RedHanded - Episode 357 - Peter Plumley-Walker: Divorce, Death & Debauchery Down Under - Part 1

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

How does a “true British gentleman”, complete with love of cricket and handlebar moustache, end up dead at the bottom of a waterfall in New Zealand with his limbs bound and lashes to his buttocks? This is the question that faced police in 1989, when a tourist boat found the body of 51-year-old cricket umpire Peter Plumley-Walker floating at the bottom of Huka Falls.To find out the answers you need to come with us on a journey down under involving a 19-year-old sex worker, her 35-year-old boyfriend, and their budget bondage basement. Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramXVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed. A true royal is the indigenous name of New Zealand. Well, there you go. I'm sure I've said it wrong, but I know it exists. We're going to say loads of things wrong. Don't worry about it. Because Hannah is right.

We are going to New Zealand in real life later this year, but also with our imaginations and the power of true crime today. This is a huge case in New Zealand. I had never heard about it, but it is absolutely enormous. Everyone talks about it there. It's quite like an iconic true crime case. I got my hair cut at a new place a couple of weeks ago when I just started researching this. And my hairdresser was New Zealand. And he was like, oh, what'd you do? And I was like, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah blah and then he was like what are you working on at the moment I was like oh actually a New Zealand case and I was like are you from New Zealand just to double check and he was like yes and he was like which one is it Peter Plumley Walker and he was like don't know where and then

ages later when he's like washing my hair wait a minute is that the cricket umpire? Yes. And he was like, oh my god. So yes, if you know this case, you are already pumped. And it's going to have to be a two-parter because it is massive. So let's get started. On the morning of the 2nd of February 1989, a tourist boat packed with excited sightseers headed up the Waikato River to look at the majestic Haka Falls. Little did those camera clutches realise that they were about to get the shock of their lives. Because, as they happily chugged along, the boat's owner, Barry Marshall, suddenly spotted something in the water. Barry would later say that he thought it was a sheep's stomach and at first ignored the floating object.

But on the group's way back, whatever it was was still there. So Barry, curious, hooked it and pulled it out to take a closer look. I know there are loads of sheep in New Zealand. I don't think a sheep's stomach would be the first thing I would assume. Don'tno. There are more sheep, in fact, in New Zealand than people. Yeah, Australians call them sheepshakers like we call the Welsh. Yeah. But this was no farm runaway. Because it was, in fact, the bloated, decomposing body of a naked man. And as the passengers looked on in horror,

it was clear to everyone on board that this poor guy hadn't just slipped and fallen or something equally sad but, you know, perhaps a little bit ordinary. Because this man had his hands tied behind his back and a rope around his neck. Barry hightailed it back to land and the police were on the scene within hours. Every inch of the banks of the Waikato River was scoured that night, and from the bed, investigators also dredged up a concrete block, with a rope tied around it. Everything about this case screamed foul play, and when the results from the post-mortem came in,

authorities were shocked. The man's arms and legs had been bound with white nylon sash cord. His right buttock was significantly bruised and so was his anus, which showed signs of trauma and bleeding, all of which the pathologist noticed had taken place within a few hours of the man's death. The body had also sustained numerous smaller injuries, which could have been from being smashed around the fast-flowing river. The final cause of death was noted as being heart failure, quote, due to reflex bagel inhibition of cardiac action,

which basically means the rope around the man's neck put immense pressure on his carotid artery. But who was this man? He appeared to be around 45 years old. He was six foot tall, had grey, slightly balding hair, and a white handlebar moustache. On hearing that description, everyone immediately knew exactly who this was. The man was Peter Plumley Walker a local cricket umpire

who had been reported missing on the 28th of January five days before. Peter had moved to New Zealand from the UK in 1972. He was described by those who knew him as a proper English gentleman who always dressed in a suit and tie complete with silk pocket square and perfectly polished shoes. He spoke with an old money upper crust accent

and often reminisced about his days serving in the Royal Air Force. I shouldn't say this, but he reminds me of the General Chicken from Chicken Run. Yes. Yes. Yes. Just checking. Overpaid, over-sexed and over-hit! Anyway, according to Peter, after the Air Force, he moved into the travel business before eventually he came to New Zealand

with his wife Pauline and their two daughters, Penelope and Pippa Louise. Sorry. Peter, Pauline, Penelope and Pippa Louise. Perfect. Plumlee Walker. Uh-huh. Right. Perfect. Plumley Walker. Uh-huh. Right.

Yes. Chuck it all in. I very much enjoyed your impression, Hannah. And there is a bit coming up later. Uh-huh. Where you will be doing a little reading. Okay. Of something that Mr. Peter Plumley Walker wrote.

And I would like it if you please deliver it when we get there in your chicken run accent. Now the family, all the peas, the... Peas in a pod. Peas in a pod, all the peas in the pod settled quickly into life in Auckland, where Peter worked as an audit clerk during the week

and as a flamboyant cricket umpire on the weekends. He was even the secretary for the Auckland Cricket Umpires Association. And on the pitch, his nickname was Wing Commander because of his characteristic huge white handlebar moustache. People, including his family, did find Peter to be a bit of an authoritarian. He certainly liked telling people what to do, he was a bit of a jobsworth, though he was liked well enough in the local area.

