At about 7.30pm on Sunday 10 July 2005, 22-year-old Katrina Jefferies left the Mt Roskill home she shared with her mother, her younger brother and her 20-month-old son. On the morning of Tuesday 12 July she was found partly undressed on a bank beside Waikowhai Road, wrapped in a red tarpaulin, a yellow raincoat and black rubbish bags, about a kilometre from home. She had been killed somewhere else. The police have never said how she died. They have traced everything found with her to one Mt Roskill address, and believe more than one person knows what happened. As of October 2026, nobody has been charged.
IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING
Police want to hear from anyone who saw Katrina between the evening of Sunday 10 July and Tuesday 12 July 2005, or who knows where she went and who she was with. They also want to hear from anyone who was in Waikowhai Reserve or around Hillsborough Road in the early hours of Tuesday 12 July 2005. And they are asking about the red tarpaulin, the yellow Stormwear raincoat, the black rubbish bags, a framed river and mountain print signed "Haver", and a piece of marine plywood found with her, and about the clothes she left home in, which have never been found: blue tracksuit pants, a black duffle coat, burgundy slip-on shoes (size 10), a peaked cap and a black Walkman cassette player.
Call 0800 COLD CASE (0800 2653 2273), use the cold case contact form at police.govt.nz, or call Police on 105. Anonymous information: Crime Stoppers 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-nz.org.
A NOTE ON SOURCING
Nobody has ever been charged with Katrina's death, and no court has made any finding against any person. In November 2011 Coroner Gordon Matenga found that she died at the hands of another and suppressed the cause of death, which has never been published. We did not obtain the full text of the finding and rely on contemporaneous reporting of it. The man charged in 2014 after Operation Lyra interviews was convicted of offending against other women; police have said those charges were unrelated to Katrina, and nothing in the public record connects him to her death. The 2016 claim reported by One News is untested. The investigation remains open.
SOURCES
NZ Police, Cold Case: Katrina Jefferies, 2005: police.govt.nz/stolenwanted/coldcase/2019/katrina-jefferies-2005
NZ Police releases, 13, 14 and 21 Jul 2005, 26 Aug 2005, 25 Jun 2007 and 23 Jun 2019
Kirsty Wynn, "Haunted by the death of Katrina", Herald on Sunday, 31 Jul 2005
Martin Johnston, NZ Herald, 26 Aug 2005
NZPA, "Murdered woman died 'highly unusual death'", 26 Jul 2005, and "Mother thinks of her murdered daughter every day", 26 Jun 2007, via nzherald.co.nz
NZ Herald, "Jefferies family now have body", 19 Jul 2005; "New murder information 'contradicts earlier statement'", 3 Jul 2007; "Woman claims lead on 2005 cold case", 20 Apr 2016
Elizabeth Binning and Louisa Cleave, "Unsolved: the murder mysteries of 2005", NZ Herald, 2 Jan 2006
"More false confessions in cold case", NZPA via ODT, 21 Nov 2011
Jared Savage, NZ Herald, 24 May 2016 and 23 Jun 2019
RNZ and 1News, 23 Jun 2019
High Court sentencing in the Marie Jamieson case, [2010] NZHC 540
SUPPORT
This episode discusses the killing of a young mother. If it raises anything for you: 1737 (call or text), Victim Support 0800 842 846, Alcohol Drug Helpline 0800 787 797.
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