Brian Schlaepfer

Case record

Background

Brian Schlaepfer was a farmer in Paerata, New Zealand, and he owned over one hundred acres of land. He built houses for most of his family on his land. He founded the local gliding club, donated a piece of land for the scouts to camp on, and at one stage had been a scoutmaster. Brian Schlaepfer was described as a highly respect individual in the farming community of Paerata.

Jocelyn Schlaepfer was identified as Brian Schlaepfer’s wife and was described as his daughter-in-law in one account. Relatives said his wife had been worried about his depression but that he would not seek help.

The police said Brian Schlaepfer had apparently refused treatment in the past few weeks for the depression he was suffering.

The offence

Brian Schlaepfer, aged 64, killed members of his family during a shooting spree. The deaths left two girls, Linda Schlaepfer (aged 9) and her sister Kerry (aged 14), orphans.

The account described an argument with his wife leading to him going berserk with a shotgun. In another account, a police reconstruction described that Brian Schlaepfer had stabbed his wife Jocelyn in their bedroom and then shot and stabbed multiple other family members.

The other dead were:

• Jocelyn Marie Schlaepfer, aged 55
• Darrell Bryan Schlaepfer, aged 31
• Peter Wayne Schlaepfer, aged 39
• Karl Percival Schlaepfer, aged 33
• Hazel Jean Schlaepfer, aged 42
• Aaron Schlaepfer, aged 11

Linda Schlaepfer survived by hiding. In one account, Linda escaped by hiding, and in another account she hid in a wardrobe and heard her grandfather shoot her mother and stab her brother. Kerry was not on the property and had stayed overnight at the home of a friend in Pukekohe.

Investigation

A mass police alert followed the early morning shootings. Sixty officers, many of them armed, rushed to the Paerata farm from different parts of Auckland.

Road cordons, using combined police and traffic forces, kept a horde of reports, locals and several weeping relatives of the victims at bay throughout the seven-hour drama. Ambulances waiting to enter the cordons to help the injured had to wait until the police were satisfied their route was clear.

A police helicopter kept a watch from above, and the Westpac rescue helicopter provided back-up several times when the Eagle needed to refuel.

The police were first alerted to the emergency by a telephone call shortly after 7.30 am, believed to be from Mrs Hazel Schlaepfer before she died.

The police were unsure where Brian Schlaepfer was and whether he was still armed as they set out to try to rescue Linda and any other surviving members of her family.

Inspector Ash Edwards, head of the armed offenders squad, said they found the first two bodies—Brian’s wife Jocelyn and their youngest son Karl—dead from gunshot wounds in the house at the front of the property. Edwards said two men (Brian’s other sons Peter and Darrell) lay dead outside an implements shed further down the driveway.

A trail of blood leading into the rear house suggested Mrs Hazel Schlaepfer had been shot but had managed to make it inside to a telephone to call for help before the receiver was dropped. The armed offenders squad later burst into the farmhouse at 11 am and rescued Linda. When they came back downstairs they found Aaron shot dead in his bedroom and Hazel slumped on the floor in the kitchen. A blood-splattered phone receiver was dangling off the hook nearby. Edwards said there was no sign of the gunman at that point.

The squad then split in two, with one group searching the building and the other nearby areas of bush. Almost seven hours after the drama began the police found Mr Schlaepfer’s body in the bush behind the last house. Edwards said he was dead, lying with a shotgun across his chest. The police believed he died a short time after shooting six members of his family.

Two other weapons were found during the police search of the property: a shotgun was recovered in one house, and a .22 rifle had been discarded in the open.

Arrest

No arrest was described.

Trial

No trial was described.

Sentencing

No sentencing was described.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Brian Schlaepfer was found dead in bush behind the last house with a shotgun across his chest.

Aftermath

Relatives of some of the six family members he killed said his wife Jocelyn had been worried about his depression and that he would not seek help.

The shooting stunned the community near Pukekohe where the Schlaepfer family had been farming for five generations over 106 years, and tributes were flowing.

