’.

Visit www.truecrimenz.com for more information on this case including sources and credits.

Hosted by Jessica Rust

Written and edited by Sirius Rust

Music sourced from:

Divider Line
https://archive.org/details/divider-lines-music-for-films
“Percussion Hits from Filtered Noise”, “Low Droning Synth Bass”, “A Love Song For Someone I Once Knew”, “You Are Consuming the Dead Flesh of a Large Terrestrial Mammal”, “Sorry, I Meant to Say That You Are Eating A Cheeseburger”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
https://filmmusic.io/
“Day of Chaos”

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

— END OF PART I (1/3)

SOURCES

Books
Bill O’Brien, Aramoana: Twenty-Two Hours of Terror, 1991

Audio
RNZ, Crimes NZ: The Aramoana Massacre, https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018762443/crimes-nz-the-aramoana-massacre

Films
Dir. Robert Sarkies, Out of the Blue, 2006

Video
Youtube, Aramoana Tragedy News Reports – 1990, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOfxZ14yQ8k&ab_channel=nh6central
TVNZ, Back in the Day: David Gray kills 13 people in Aramoana massacre, https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/back-in-the-day-david-gray-kills-13-people-aramoana-massacre

Articles
Wikipedia, Stewart Guthrie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Guthrie
NZ History, David Gray kills 13 at Aramoana, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/david-gray-kills-13-aramoana
NZ Herald, NZ memories: Thirteen killed in Aramoana massacre, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10831910
NZ Herald, Recreating the tragedy of Aramoana, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10369077
Wikipedia, Aramoana, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramoana
Wikipedia, Aramoana Massacre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramoana_massacre
Wikipedia, Port Chalmers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chalmers
Otago Daily Times, Aramoana: pathway to the sea, https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/travel/aramoana-pathway-sea
NZ Places, Aramoana, https://nzplaces.nz/place/aramoana
Aramoana Massacre, Aramoana Massacre,1990., https://aramoanmassacre.weebly.com/
Aramoana Massacre, Causes of the Aramoana Massacre,1990., https://aramoanmassacre.weebly.com/causes-of-the-aramoana-massacre.html
Murderpedia, David Malcolm GRAY, https://murderpedia.org/male.G/g/gray-david.htm
Stuff.co.nz, Flashback: The Aramoana massacre, https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/63230292/flashback-the-aramoana-massacre
Crime.co.nz, The Aramoana Massacre, http://www.crime.co.nz/c-files.aspx?ID=7
Otago Daily Times, 1990: Massacre leaves nation in shock, https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/1990-massacre-leaves-nation-shock
Wikipedia, Paladin Press, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paladin_Press
Wikipedia, Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit_Man:_A_Technical_Manual_for_Independent_Contractors
Wikipedia, Lawrence Horn, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Horn
Stuff.co.nz, Aramoana massacre cop and young survivor wed – 27 years on, https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/106551953/aramoana-cop-and-survivor-wed
National Sheep Association, Sheep Worrying, https://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/dog-owners/sheep-worrying/
Me-Pedia, Tapanui Flu, https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Tapanui_Flu