But Peter had a secret past. And as we will go on to find out, a pretty secret present too. Because little did anyone know that the real reason Peter had left England was because he had been caught flashing people. Yeah, he was mad for it. Absolutely mad for it. And the locals of the town in which he lived had had enough. They basically told Peter to get the fuck out of England or we will do you in. Yeah, they're just like, it's not even good enough for us if you move to a different town because then you become their problem. We want you to become another country's problem.

Go where there's loads of sheep and less people. Get out. And I think when this story first happened and like when it hits headlines, as we'll go on to find out over the course of the next two episodes, it is a media circus. And the way in which it's definitely reported back then is just like, oh, isn't he a bit? And I'm like, only the people of this town were like nah he's a fucking wrong and this will lead to something really bad and also a lot of stuff is like not reported so we don't know like what else he maybe did do but they don't even want to find out as for peter plumbly walker's wing commander's time in the Royal Air Force, he actually hadn't left the forces because he wanted to.

He was kicked out following an unspecified sexual offence, which for the RAF must have been pretty bad. Yeah, but I couldn't find any details on what it actually was. Just a sexual offense so yeah you could say that peter had quite a few weird skeletons in his closet a whole bloody cemetery's worth and in fact the prominent mustache and the ongoing missing persons inquiry aside the real reason that the police had been able to identify peter plumley walker as quickly as they did after they found his body was actually because his fingerprints were already on file. Because three years before he died, Peter had been arrested for again flashing someone in Mount Eden. I find the psychology of a flasher so interesting. Yeah, it really, really is. I think, you know, we made the

point earlier that when this was reported at the time, the flashing is kind of treated as like, well, wasn't he a bit quirky? No, no, no, no, no, no. We've said this before on the show, and I will say it again because it's worth reminding everybody that flashing is not just like a little weird, harmless kink that people have. It is a person who is willing to make other people feel incredibly uncomfortable, who is willing to push that person into a place where they are sexually uncomfortable because of you. A person who is willing to do that is a dangerous person. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite.

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Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts. So now that missing man, Peter Plumley Walker's body, had turned up. Police would have to tell this worried family the tragic news, not that they hadn't already been prepared for the worst. Peter had actually vanished five days before, on the day of his divorce. Peter Plumley Walker and his wife Pauline had been separated for nine years and finally, after much stalling and pleading by Peter, the couple's divorce had at last been finalised. And Peter was utterly beside himself. Apparently Pauline had left

him because of his particularly extreme sexual proclivities. There are also rumours that he sexually abused his daughters, or at least Pauline was worried that one day he might. Fair enough, I think. Yeah, there's nothing that I could find to, like, substantiate that. And the daughters have never come out and said anything. And as we'll find out, like, even after they separate, Pauline still worries a lot about Peter. She still obviously cares about him. But I think there's probably a mixed bag to this.

I think it's that she couldn't fulfill his sexual needs because as we'll find out they are quite interesting and varied and i think she also did think whether he's doing it or not i don't want this man around my children so when peter first disappeared most of his friends and family thought that he had just gone off somewhere to at best post-divorce lick his wounds or at worst do something stupid. Then the day after Peter went missing his now ex-wife received a call at five in the morning saying that Peter's gold Mac Ford Ford Cortina had been found in Ellerslie on fire. Yes, this man drives a gold Ford Cortina. It's quite a look. I have always been of the opinion that gold cars should be illegal.

He would disagree. He fucking loved it. So yes, obviously, if you're finding, you know, your missing ex-husband's car burnt out in like a semi-industrial area, which is where it's found. Things are not looking good. Peter was also meant to have lunch with his daughter, Penelope, at 2pm the next day, but he never showed.

So Penelope called Peter's brother, her uncle Ian, and told him to go and check on him. And at 8.30am the following day, Ian visited Peter's post-separation flat in Herne Bay, where he found an absolute mess. It was a sharp contrast to the way in which his brother liked to present himself. Ian was really shocked. And the shocks just kept coming, because in amongst the clutter, Ian quickly discovered his brother Peter's true passion. Alongside the cricket scorecards, there were stacks and stacks of B&D magazines. And of course, it went beyond just looking. Peter's home was full to the brim with bamboo canes, enema devices and women's underwear, as well as saucy letters that he'd written to various sex magazines.

And here, Hannah, and listeners, is just one of those letters that was found at Peter Plumley Walker's house by his brother Ian. Dear B&D lover, I have just managed to obtain a copy of Raunchy No. 7 and I was delighted to find your advertisement on page 10. Since returning to New Zealand, I have not had much opportunity to exercise my right arm

and to administer serious corrective treatment to naughty girls, something I miss greatly, having been able to do it on nearly a daily basis in Germany. Briefly, the treatment you could expect from me is as follows. After stripping you completely naked, I would give you a slow and warm enema. When you've emptied yourself completely, you'll be

required to lie across my lap, and then smack your bottom to warm it up, and give it a nice red glow all over. Next, you'd have to make a choice from several chains, canes, whips or riding crops. At hand, your choice. Over to me.

