The Bain Family Murders

In June 1994, five members of the Bain family, parents Robin and Margaret and three of their children, were found shot dead in their Dunedin, New Zealand home. The surviving family member, son David Bain, called emergency services and said he had discovered the bodies after returning from his paper route.

First trial

David Bain was tried and convicted of the murders in 1995 and spent 13 years in prison. Prosecutors argued he had killed his family before staging his father's death to look like a murder-suicide.

Retrial

In 2007, New Zealand's Privy Council quashed the conviction, citing concerns about how evidence had been presented at the original trial. At a retrial in 2009, a jury found Bain not guilty on all counts. The defense had argued that his father, Robin, was responsible for the killings before taking his own life.

Aftermath

Bain later sought compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Assessments of his claim reached conflicting conclusions, and the New Zealand government ultimately made an ex gratia payment in 2020 without a formal declaration of innocence. Because David Bain was acquitted and no one else has been convicted, this page lists the case as unsolved.