A school principal and neighbours commented on the people involved. Petra Cleven, who lives opposite the Schlaepfer’s, said she was hanging out her washing when she heard three shots fired in quick succession. She said they were followed by terrified screams and crying. She said she went to investigate and heard another two shots, followed by "a terrible screaming and crying and a sort of groan." She said the noises were coming from the Schlaepfer’s property but she could not see any movement.

The principal at Paerata Primary School, Mr John McGiven, said students would have a hard time understanding the tragedy. McGiven said Aaron, whom he had taught last term in form one, had been friendly and popular, had a good imagination, and had "an 'interesting sense of humour,'" describing this as a quotation. McGiven said Linda was "a friendly, thoughtful girl, he said, quite mature in her ways," and said he was not surprised to learn she had been so courageous and levelheaded.

McGiven referred to Hazel Schlaepfer as "the salt of the earth type. The children were always beautifully dressed. The family was quite involved in school activities and very generous in giving vegetables for galas and things."

Inspector Edwards praised Linda’s composure, saying that when she was taken to a safe assembly point she seemed surprisingly composed. Edwards also said: "She did more than we would want anybody to do … and performed a remarkable feat," and said about the scene that it "was fairly traumatic." He also said:

"To come across that scene but still maintain a "high risk profile" in case the offender was hiding somewhere." He said: "Our adrenaline was running. We have no idea of the location of an armed offender and we’re finding dead persons in put tracks. It’s the biggest mass death that we have dealt with since my time in the squad."

Constable Jeff Stuck, a control room operator at the Auckland Central police station, described taking the call from Linda after Hazel’s call ended abruptly.

Linda told Constable Stuck that she was in bed when she heard a shot fired inside the house. She said she ran to hide first in her bedroom closet and then under her bed. Stuck said Linda told him her grandfather walked out of the bedroom, went into the kitchen and dining room area at the rear of the house, and that she heard him having a heated exchange with her mother, followed by another shot and the back door closing while the offender called her name.

Stuck said Linda went into Aaron’s bedroom and saw him lying on his back on the floor clutching at a gunshot wound in his chest. Stuck said she told him Aaron was begging her grandfather not to kill him. Stuck said Linda then went into the dining room and picked up the phone to begin a conversation that lasted nearly three hours.

Stuck said he was surprised at the calmness displayed by Linda. He said:

"I was amazed at just how brave and intelligent the girl was." He said Linda became very scared when she realised the offender was possibly still outside and was hunting her, and that she was "quite distressed about that, understandably." He added: "I couldn’t do much to calm her down except to suggest that she go and hide straight away."

Linda locked the two doors at the rear of the house and made her way to an upstairs room where she barricaded herself in with tables and chairs. She resumed the conversation with Stuck using an upstairs telephone. Stuck said Linda was very upset after she realised she could possibly lose her whole family, and he said that at the stage he had been talking to her for three-quarters of an hour and that she was "controlled pretty much all the way through."

Stuck said he became greatly alarmed when Linda told him she could hear noises at the door. He said he assumed they were from the offender but that it later transpired that it may have been cats, and he said she was concerned about three of her pet cats that hadn’t had breakfast and that he had to reassure her that the police would be feeding the cats.

Stuck said he talked to Linda about her school interests, including her ballet and jazz dancing, and about the family’s movies the day before. He said:

"We talked about the movies quite a bit." He said that every 15 minutes or so he would have to cut in to obtain more details of the tragedy for police outside the house. He said Linda was able to give good information about the house but did not know where the offender had gone, which gave her great concern and also gave him concern in the control room.

During the ordeal, Linda decided on a password she would use when the armed offenders squad reached her. The word was "rabbit."

Stuck said he could hear squad members in the background when Linda was rescued. He included Linda saying:

"They’re knocking on the door now, are you sure it is the police?" Stuck said he confirmed it was the police.