I would then administer a thrashing you will long remember. Please phone me before 7am or after 8pm to discuss further. I think I went a bit Margaret Thatcher at the end. The lady's not for time. You get the picture. You get the picture. You get the picture. Yeah, there's a lot of this kicking about in the flat. And yeah, even his own brother is like,

Hannah, if you died and people went through your flat, would they be surprised at what they found? Are there any skeletons of the sexy letter or enema type hanging about? No. As long as they don't find... When I have a bad day, I write down ten things that are good that happened that day. Sure. And if I find those, I'm going to be completely humiliated. Got it. Got it.

So I'm going to throw them away as soon as I get home. Good. Destroy the get home good destroy the evidence always destroy the evidence have a wank what is it have a wank wipe the bank i don't know i don't remember what it was what's the what is it that jez tells mark after he oh um do a wank then have a wipe that's the rule yeah something like that's the rule write down the list burn the list yeah so yeah amateur sleuth ian is digging about in his brother peter's house and he also found a notepad by peter's phone in which there was an address with an appointment time scribbled down this address was 29a rota mahana terrace, and Peter had seemingly been set to go there at 4.30pm on the day he vanished. So the next day, Ian Walker went to this house,

where he met the young man who lived there, Neville Walker. So yes, very confusing, another Walker, Neville Walker, no relation to the Peter Plumley Walkers. Even though Ian just goes by Ian Walker. He's like, I don't need the Plumley. It's all very confusing. But yeah, Ian showed Neville a picture of Peter. Neville said that he'd never seen the man before in his entire life. But Ian was suspicious.

So when Peter's body was found, he handed the note immediately over to the police. Detective Inspector Ron Cooper from Rotorua had now taken over the investigation, which had gone from a missing persons case to a full-blown murder inquiry because that is what happens when you find a body and identify it. At first, though, when Peter had vanished, the police, like everyone else,

figured that he'd just run away or maybe killed himself because of the divorce. They knew that on the morning he vanished, Peter had gone to the courthouse. It was an emotional day for him, and his ex-wife, Pauline, said that he tried to ask her to go for a coffee when they saw each other on the steps outside. Oh, it's so, it's so painful. Like, they just got divorced after Pauline trying to get divorced for almost a decade. He sees her on the steps outside the courthouse after they just had their divorce finalised and he's like, do you want to go for a coffee? It's so heartbreakingly pathetic. And like, I feel for him, like, divorce, obviously, one of the hardest things you're ever going to go through and he is crushed by it. Pauline obviously said no and Peter walked away. According to Pauline looking quote more upset than I've ever seen him. She was in fact so worried that Pauline was the one to ask

her daughter to see her father for lunch the next day. But, of course, he never made it. After he was last seen at the courthouse, police were able to trace Peter going to an ATM and withdrawing $400 in cash. He then went home, got his gold Ford Cortina and changed into his favourite green jumper. Which struck officers as odd, because it was a very hot day that day. It was

around 28 degrees. But they just chalked it up to the idea that perhaps someone thinking of ending it all might just act a bit strange. That's also the second New Zealand case where there is a green jumper. What's going on, New Zealand? So up until then, all the information they have, they just think he's acting a bit weird. He's upset, he's probably just killed himself. Maybe they wear green jumpers because it's easier to sneak up on the sheep. Maybe. Camouflage. I'm going to write it down. We'll investigate when we go to Auckland.

But now, things have changed in the investigation, given the fact that Peter's body and his car were found about three hours apart. So the suicide theory didn't look too likely anymore. And also, looking at Peter's injuries, the police had initially suspected that maybe he had been beaten and tortured. Had he perhaps flashed the wrong person? But now, given all the magazines piled up at his place, they were wondering if it could be something a bit more racy. A quick ask around, based on what had been discovered at Peter's house,

revealed that he had secretly been a regular at Auckland's fetish parlours, including holding a membership to a five-star bondage club, an exclusively gay establishment. I'm sure sex work is legal in New Zealand, isn't it? Not at the time. Ah. No, not at the time. A big part of the story is that, yeah, a lot of it is underground because, yeah, it was illegal.

Curious. Someone must know something, especially since Peter certainly stood out with his aristocratic accent and facial hair. And, of course, the gold car. So alongside these parlours being investigated, police also took a closer look at the note that Ian had found at his brother's place. Not the enema letter that Hannah so beautifully read us all, but the one with 4.30pm, 29 Rotomahanhead Terrace written on it. And this note quickly leapfrogged its way straight to the top of the police's interest board, especially when Inspector Cooper realised that Peter's car had been found torched less than a mile from this address.

