GRASSING TO THE STARS

Scores of people today volunteered information about the death of the Kahui twins and a number of other unsolved crimes, following Susan Wood's interview of the twins' mother at a South Auckland police station last night.
The interview of Macsyn King in the waiting room of a police station obviously struck a chord with many people who turned up at the police stations throughout the country offering to talk to Susan Wood and in some cases Mark Sainsbury.
In Moenui, Constable Frank Tawhai was astonished by the turn-out.
"We had people here from first light asking to talk to Susan. Some had been following the Kahui Twins' case and reckoned they'd worked out who was responsible from the photos of the tangi and comments from Pita Sharples. There were also a number of women who said they had information they would share with John Campbell if we could get him in and and we even had a young guy prepared to spill the beans to Eva the Bulgarian."

Constable Tawhai said the willingness of people to talk with media interviewers was understandable and challenged police to change their practice.
"I watched Susan talking to the twins' mum last night and thought she was just brilliant. You could see she was drawing on all her experience of trying to get the truth from Prime Ministers and public officials, the kind of experience that a police investigator can never get. And Susan was human too. Really beautiful but down to earth. I sensed that Macsyn knew she was being spoken to by someone who really cared. A Mum. A woman who understood. You could see in Macsyn's eyes that she felt the empathy flowing out of Susan. She understood that Susan really was saying to her, 'I understand your pain and your dark secret. I have been there. I once shouted at my children when my world spun out of control"

Constable Tawhai says that from next week Moenui Police Station will be setting up a roster of media interviewers to help solve crime. "I figure there are a whole lot of people out there who know a whole lot about unsolved crimes. All they need is a half famous interviewer to tell."
Constable Tawhai is advertising the first day of interviews for next Monday and has already signed up Candy Lane and Jason Gunn to ask the questions. He is promoting the event as "Grassing to the Stars."