On a winter Friday night in 1992, Raymond Ratima let himself into his in-laws' house on Judds Road, Masterton, with a key he had taken when he was told to leave. He waited forty-five minutes. Then he killed seven members of his own family — including his three small sons and a woman a month from giving birth — before lying in wait in the dark for the rest of them to come home. He pleaded guilty. He has never been released. And across thirty-four years, fourteen parole boards, a High Court judgment and the country's best forensic psychiatry, nobody has been able to answer the only question that matters: why.
Sources used:
Court and official records
Ratima v The New Zealand Parole Board [2024] NZHC 613 (Preston J, 20 March 2024) — https://thelawassociation.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Ratima-v-Parole-Board.pdf
New Zealand Parole Board, decision of 12 March 2024 — https://www.paroleboard.govt.nz/decisions/decisions_2024/raymond_wahia_ratima_12032024
Parole Act 2002 — https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0010/latest/DLM137632.html
Sentencing Act 2002, s 103 — https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0009/latest/DLM136499.html
Contemporaneous reporting
\"Man charged over massacre of seven,\" UPI, 26 June 1992 — https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/06/26/Man-charged-over-massacre-of-seven/7593709531200/
History and reference
\"Masterton massacre, 1992,\" NZHistory, Manatū Taonga — https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/masterton-massacre
\"Mass homicides since 1990,\" Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand — https://teara.govt.nz/en/violent-crime/page-6
Later reporting
Nikki Macdonald, \"Faces of Innocents: The Ratima massacre — remembering the children of Judds Rd,\" Stuff, 23 July 2016 — https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/81305979/faces-of-innocents-the-ratima-massacre--remembering-the-children-of-judds-rd
\"Mass murderer believed he was 'putting them in a better place',\" NZ Herald, 2017 — https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mass-murderer-believed-he-was-putting-them-in-a-better-place/SYPSCTINWHZJSKXKURBIXI7W5M/
\"Mass murderer Raymond Ratima to have opportunity to apply for parole again,\" RNZ, 21 March 2024 — https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/512331/mass-murderer-raymond-ratima-to-have-opportunity-to-apply-for-parole-again
Melissa Nightingale, \"Mass murderer denied parole for 16th time, reveals motive for killing his kids,\" NZ Herald / Newstalk ZB, 24 July 2025 — https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/crime/mass-murderer-raymond-wahia-ratima-denied-parole-explains-why-he-killed-seven-people/
\"No parole for Raymond Ratima who murdered seven in Masterton,\" Stuff, January 2026 — https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360931145/no-parole-raymond-ratima-who-murdered-seven-masterton
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