So, of course, on the 8th of February, detectives paid the flat another visit. And here they met not Neville Walker, but another resident, Renee Chignall. Renee was adamant that she didn't know any Peter Plumley Walker, they had no plans to meet, and she certainly had no idea why he had her address written down at his flat. The officers didn't believe her, but they left anyway.

They wouldn't be gone for long. The police suspected that if Peter's own car had perhaps been used to take his body to where it had been dumped, and then it had been driven back to where it was torched, the person driving it may have had to stop for petrol. And look, the police do a lot of stupid, corrupt, fucked up shit in this entire investigation, but that is like the one good piece of thinking they have. So they put out a call for CCTV from all the petrol stations along the route, from where the car is found to where Peter's body is found.

And bingo. Police in Wairaraki informed Officer Cooper that they had spotted a gold Ford Cortina on video footage from the Wairaraki service station in Taupo, taken at 2.30am on Saturday 29th January, the day that Peter had vanished. And of course, it wasn't Peter driving. They described two people in the car, a blonde woman in the front seat, and in the driver's seat, a bearded man wearing a black Triumph motorcycle vest top, or I believe they call it a singlet.

To Inspector Cooper, this description sounded a lot like Renee Chignall and Neville Walker, the residents of 29A Rotomahana Terrace. So, the police in Rotorua don't have the video footage in their hands just yet. This is the 80s, so it needed to be physically sent to them. But they felt sure enough to pay Renee and Neville another visit. This time, when they arrived at Rotomahana Terrace,

they even spotted a black Triumph T-shirt, a lot like the one described in the CCTV footage, hanging out on a washing line. I love washing lines. I really, really, really love them. They are good. I think it's because I don't have a garden. I'm just yearning. Thing is, I do very much enjoy a washing line. Much better for you, much better for everything, much better for your clothes. My only thing is, then I feel like my clothes smell like a bit weird. They smell a bit weird. I feel like the dog smells weird after he's been outside. He smells like outside and not in a nice way. I don't know, but I have weird things about smells, obviously. So yeah. Also, if you put damning clothing evidence on a washing line. I mean, sure. It's not going to help. Careful. So when the police arrive, Neville this time opens the door and told officers that he and Renee were busy.

She was in the middle of a session, and so they should come back in about 45 minutes. What session, I hear you ask? Well, I think this is a good time to get to know Renee Chignall a little bit better. Renee Chignall was born in Auckland in 1971. So in 1989, when she was being questioned by police over the death of Peter Plumley Walker, she was just 18 years old. Renee had an untraditional upbringing. Her parents had belonged to the local Sun Club, a nudist group,

and her father was the official photographer. Do all nudist groups, camps, gaggles, have an official photographer? Probably. Why? Well, even the dentist from Peking, he was a cameraman also. Just, we're very confusing. I think we also don't help ourselves in this country by having a particularly body negative culture whereas in germany they have a very pro body culture

so we're always going to be like reviled by yes but if we were more continental we probably wouldn't care so much yes but but no i had to do quite a lot of naked in Korea. Korea is a very naked country. Oh, yeah, no. Yeah, I think you can be quite pro-naked and also anti-naked. There are definitely British people that are pro-naked. And I have met both types of Brits. And Sam may not appreciate me saying this, but he describes his family as being split into the always nudes and the never nudes you're one or the other he is definitely a never nude and to be fair so am i are you a never nude or an always nude hannah um i don't really care fair you're an always nude always nude always

nude there you go now you know that's if you don't care you're an always nude just you know it's just a boob what's the worst thing that could happen? Absolutely nothing. And Renee remembers the dark room that her dad set up at home, always filled with countless pictures of smiling naked people. And yes, when Renee's suspected involvement in Peter Plumley Walker's death hit the headlines, because yes, like I said, this case became an absolute media frenzy. A picture of her that her father had taken also surfaced and it didn't really help her very much. In this picture, she's a little kid, like still a nappies little

kid, and she's got this unlit cigarette hanging out of her mouth and a beer can in her hand. It's quite a funny picture. It is a funny picture. I would be lying if I said I hadn't posed my godson with champagne glasses. I would also be lying if there wasn't a picture of me on New Year's Eve 1993 with a Prosecco glass. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's's just like the cigarette's a bit far yeah i think it's the cigarette in the baby's mouth and maybe a prosecco glass would be a little bit more it's a beer can obviously people when this picture came out jumped all over it and accusations actually started flying around that renee had been sexually abused by her father and all sorts of things but to this day she denies that anything like that ever happened. She just said her dad thought it was a funny picture. And

it was also the 70s. And Renee also claims that her dad barely saw her as a girl, but rather he always treated her like a son he never had. Apparently, he never called her Renee. He actually called her Guza. And Guza didn't realise that her parents' interests were not exactly mainstream. At her Catholic school, she got in trouble for telling everyone about the naked people she saw at the Sun Club. Catholic school and nudism is a real ratio. Yeah, I think Renee's parents were brought up quite strict Catholic, so I think the nudist stuff is like kind of their rebellion against it but they still send their daughter to a catholic school and when she starts talking about it there everyone's like sorry what i don't know also like the nudity stuff i've never been to