A quote from Linda included her belief that her grandfather would shoot her:

"My granddad has shot my brother … and I think he’s going to shoot me." The quote was presented as words spoken calmly by a frightened 9-year-old girl whose mother and 11-year-old brother lay dead in their home on a farm near Paerata, South Auckland, early yesterday. A time was provided as 7.47 am when Linda had just picked up the telephone left dangling by her mother, Hazel, minutes earlier. In the background of that account, Constable Stuck had received a 111 call from Hazel Schlaepfer seven minutes earlier and the conversation had ended abruptly when the telephone was dropped; Stuck said that in the background he could hear raised voices, one of them a man’s, and then a shot. Stuck said five minutes passed in silence before Linda came on the line.

In the quoted exchange with Constable Stuck, Linda said:

"She was very clinical in the things that she described to me." Later, Linda told Constable Stuck: "My granddad's shot my brother." Constable Stuck asked: "Shot your brother?" Linda responded: "Yes, and he's coming to shoot me." Constable Stuck asked: "He's going to shoot you now?" Linda replied: "Yes, he's looking for me." Constable Stuck asked: "Is your mum there; can your mum come to the phone?" Linda responded: "No... Mummy's dead. My brothers been shot and he's groaning and twitching." Eventually Linda gave police directions to the farm.

Another account described a reconstructions-like sequence. It described that Brian Schlaepfer was suffering from depression and that an argument with his wife Jocelyn, aged 55, early that morning ended with him stabbing her in the heart in their bedroom. It said their 33 year-old son Karl got up to investigate and was shot in the neck while standing at his bedroom door. It described that Brian Schlaepfer went out to the tool shed where he shot his 31 year-old son Darrell in the jaw and throat. It described that Hazel Schlaepfer heard the shots and got up to investigate. It said as she approached her in-laws' home, Brian shot her in the arm and chest. It said she managed to get back to her farmhouse and dial 111, but was followed by Brian who went into her son's room and stabbed 11-year-old Aaron causing fatal wounds to his abdomen and chest. It described Brian going into granddaughter Linda's room but being unable to find her, then returning to the kitchen where Hazel was on the phone to Constable Stuck pleading for help. It said he finished her off with a shot to her face and another to the abdomen. It described Brian returning to the implement shed where his youngest son lay dead and waiting for his eldest son Peter, aged 39, to return from working on the farm where he shot and stabbed him to death. It described that after wandering into bush, Brian Schlaepfer took his own life with a single shot to the head. It said Linda was the only one left alive and had hidden in her wardrobe but heard her grandfather shoot her mother and stab her brother. It said she took over the 111 phone call to police and talked to them about what had happened for three hours until the scene was secured and police entered the residence.

One account also described that Brian Schlaepfer left the house in search of his sons who were working on the farm, found them, and they found death not long afterwards, both from gunshot wounds. It also described that Brian Schlaepfer was later found dead from a gunshot wound to the head in an open field at around 3.00pm, and that he was buried next to the six family members he had killed. It also stated that Linda was at the mass funeral for all seven.

Other details

Nine family members lived at the Ostrich Farm Rd property in three houses. Three others who lived on the property—Darrell’s de facto wife and her two children—were not there during the shootings.

A farmhand was whisked to safety after stumbling on the carnage soon after arriving to start work.

The police helicopter and armed offenders squad were described as part of the search and rescue efforts, including attempts to locate Linda and any other surviving members.

In one account, a police helicopter was referred to as the Eagle needing to refuel. In another account, Westpac rescue helicopter provided back-up several times when the Eagle needed to refuel.

In one account, another pair of sisters, the two adult daughters of Brian and Jocelyn Schlaepfer, were identified: Mrs Gail Johnson, aged 37, believed to be of Papakura, and Mrs Delwyn Postles, 34, of Paerath. It said Delwyn Postles was on holidaying in Whitianga when she heard of the tragedy.

A specific detail described that Hazel Schlaepfer’s body was hideously disfigured and only metres away on the kitchen floor of the four-bedroom house when Linda picked up the phone at 7.47 am.