A New Zealand chef who committed the first murder on Norfolk Island in more than a century is set to be released from prison in just weeks.
The body of 29-year-old Sydney woman Janelle Patton was found wrapped in a black plastic sheet at the island’s Cockpit Waterfall Reserve on Easter Sunday, 2002.
Ms Patton had suffered 64 injuries including stab wounds, a fractured skull and broken pelvis and her death led to a police investigation that made headlines around the world.
More than two decades later, despite Glenn Peter Charles McNeil’s conviction for Ms Patton’s murder, her killing remains a subject of debate in true-crime podcasts and among amateur sleuths.
The body of 29-year-old Sydney woman Janelle Patton was found wrapped in a black plastic sheet at the island’s Cockpit Waterfall Reserve on Easter Sunday, 2002. New Zealand chef Glenn McNeill who was convicted of Ms Patton’s murder, is set to be released from prison in February
McNeill’s story about what happened on the day Ms Patton was killed repeatedly changed after his arrest and no motive was ever established for her murder.
Ms Patton, who worked in hospitality, had moved to Norfolk Island to escape a bad relationship in Sydney more than two years before her life was taken by McNeill.
Relationship troubles continued to befall her, with several failed affairs and occasional angry encounters with local men and women.
Ms Patton was last seen alive on the morning of March 31 heading off on her daily walk around the island, where her parents had honeymooned.
Detectives sent from the Australian mainland had to be sworn in as Norfolk Island constables before they could speak to the 2,771 residents and visitors on the island at the time.
Ms Patton’s parents Ron and Carol had been visiting Norfolk for Easter when their daughter was murdered and had every reason to believe the crime would be quickly solved.
Police knew the names of every person present on the island, which covers just 35 sq km and sits about 1,400km east of Evans Head on the NSW north coast.
![Despite Glenn McNeil's conviction for Ms Patton's murder, her killing remains a subject of conjecture in true-crime podcasts and among amateur sleuths. McNeill is pictured being led into the Norfolk Island courthouse at Kingston after his arrest in February 2006](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/27/01/79357359-12902517-image-m-7_1703641967836.jpg)
Despite Glenn McNeil’s conviction for Ms Patton’s murder, her killing remains a subject of conjecture in true-crime podcasts and among amateur sleuths. McNeill is pictured being led into the Norfolk Island courthouse at Kingston after his arrest in February 2006
Instead, the hunt for Ms Patton’s killer dragged on for years as islanders insisted it could not be one of them, despite a 2004 coronial inquest hearing there were 16 local ‘persons of interest’.
Among those named was a man accused of pulling Ms Patton’s hair at the leagues club and another with whom she described sex as ‘not rape, but not what I wanted’.
The inquest heard Ms Patton had fought mightily for perhaps 15 minutes as she was bashed, slashed and stabbed to death by sharp and blunt instruments.
Ms Patton’s diary entries included references to one former island boyfriend spitting on her and later describing himself as her ‘first enemy on Norfolk’.
About half the territory’s population is descended from British sailors who mutinied against naval officer William Bligh on HMS Bounty in 1789.
The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, hid on Pitcairn Island with their Tahitian wives and their descendants were resettled in 1856 on the former penal colony of Norfolk.
Those ‘real’ islanders form about a third of the permanent population: the Buffet, Quintal, Nobbs, Evans, McCoy, Adams, Young and Christian families.
They speak a mix of archaic English and Tahitian – but only among themselves – and the Norfolk phone book includes their nicknames in its listings.
Among the persons of interest cleared of any involvement in Ms Patton’s murder were ‘Bucket’, ‘Spindles’, ‘Jap’, ‘Tugger’, ‘Moose’ and ‘Frenzy’.