a nudist camp do you take kids there yeah oh wow like in the um ginger bugs in korea they're all sex segregated but children go in with their mums, obviously. And upon several occasions, people I knew would have the kids that they taught in the same Jim Jambongas, them being naked and being like, hi, teacher, because like, it's just, it's not, it's not weird. But yes, children. So yeah, with their weekly family trips to the nudist camp, the Chignols enjoyed a rather bustling social life. But at home, behind closed doors, things were a mess. In an interview years later, Renee would describe her father as a hard-working and good man, but also a guy with a nasty streak. And although she's adamant that no

one ever touched her inappropriately, violence was definitely a regular occurrence at the Chignall house. And her father often would end up going to the pub after work and coming home hammered and looking for a fight. Eventually, her mother fought back, once hitting her husband over the head with a cast-iron frying pan. The couple eventually divorced when Renee was 11, and she said that she was relieved because at least it meant an end to the volatility.

After the divorce, Renee lived with her mum, and things seemed to be a lot calmer at home. But soon, the teenager started to go off the rails. She left school at 15 and started working at Campbell's Shoes in Auckland. She was on minimum wage, feeling pretty meh, and not exactly living the high life. At the shoe shop, she regularly met street-level sex workers who would come in with wads of cash looking for new heels. And Renee was intrigued. How did they have so much money?

So one day, one of these shoe-shopping regulars offered to take Renee, who by then was 15 years old, out on a job where they carried out sex acts on a john in front of this child. So yeah, as fucked up as that is, after seeing this, 15-year-old Renee was all in. So as a child, she starts working the streets of Auckland's red-light district. And she makes some friends in among the other girls who are working there and they have a system. They would basically write down the license plates of the men that any of

them went with and they try and keep an eye on each other as much as they could. Renee being so young and definitely beautiful had her pick of the men who came curb crawling. She started spending big on designer clothes and shoes and bags and even bought herself a flashy blue Corvette, even though she couldn't drive. Because she's 15. Uh-huh. So it's not just like Cardi B.

No. She has seven cars. She can't drive. No. Renee's a child. Uh-huh. Who isn't old enough to drive yet, but is working, having sex with men for money.

It's all so harrow money it's so it's all so harrowing like it's all so harrowing and i feel like it's played off in the stories about this is like oh it's just you know one of those things she was doing i'm like what also who sold her the car i don't know who sells a child a car in cash the kind of person who takes a child out and performs a fucking blowjob on a man in front of her. And one day, Renee's mum saw her out on the streets and totally lost it. As you can imagine, she was desperate to get her daughter to stop. But sadly, there was no stopping Renee. Soon she was pulling in $1,000 a night in cash.

And in interviews I've read with Renee that she's given over the past few years she now says that she deeply deeply regrets it all but that the money was addictive at the time and she certainly wasn't thinking about the consequences but tragically those consequences would soon catch up with her and one night when she was just 16 Renee went with a man who attacked her. Renee managed to get away, but she was so shaken up that she decided no more working the streets. And when you read this interview, she talks about this specific incident and it's so horrible. And again, it just shows her naivety of how young she is. Because this man was like, I don't want to pay you, but I work for a drilling company and I will give you a jewelry drill in exchange for sex.

And Renee agrees to this because she wants to make shell necklaces. And she'd seen how much jewelry drills cost. Right. Yeah. And obviously he doesn't. He tries to fucking rape her. Mm. And obviously he doesn't. He tries to fucking rape her. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America.

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You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. So instead of street corners, Renee wanted to join a parlour. So she lied about her age and started working somewhere called Emily's Place. And Renee was a hit. Eventually, when the club opened another premises next door called House of Dominance, Renee made sure that she was moved over. This place, as the name suggests, was going to be a fully kitted out dominatrix pain and pleasure palace. And most importantly, there was to be no sex. It was all just going to be slave play. The girls who worked there would not be on the receiving end of anything. They wouldn't even be touched above the knee.

Yeah, only kissing from toe to knee. Nothing else. So these House of Dominance clients would come there for submission. So to be tied up, whipped and caned. Some of them, and this is hilarious, would even come there, pay, and then clean the toilets. It was also pretty tame. There was nothing too hardcore going on at House of Dominance. And typically the men coming through the door were well-off business types who wanted to be dominated in their spare time. Always is. Yeah. And it was perfect for Renee. No more sex, but loads more money.

And she felt much more safe. But it all fell apart for Renee when she lost her job at the House of Dominance. She claims that another woman who worked there gave a man a blowjob for cash, but she, Renee, got the blame and the boot as well. We don't know what the truth is. Whether it was, in fact, Renee who crossed the line with a client or not. And also, on top of that, Renee was lying about her age.

