On Easter Day 2002, a 29-year-old Australian restaurant manager by the name of Janelle Patton took a morning stroll to Queen Elizabeth Mount, a popular tourist spot with breathtaking views over Norfolk Island, a former penal colony in the Pacific Ocean. Several hours later, her mutilated body was found wrapped in a sheet of black plastic on the other side of the island.Although there was no doubt that the woman had been the victim of a frenzied knife attack, police were at an utter loss as to who could have been responsible for such a depraved act in the sleepy Pacific paradise, where many of the 2,700 locals are descendants of the mutineers from HMS Bounty.
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Australian police were asked to take over the investigation. They received permission to fingerprint every resident between the ages of 15 and 70, a total of 1,632, and drew up a list of 14 suspects.Pre-trial committal proceedings against McNeill got underway this week in an old government buildings close to the remains of the penal colony, but it remains to be seen if an impartial jury can be found when most of the permanent population have a detailed knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the murder.
A 28-year-old chef by the name ofGlenn McNeill was not among those named, but a DNA breakthrough allegedly provided the link between Patton and the man, who moved back to New Zealand shortly after the murder. He was arrested in January.
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