The Claire Hills cold case
For over 20 years, the murder of Claire ‘Lisa’ Hills has continued to be a mystery in spite of the presence of DNA evidence collected from the crime scene. The case has remained unsolved, but the search for the killer remains unabated.
Claire Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Hills was a 30-year-old woman living in Herne Bay, New Zealand. She was working as a manager for an airport branch of McDonald’s. Every morning, she would wake up at 2:30 a.m. to ready herself for her 3:30 a.m. shift. She would then drive her black Mazda Familia hatchback 28 km to the airport.
On April 28, 1998, police officers were contacted about a vehicle on fire at Mangere Mountain, but after failing to take action, the firefighters took care of the incident at around 6:30 a.m. After putting out the fire, a senior fire officer noticed a burned body in the back seat. The police were called shortly after, and a homicide investigation was launched.
The name of the victim remained unknown for a while until dental records and a McDonald's staff name tag helped identify the victim. The body in the car was identified as Claire Elizabeth Hills. She was on her way to the airport after a two-day break but unfortunately never made it.
Hills’ body was found in the back seat of her car. She was burned alive, drenched in petrol, and had been tied up.
The night before her death, Hills spoke to the duty manager, Flaui Muaulu. When asked about the phone call, he said, “I called her at about 9:45 p.m., I forgot that she was supposed to be starting work at 3:30 a.m. I needed her permission to give this other store our stock, we had a quick conversation and that was it.”
The day ‘Lisa’s’ body was found, Muaulu was woken up by a phone call at 3:30 a.m. “It was the store calling to say Lisa hadn't shown up. I was getting in trouble because they thought she must have called in sick and I'd forgotten to leave a message," he said.
Later that day, police arrived at his home to speak to him about his last conversation with Hills, and after some time, confirmed to Muaulu that they had found Hills’ body in the burned vehicle.
An autopsy was administered on Hills’ body, and it revealed that she was alive but “most probably” unconscious when her vehicle was set on fire. She had suffered from numerous fractures to the bones around her throat and to her skull--these wounds are inconclusive as to whether they occurred before or after the car was set on fire. The medical examiner also found evidence that ‘Lisa’ Hills had been sexually assaulted. Her official cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.
Not long after Hills’ death police posted the biggest reward in New Zealand, $50,000, for any information or evidence leading to an arrest for the murder of Claire Hills. However, nothing came from the reward. Police received phone calls, but no evidence was ever gathered.
At a press conference in May 1998, Detective Senior Sergeant Dayle Candy said, “Claire met her death in a terrible way, and I would urge anyone with information which may help out inquiry to come forward, so we can identify the person who committed such a shocking crime.” He went on to say, "Police are keeping an open mind on the possibility that Claire was the victim of a rape or robbery on her way to work."
Claire Elizabeth Hills was born in England but moved to Australia with her family at the age of two. For five months, the family lived in a hostel before purchasing a home in Wollongong, in Sydney, Australia. Hills came from a big family; she was the third child of six siblings.
At the age of 15, she left her family’s home to live with her boyfriend, and after saving money from her job in Melbourne, she left for Auckland, New Zealand. In 1985, when she left for New Zealand, Hills used a fake passport with the name ‘Lisa,’ which she continued to use during her stay there.
When ‘Lisa’ was 21, she became a Jehovah’s Witness, and later married a man named Peter Hills. It was 18 months prior to the discovery of her body that she moved to Herne Bay following her failed marriage with Peter Hills. Two of Hill’s sisters told reporters, “She seemed to have a happy life in New Zealand, she quite liked it.” Hills’ sisters, Lynda Hyson and Allyson Harris, told the Herald that they knew little about Hills’ life because she only spoke to them sporadically and was never one to share details about her life.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the incident, a witness told the New Zealand Herald, “I won’t forget it.” She continued, saying, “I was going up to the mountain at about 5:45 a.m. and as I got closer, I saw a man moving around a car at the soccer club. The next thing I saw was the thing go up in flames.” She added, “I remember thinking as I stood there, If someone was in that car, there’d be no way anyone could get near it to help them—the whole thing was engulfed in flames…like a furnace.”
“The person ran away, he didn’t know I was there, he ran straight towards me. Then he realized I was there, he just stopped, and we eyeballed each other for a minute- then he turned and ran back the same way he’d come.” Following the events, the woman ran to a nearby property where she found a man and asked him to call 111. Later that day, at 3 p.m., the man called her and told her, “There was a body in that car.”
Three other witnesses, a jogger, a taxi driver, and a motorist, said they saw the man the woman described near the crime scene at Mangere Mountain. A sketch of the killer was made, but the man in the sketch was never found.
The death of Claire Elizabeth Hills or ‘Lisa,’ as she was known to others, has never been solved. Operation Hills is now in the hands of Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch. The detective worked on the case back in 1998 and said the case is a “real whodunnit.”
Over the years, suspect after suspect has been investigated, but none has led to a lead in the case.
In 2007, a DNA profile was made from a DNA match sample taken from Hills’ body. The DNA profile did not match anyone in the New Zealand database.
When talking about the case, Detective Dave Lynch told the public that "From the time that Claire got up around 2.30am and from the time her car caught fire up at the mountain there, those two to three hours are really an unknown for us and a key to advancing the investigation is filling in that window of time.”
In regard to the witness’s story, he said, "That sighting by the witness is really the only solid piece of information we have around any person who is directly connected with Claire's murder.”
"There's a range of scenarios, one is that Claire was known to her killer - and the other scenario is that she was the subject of a random attack and how that random attack occurred and where is obviously very much a focus of the investigation."
After more than 20 years, Lynch is committed to finding Hills’ killer. He said, “I’m still convinced there’s a person or a small group of people out there that know or have some very strong suspicions around what happened.”
"We don't need much, all we need is names - we do have the DNA profile to work with and we are able to give assurance of confidentiality around any information that people are prepared to give us."
Hill’s family has come to the conclusion that their loved one’s murder case will never be solved. Allyson Harris, Claire Hills’ sister, said, “It makes us really upset that someone's walking around who's gotten away with murder - but if we find out who's done it it's not going to make us feel better.”
Margaret Green, Hills’ mom, believes the police made many errors early on in the investigation. She believes police spent a lot of time focusing on William Mokaraka—a rapist, Hill’s involvement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the use of her Christian name instead of the name she used in New Zealand, ‘Lisa.’
Both sisters believe their sibling was killed in a random attack. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time—otherwise there would be something to hold on to,” said Hynson.
Harris went on to say, “Our family's not complete anymore… There won't ever be any closure… She was 30 years old, she didn't have children, she hadn't even lived yet."
Even though it has been over two decades since the death of Claire Hills, it is important to note that she has not been forgotten, nor ever will be. The investigation into her death is still ongoing and police hope to find the person responsible for the murder of Claire Elizabeth Hills.
If you have any information about what happened to Claire Hills on April 28, 1998, please contact the police at 0800 OP HILLS (0800 674 4557), or Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111.
In the words of Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch, “It’s not too late—give us a call.”