So if the parlor found that out, they may well have sacked her for that anyway, but kept it quiet to avoid too many questions about their hiring practices. Also, I know we said it was quite a tame place, the House of Dominance, but still, clients are going to come there and ask the specific things. And renee just like wasn't a very good dominatrix i think it's quite

hard to be a good yeah and in an interview with renee the same one i referred to earlier she said she just never was very good at it she said she wasn't tough enough she didn't really like doing anything more than a bit of spanking and even even that, she just thought it was kind of funny. And so when clients came to the House of Dominance and brought up things like nipple piercing, scrotum piercings, clamping, golden showers, anything involving feces or wanting to draw blood, Renee says that she just couldn't bring herself to do it. So maybe they also just could have sacked her because she wasn't particularly keen. But either way, now Renee was spiralling. And this

was when, at the age of 17, she met 34-year-old Neville Walker. The pair started a relationship and Renee moved in with him. Neville Walker is an interesting character in this story. He was born in 1954 and had a pretty unstable childhood from the off. Initially he was raised by his grandmother but as he got older he was pushed from pillar to post with different relatives. No one really took an interest in him at all. So at 15 Neville left school and became a mechanic. But when he lost his license after a pretty catastrophic car crash he went to work in a factory in Auckland. And in an unbelievably 70s nightmare, at this factory, Neville wasn't given proper safety equipment and he ended up sustaining some pretty nasty injuries which left scars all over his head and upper body.

When he was just 18, Neville's then-girlfriend got pregnant. So they got married and had another baby soon after. And at this point, Neville does genuinely seem tofriend got pregnant. So they got married and had another baby soon after. And at this point, Neville does genuinely seem to have tried to be a good family man. He worked hard. He ended up buying some shares in two trawlers that supplied local fish and chip shops. And then he went on to become a part owner in a range of chippies himself. Things were looking good. But then, because he was never around, he was always at his shops and working,

his wife divorced him and Neville fell apart. He lost everything, all the shops he'd worked so hard on, and he was back at square one. So he ended up getting a job at a petrol station. And as a newly divorced man in his mid-thirties, he started using sex workers, which is when he met Renee. At first, they tried to have a normal life. Neville got a job as a labourer and Renee went back into retail. They wanted to save up enough money to move to Australia, but again, things just didn't go to plan. Neville lost his job and Renee knew that she could be

making so much more money. But Neville didn't want her to go back on the game. So they decided to set up their very own B&D parlour in their tiny flat at 29A Rotomahana Terrace. They were working off a tight budget, so they bought all the chains and dog collars from local pet shops and all the stuff they needed to fashion whips and restraints from the hardware store. They handmade all the equipment and fitted it all up in their spare bedroom and soon enough their artisanal Etsy sex club was ready for business. The plan was that they would post ads in the local papers. Renee would be the dominatrix,

Mistress Dominique and Neville would be security. What could go wrong? Loads. Everything. The worst thing possible. And that brings us back to the 8th of February and police being forced to come back to the flat after Renee was done with that afternoon's client. But the cops were not going to get fobbed off again. This time they took both Renee and Neville down to the Auckland Central Police Station for questioning. Here they questioned them both separately for hours.

Renee was just 18 years old and had no lawyer present for any of the interrogation. But the entire time she and Neville both just flat out denied having any knowledge of someone called Peter Plumley Walker. Renee swore up and down that she had never spoken to him, and she pointed out, correctly, might I add, that there were other escort agencies also written down on that piece of paper that they had found. Then, the police, who by now had finally managed

to get their hands on that CCTV tape from the petrol station, confronted Renee with images taken from it. What were they doing driving a dead man's car, who they claimed never to have met? And it was then that Renee finally cracked. Now the story we're about to tell you is the version that Renee says she told police after they confronted her with this CCTV footage.

According to Renee, on Thursday 26 January 1989, the day before his divorce would be finalised, Peter Plumley Walker had called her to set up an appointment for 4.30pm the following day. Peter turned up at the house a little bit early, and Renee now says that he worried her immediately because he had a certain intensity to him that scared her. And I, fine, get that. Yeah, I think Renee says a lot about the, you know, DIY sex parlor. And she's taking what she's learned from Emily's Place and House of Dominance. So when they start putting ads in the papers, she obviously gets a lot of crank calls. She gets people that are just like calling, taking the piss.

They have no intention of like actually doing anything and that's not free you know she's like you're wasting my fucking time and the whole reason she's doing it is for money and she says that she would know if somebody was experienced in the world of bdsm if they use certain words and phrases rather than others for example she says they would never say caning they would never say i want you to smack me or spank me or cane me they'd say any tighter bondage and words like that she would say i would know who wasn't wasting my time right and from the minute that peter plumley walker arrives at her house he is in character he turns up there and when she's like you're early he's like i'm sorry mistress i'm sorry like he's playing the part as soon as he gets there

so it's very obvious to her that he is a seasoned pro from the way he was speaking the language the terminology that he used and renee actually says that she wondered why he was coming to her for the very obviously amateur hour offering that she was putting in those newspaper ads and i've seen pictures of these newspaper ads they look like an 18 year old wrote them and it is one of the questions that i have about this story about why peter plumley walker who spent a lot of time and money going to these parlors. Why he came to her? But something we'll come back to in next week's episode. For now, continuing with Renee's story, she says that when Peter Plumley Walker arrived,

she sort of chastised him for being early, but then she told him to go have a shower while she changed into her black dominatrix outfit. Then she says she tied his hands and feet up with black nylon straps and caned him as he had requested. And she also told him the safe phrase to stop the session, mercy, mistress, mercy. Which I feel like, shouldn't it be something more like eggplant? Like, I feel like, isn't that something that he might say anyway, just for lols? I don't know enough about this world, but that is their safe phrase.