![The hunt for Ms Patton's killer dragged on for years as islanders insisted it could not be one of them, despite a 2004 coronial inquest hearing there were 16 local 'persons of interest'. A police vehicle is pictured leaving Norfolk Island's courthouse carrying Glenn McNeill](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/27/02/79357363-12902517-The_hunt_for_Ms_Patton_s_killer_dragged_on_for_years_as_islander-a-33_1703645675880.jpg)
The hunt for Ms Patton’s killer dragged on for years as islanders insisted it could not be one of them, despite a 2004 coronial inquest hearing there were 16 local ‘persons of interest’. A police vehicle is pictured leaving Norfolk Island’s courthouse carrying Glenn McNeill
Early in the homicide investigation Australian Federal Police fingerprinted most of the island’s adults but did not find a match for evidence found at the crime scene.
In February 2006, four year’s after the discovery of Ms Patton’s body, 28-year-old father-of-two McNeill was arrested in New Zealand.
McNeill had been questioned over a burglary shortly after Ms Patton’s murder and his fingerprints were taken, along with a DNA sample, both of which were re-examined in 2004.
Two of the prints found on the plastic sheet used to wrap Ms Patton’s body belonged to McNeill and hairs matching her DNA were located in the boot of his Honda Civic.
Broken pieces of green glass removed from Ms Patton’s hair were also similar to particles recovered from that vehicle.
The only foreign DNA detected on Ms Patton’s body was from an unidentified female.
McNeill had arrived on Norfolk in 2000 with his girlfriend and worked at several island restaurants before returning to his homeland after Ms Patton was killed.
He initially claimed on the day Ms Patton disappeared he had been smoking cannabis and accidentally ran over her while driving his Civic.
‘I was just driving along the road and I dropped my smokes,’ McNeill told detectives.
‘I bent down to pick them up and hit her. At first I thought I’d hit a cow or a dog. I got out and saw that she was under the car and I panicked.’
![Detectives sent from the Australian mainland had to be sworn in as Norfolk Island constables before they could speak to the 2,771 residents and visitors on the island at the time of Ms Patton's murder](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/26/23/79355041-12902517-image-a-1_1703634587961.jpg)
Detectives sent from the Australian mainland had to be sworn in as Norfolk Island constables before they could speak to the 2,771 residents and visitors on the island at the time of Ms Patton’s murder
McNeill said he put Ms Patton’s body in the boot of his car which he drove to Cockpit Waterfall Reserve, stabbing her only to make sure she was dead.
He later retracted that statement and in February 2007 faced trial in front of a jury drawn from fewer than 2,000 of the island’s eligible voters.
McNeill gave evidence he did not kill Ms Patton or see her on the day she was murdered and claimed if he had made a confession it was due to mental illness.
Barrister Peter Garling – now a NSW Supreme Court judge – put forward the proposition Ms Patton had been killed in a jealous rage by a woman.
The jury found McNeill guilty and he was sentenced to 24 years in prison with a minimum term that expires on February 1.
McNeill, who has served his time in NSW jails, unsuccessfully appealed against his conviction to the Federal Court and the High Court refused leave to appeal.
Three years after his conviction the US broadcaster NBC aired an episode of Dateline in which McNeill’s girlfriend, Shelley Hooper, offered a fresh theory about the murder.
![McNeill gave evidence he did not kill Ms Patton or see her on the day she was murdered and claimed if he had made a confession it was due to mental illness. He is pictured outside Norfolk Island's courthouse](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/27/02/79357513-12902517-McNeill_gave_evidence_he_did_not_kill_Ms_Patton_or_see_her_on_th-a-34_1703645675881.jpg)
McNeill gave evidence he did not kill Ms Patton or see her on the day she was murdered and claimed if he had made a confession it was due to mental illness. He is pictured outside Norfolk Island’s courthouse
Ms Hooper said Ms Patton had been killed by a drug-dealing couple who forced McNeil to dispose of her body.
McNeil later made the same claim from prison, adding he had been wearing surgical gloves which he buried in his garden. Police searched McNeil’s former property but no gloves were found.
Norfolk Island lawyer John Brown who represented McNeill told the ABC there were ‘quite a few’ inconsistencies in the case against his onetime client.
‘One was that the only DNA found on the deceased person was female,’ Mr Brown said.
‘And there’s no way he could have put female DNA on the deceased person that was one of the things, but there were a number.’
The ABC reported McNeill was expected to serve his parole in New Zealand after his likely release was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island.
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