It is also the name of the multi-part docudrama on this case. That if anybody wants to watch, is okay. It's got Renee in it. It's got like reenactments of every scene. And then it cuts to interviews with real people like the lawyers and Renee, who features prominently in it. She is the most interesting reason to watch it. It's on Amazon Prime if people are interested. But even though he'd been given the questionable safe word,

Peter wasn't going to stop anything. He wanted Rene to bulldog clamp his nipples and then strike him with a cat of nine tails, but she only had a cat of five tails, which she was bitterly disappointed about. I love it when she says this in this interview. It's said so, like, but I only had a cat of five tails, which she was bitterly disappointed about. I love it when she says this in this interview. It's said so, like, but I only had a cat of five tails. It's like, I made myself at home base.

Yes, yes. During the session, Peter kept pushing Renee to go further and further. But Renee just didn't really know what she was doing. So eventually, Renee said that she chained Peter to the wall by his hands and secured a dog collar around his neck that was suspended on a chain from the ceiling. The chain was pulling the dog collar up, so Peter had to stand on his tiptoes to be able to breathe comfortably. And that makes me feel short of breath just reading it.

When you watch it in the docuseries, you see it. It's just like tied to his neck and pulling up from the ceiling. It feels extreme, but it seems like it was actually pretty run-of-the-mill stuff for Rene by this point. And maybe it was a bit too run-of-the-mill for Peter, because once secured, he started telling Rene that he wanted the bondage to be tighter. And Renee, according to her, told police that Peter had told her, when he was chained to the wall, that he had once worked at a school in Germany for wayward kids, and that while he was there, he had enjoyed caning them.

According to Renee, Peter also claimed to have sexually abused some of these children with sex toys and whips. Now, this sounds quite familiar. In the letter that we read you earlier, Peter also mentioned working in Germany and caning naughty girls. But to be clear, police couldn't find any record of Peter Plumley Walker ever having worked in a school in Germany or otherwise.

So we don't really know if it's true or not. It was probably just a sick fantasy that he was retelling Renee to demand that she punish him more. But Renee, who was never really that into all of this stuff to begin with, was disgusted and just left Peter to it. Yeah, she can't even, like, bring herself to play along with his sick fantasy. And again, she explained to the police that this was normal protocol. She'd usually set her guests up in a hanging position,

leave and come back randomly to keep them on their toes. Literally. That day she said that she went back into the kitchen and had a coffee and a cigarette with Neville. She told him all about what Peter had said to her about the German school and the child abuse and they both just Then, Renée went back into the spare room of Dominance to find Peter slumped over his chains. Renée said she screamed for Neville and the two of them cut Peter down before Neville performed CPR. But it was no good. Peter Plumley Walker was dead.

Renee said she couldn't believe it. Peter seemed like a seasoned pro and also he hadn't had a gag in his mouth or anything that would have stopped him from crying out. And while she hadn't been in the room, she and Neville were just next door and they hadn't heard a thing. After the grim discovery and attempted CPR, Renee told police that she and Neville didn't know what to do. But before they could think clearly, suddenly, at around 5pm, so pretty much straight after they found Peter dead, Renee's mum phoned and said that she was coming over for dinner

and bringing fish and chips. So according to Renee, they just sat around and waited for her mum, with Peter's body shut up in the spare room, covered in a blanket. Obviously, the question we're asking, you're asking, everyone is asking, why didn't Renee or Neville call the police? Why would you make it so much worse for yourself like it was an accident this is the thing in um interviews since Renee says that she was saying to Neville we need to call the police we need to call the police but he was like unresponsive because he was in so much shock and he was saying we can't it's it's too much of a risk

again you know how much of this is the case I I don't know. This is all Renee's version of events. After Peter Plumley walks through that door at 29 April to Mahana Terrace, we only have Renee's version of events. It's very, very confusing. And also, you know, she says in the interview, he was dressed like he was there for BDSM. She was wearing a fucking black catsuit. Like if you call the police, it's not like they are going to suspect that he came over and then you murdered him. It's clear, possibly, that it was some sort of misadventure. But they don't want to take the risk. Yeah, if they had called for help, the police would have had a lot of questions, but things

might have turned out okay. Renee was worried because, as Saru said earlier, prostitution was still illegal in New Zealand at the time, and although she wasn't having sex with her clients, the police probably wouldn't have believed her. But of course, the fact that Neville and Renee didn't report the death of Peter Plumley Walker, it became a very easy stick for the police to beat them with. Now, Renee's mum, despite allegedly calling at 5pm, didn't turn up until 9 with the promised fish and chips. And again, this is all so weird. Why didn't they tell her to just not come over? Like, why, according to Renee, did they just sit around the flat with the body of a dead man waiting for her mum to turn up with fish and chips when they literally had bigger fish to fry?

Very good. Thank you. And also, why did it take mum four hours to pick up some fish and chips and come over? Also, who eats fish and chips at 9pm? Why has no one mentioned curry sauce? Who knows? But Renee told police that that is what went down. Renee's mum eventually left at 11.30pm

after Neville got into an argument with her about the quality of the fish and chips. Again, the prioritisation of what is happening here is so baffling. So now, with her mum gone, Renee started to panic again and Neville decided that they just needed to get rid of the body. And even then, Renee is like, look, this isn't like a movie. We can't just get rid of a body and then hope to get away with it. Yeah. But she does go along with it.

I also don't want to make it seem like we're skirting around this topic, because anybody who's familiar with the case will know that this is a part of it. Renee later does say that Neville was abusive towards her. He was very controlling he was quite domineering he was definitely in charge and yet he's like almost twice her age like that's not particularly shocking that that's the scenario apparently you know she would like go to the shop and come home and he would accuse her of like having had sex with the shop owner while she was out and things like that so So yeah, Neville is definitely like calling the shots here. I think that's safe to say.

So they moved Peter Plumley Walker's dead body into Peter's very recognisable car, which had been parked outside the house the whole time. For hours. Once he's reported missing, surely you would think that someone would have noticed the mystery gold car. Anyway, Renee and Neville get Peter's body into the car and they drove the 280 kilometres to Taupo.

This drive took three hours. And when they got there, Renee said that they threw Peter's dead body over Hukka Falls. She said she couldn't believe it, but it was done now. And on their way home, still obviously in Peter's car, they scattered his belongings along the roadside as they drove. Then, at around 4am, Renee admitted that they pulled into a petrol station in Wairaraki. She said she begged Neville not to. They'd both worked at petrol stations.

She knew that they had CCTV everywhere. But he apparently wanted a pie and a drink. Renee said that she just sat low in the passenger seat and covered her face. But obviously that wasn't good enough because she is very clearly picked up in the CCTV images. Eventually, Renee said that they took the car to what they thought was a quiet spot and torched it. Renee cried, telling the police that it was all her fault and she just really messed up. The police could hardly believe it. They had a slam dunk. The appointment, written in Peter Plumley's house.

The CCTV video, the car, and now Renee's story. But the thing is, they either didn't believe Renee, or they didn't want to. Because the police, and this is just so fucking unbelievable, didn't record video or audio any of Renee's police interview. They just wrote it all up themselves afterwards. And when they presented Renee with their written version, Renee said she was shocked. She said that they had firstly added in a bunch of swearing and strange words that she'd never use.

But more than that, Renee claims that they completely changed her story. The statement read that Neville had lost it after Renee told him about the German school child abuse story. So, he had attacked Peter whilst he was tied up and beat him to death. According to the police write-up, Renee had told them that she was glad the bastard was dead. It goes on that Renee came into the sex room, saw Peter blue and cold, and laughed, thinking she wanted to take a picture because she thought it was so funny.

Renee was horrified. She said that none of that was true and the police had just made it all up. So, she refused to sign it. And this is obviously a very bizarre part of this story. Investigators say that Renee had initially told them the truth, which is what's written in the report that they've got. But then, when she was confronted with it, she changed her mind

and started denying everything when she realised that it would mean a murder charge. But the police, like we said, didn't record anything. And there was no lawyer there. So they couldn't back up what was in their report. Not that this deterred them. They were confident that they didn't need a confession from the couple. They were sure that they could still find enough evidence to put them both away for murder.

But why murder? If we believe Renee's version of events and believe her that this is also what she told police after they confronted her with the CCTV footage, investigators had more than enough for a manslaughter conviction, especially given that Renee had admitted to leaving Peter suspended for longer than she usually left clients. And the fact that all of her bloody straps and shackles

were these weird homemade contraptions, they could have easily got manslaughter. So why go for murder? Did they have more evidence? Well, no. So strap in, because if you thought that the lack of video or audio recording of Renee's police interview is the peak of police dodginess that you were going to encounter in this case think again but you're going to be thinking for seven days next week we're going to get into some top tier

police corruption an actual scorpion in the courtroom and the lies and egomania of the detective and we'll see you there be there or be stung by a scorpion. I don't know. I thought you were going to say something else, but I'm glad you didn't. What did you think I was going to say? Oh, you'll hang by the neck. Oh, God.

No, I wasn't going to say that. Okay. But we will see you guys next week for part two of Peter Plumley Walker. Be good. Bye. Bye. Bye.

I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him.

This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding, and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male an empire and lived a life most people only dream about.

But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus.