(FIRE CRACKLES, SIREN WAILS) - January the 25th 2013, at about 2.30 in the morning, we got a page and siren call to a structure fire. - The chief of the fire brigade rang me up and said, 'John, you better come, man. 'We're going up to your dad's and it's not good.' - A passing driver had reported a house on fire in the town of Te Karaka. - We are a small community. There's about 500 in the township. If there is a structure fire, somebody in our crew will know the person that's there. - The property belonged to 88-year-old Russell Allison, who lived in the house alone. - We could see the lights of the fire engine going past the house. So I said, 'I can see you. I can see you. I'm right behind you.' - The nearer we got to it, I could see the outline of the chimney, but not a lot else. - I mean, you could see the glow from... It's long straight before you get to the farm. Like a Roman candle. I was right on their tail when they arrived. They were saying, 'Is your dad in here?' I said, 'Yes, he is.' I was helpless. Couldn't do anything. Standing in jandals, I couldn't go in. The fence was on fire; the lawn was` The lawn was on fire. Everything was on fire. And I just couldn't do anything. - When we arrived the house, in fire terminology, was razed to the ground; there was nothing there. - All I wanted to... in my mind to know was had he woken up. That was probably the longest hour of my life waiting to find out whether Dad had... struggled to get out and not made it. - We discovered the remains of Mr Allison in his bedroom. - You know, it became personal. It wasn't just a fire with a deceased person, it was a vulnerable elderly man with no reason as to why it had happened. - From the outset, police have treated this fire as unexplained. - We don't believe it's an accident. - And since 2013, they've been trying to establish the circumstances of the fire that killed Russell Allison as he slept in his bed that night. - We believe that at least one other person is holding knowledge as to how Russell Allison died that night. - There's nothing I can do, and I... Yeah, I just live with this, '(GROWLS) I'm helpless.' - For detectives who've worked on this case since the beginning, the drive to solve it is always there. - Little things will trigger and remind me about the fire and that night. Can we do something again or is there a way of reviving what's happened to spark anyone that can come forward and help us? - Seven years into the investigation, we've brought this cold case team together to review the suspicious death of 88-year-old Russell Allison. - Russell went to bed and he never woke up. The fact that that remains unsolved really bugs us, and we're determined to solve it. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2020 - The fire was smouldering when we got there. There was still smoke. It was still really hot. There were no flames. And one of the first things that was pointed out to me when we got there was where the deceased was. Even at that time, early in the morning, you could see the walking frame and the bed pulley frame, which was quite sobering and brought it home that you really wanted to do a good job and make sure you found out what happened. I started the scene examination later that morning, and it carried on for five days. When we're doing a fire investigation, we're looking for anything out of the ordinary. We're looking for, you know, door hinges, are they open or shut? Things aren't where they should be. We're looking at Russell and where he is. And in this case, he was on the remains of his bed. He's` He had turned to the side, as if his legs were over the edge of the wire-sprung mattress, as if he was about to sit up and grab his walker, which was right in front of him. - Russell's son, John, walked through the remains of the house a few days after the fire. - Dad had gone. They'd taken Dad away. And the mattress was still there. And that was a healing for me because I looked at the mattress and I could see that shape, the shape of the... So I knew. And, you know, everyone said to me, you know, smoke inhalation would've got him. And I have to believe that. He's not on the floor, he's not halfway down the bloody hallway. He's not on the back step. He's still where I left him. - John lived 10 minutes down the road from his father and was his nightly caregiver. - I spoke with John Allison, and he had told me that he left at about five minutes past midnight and arrived back to his home at about 12.15. - The phone call to the fire service was made about 2.30 in the morning. - Was he a person of interest at that stage? Definitely, you know, we had to treat him as such, but obviously treating him respectfully too. He'd just lost his father and was upset. - I'm the last person that saw him alive. Well, in theory. So... (SIGHS) Of course, I'm... I wouldn't say I'm a prime suspect, but I'm the one with the most information, obviously. My father was christened Ronald Russell, but I never, ever knew him to be Ronald. It was Russell all his life. He was born 29th of June 1924 in Whakatane. - Russell was the youngest of four brothers, but their mother died when he was young, so he was bounced around different family members. When he was 17, he got special dispensation to join the army. - The war was a great adventure. The many men who did it just decided, 'This is an adventure. We're gonna go and see the world.' So he got the permission and away he went. This one here, just with him in camp. Or there, sitting in a tent with three of his mates. Unfortunately, he didn't write down who his mates were. - Russell was a keen photographer and took photos everywhere he went ` Egypt, Greece, Italy, even Japan after the atomic bombs had been dropped. - Back a page, he's got Hiroshima. They stood in the middle of this barren wasteland and he took photos. He took photos of all the wooden buildings just blown away. And you come to the end of it, disembarkation. Next photo's the house. - When Russell returned in 1946, he joined his father and uncle on the farm in Te Karaka, 30 minutes out of Gisborne. - Three adult men living in a house, which must have been a bloody nightmare. But they survived there. My dad didn't marry my mum until 1953, so she endured for a long time with three men in the house. She deserved a medal, too. (CHUCKLES) - When Russell and Marie started a family, they all lived on the farm together. - That's why Dad had such an affinity with the farm. It was his first real home after being vagrant as a little child; going to war, coming home. I suppose it was security. And it was the only house that my mom and him ever lived. 53 years they were married. - Russell's father died, then his brother Peter too. But Russell wanted to stay on the farm. - Mum and Dad were happy. It was their home. And then Mum passed on. Dad wanted to continue because it was his security, his home. He didn't want to go into a home or something. And I'd always said to Dad, 'As long as you want to stay here, I'll support you.' So... that's what we did. - Russell had already had heart surgery. Then a few years later, he had a fall and broke his hip. - He was active in his mind, but his body just started to say, 'Look, I'm just getting a bit tired.' - And so in the last few years, Russell had home help in the morning to get him showered for the day. Another carer would come and cook dinner in the early evening. And then every night, John came to put his father to bed. - And he just wanted to sit and talk, just wanted some company. And then he got to the stage where he just got a bit difficult to get to bed. - John would help him with his pyjamas, make sure he was taking the right medication, then remove his hearing aids just as he got into bed. - And stand at the door, hand on the switch and say 'You right, Dad? You right?' 'Yep, I'm right.' And then... click! He'd have his thought of the day. Every night without fail, he'd come up with one last thought, you know. 'Oh, OK.' Didn't begrudge it, but, you know, you were just on the point of turning the light off. So, yeah, he'd tell you his thought of the day. It was great. You know, even now, I don't begrudge having ever done it. - Part of your job as a detective is to find out about your victim. So that's what we did. 88-year-old Russell was, although not in physically good health, he was mentally sound. Even though his wife, Marie, had died in 2006, it was his wish to stay on the farm. His son would come over religiously every night. Everyone who met John said that he was a caring, kind, attentive son to his father. So, we needed to reconstruct what had happened to Russell. Russell's routine in the morning was to get up, usually around 6am. His routine was to unlock the back door. He would make his own cereal, which involved no cooking. His caregiver that morning arrived at 9am. She'd put creams on him, gave him a shower, put his hearing aid in, because he couldn't do that without someone helping him. And just did the general tidying up and setting up of him for the day. So she left at about 10.20. - The day of the fire, the evening caregiver arrived around 4 o'clock. - She cooked him dinner, gave him a bottle of beer that he had each night when he sat in his chair in the lounge. - Russell had dinner at 10 to 5 ` meat patty, oven chips and eggs. - She cleaned up the kitchen and made sure that everything was turned off and everything was put away and left the house. We looked at what the caregiver had done that evening in great detail. Everything that she had said seemed to make sense with what we could see. So, John arrived at the house about 9pm that night. - Russell and John talked and watched TV until Russell was ready for bed around 11. John then went to sort his nightly medication ` painkillers for his hip and a sleeping tablet. - That was part of our routine, as it was that night, was I go to the kitchen, make sure he got the right pills, Dad would take his walker out to the toilet, come back in, turn the lock, trundle off to the bedroom, get him in his PJs, and I'd get him into bed. And then my routine was once he was in bed, before I sat down, was to shut that end of the house off. So I'd make sure the door was locked, make sure the kitchen there was nothing... But there was nothing on anyway, because at this time it's 11 o'clock at night. It's six hours since she cooked tea. - John sat and watched TV until he knew his father was asleep. He left by the front door at five minutes past midnight. Russell was snoring heavily. - The result of the post-mortem was that Russell had died from smoke inhalation and thermal burns covering his entire body surface area. - The position of his remains indicated to investigators that Russell may have been trying to get out of bed. - The impact on me was not so much seeing his remains there, but it was seeing his pyjamas because they were still intact under his body, the elastic of his pyjama bottoms. It did bring home why I do my job. It brought home that you are there to speak for people that can't speak for themselves any more. And I really wanted to find out what had happened. - Fire investigators determined the most heat had come from the kitchen, suggesting that's where the fire started. - How did this fire start when someone had left the house at five minutes past 12, when the house was fully standing, to the same house where it is totally razed to the ground? So the more we look at this fire, the more it becomes suspicious. TJ: Have I done enough to wear the jersey? Gotta sweat out that fear because this is bigger than me. I do it for my fans and my family. ION4 hydration. Sweat it out witih Powerade. * - Seven years ago, 88-year-old Russell Allison was asleep in his bed at home on the Gisborne farm where he wanted to see out his days. But in the early hours of January the 25th 2013, the farmhouse was razed to the ground. Police believed the fire warranted in-depth investigation. Detective Inspector Rob Jones has been overseeing this case since the beginning. - There are times when the public might think that police have simply stopped investigating the death of someone like Russell Allison. I can promise them that that doesn't stop. - Gisborne detective senior sergeant Kevin Ford joining the investigation team last year. - Russell Allison was an elderly, well-respected man who certainly didn't deserve to die in the way that he did. - And Detective Inspector Mike Foster is new to the review team. - We come into this with no preconceived ideas, with a totally blank canvas. I believe this is very solvable. - Seven years later, Senior Sergeant Tina Smallman remains committed to the case. - No, never given up. So that part of being a detective wants to find out the right answers for the family. - Four detectives, one cold case. It's time to reinvestigate the death of Russell Allison. - The original team did a great job. But now, seven years on, it's certainly time to get some fresh eyes over things. - So, what bothers me is here's our elderly victim, he's 88 years old. He's in a house on his own, poor health. And that night, the fire started in his house. The intensity of the flames, the old condition of the house ` those combination of factors meant that once the fire took, it burnt really quickly and intensively, so it would have would have engulfed very quickly, leaving Russell with absolutely no chance at all. He had no chance at all. John Allison left his father tucked up in bed, asleep, shortly after midnight that night? - Yeah, about five past 12. - About five past 12. - We've got a photo of the bed here. Where is his walker? - So, his walker, it's sort of come apart in two places here, but it's on the edge of his bed. So this here is the big pulley for him to lift himself up. His knees were hanging over the edge of the wire mattress, and you could see his pyjama bottoms underneath. - We know the fire was reported at 1.30. - So at that stage, the house was already well involved. - It would have been all, probably, a native timber, which tends to burn reasonably well and reasonably hot. - A lady who's left from further up the road to work, they've driven past at around 1.40 and seen the house that's been fully involved. - Because it's old, it has a lot of, um, air leaks in it, if you like. If a fire's actually fuelled with air, it can probably double in size every 90 seconds. (SIREN WAILS) - When the fire service arrived, the house was already burnt to the ground. - The roofing iron had all ended up in the fire, which means all the structure of the house had all burnt through. But to be completely on the ground, it had been probably burning for some time. (SOMBRE MUSIC) - Quite eerie being back here again, actually. Just... Even though was seven years ago, it's still... We spent a lot of time here. - This is Mike Foster's first visit to the scene. - Right, so the front door. - Yep. Those are the steps there. Would've been the hallway down here. - Yep. And the entrance to Russell's room would've been around about here. The walker would have been left by John right there. Russell slept on this side of the bed. - OK. - Pretty much standing in the kitchen area. Yeah, this is where the back door was. It was closed. - And you're right, the back door is obviously the closest to the entrance of the property, the gate. So there would be your natural area for coming into the house. - And that's closest to the seat of the fire as well. - Yeah, that's interesting. - This is the first time police have spoken about the origin of the fire. Early on, investigators determined the most heat had come from the kitchen. Police are now prepared to reveal that's where the fire started. - And John is adamant that when he left the kitchen, there was nothing in there that caused him any concern whatsoever. - That's correct, yeah. Everything got looked at initially at the scene. And every appliance that you can see` I think that's the bottom of the hot-water cylinder. And this is a grill that was there. They've all been taken back and further examined by the electrical engineer as well. So there's microwave, the iron, stove... - Yeah, every single appliance that was in that kitchen was tested. All the wiring of the house that could be identified, including the switchboard, or fuse board, was tested, and no item was found to have any electrical fault. - If there were no electrical faults in any appliance, could something in the kitchen have been left on? - The caregiver that used to come in the evening, that night she cooked him some oven chips and used an electric frying pan to cook him a meat patty and some eggs. - Certainly, the caregiver is adamant that nothing had been left on. And John, of course, has reinforced that when he's left just after midnight. - John Allison left that night, and before he did so, he checked the kitchen area to make sure that nothing was left on. - Bearing in mind John does this every night with his father, looks after him, cares for him, puts him to bed, checks the house and leaves. - We know Russell himself never got up in the middle of the night to cook himself any food because he was virtually incapable of preparing food for himself, other than his breakfast. - So then highly unlikely that Russell has cooked anything on this night. - Particularly given that he's had a sleeping tablet, was tucked up in bed, was asleep when his son left him. - And he's not very mobile. - No. - We know that. Nothing that the police and experts established indicated that the fire had been caused by an accident. - Having established the seat of the fire was in the kitchen, the team now has to consider the possibility that someone gained access to the house. - John left via the front door. - That's right. He would lock the back door, leave the key in the lock and then go out via the front door. - Both the front and back door locks were able to be salvaged and were sent away for analysis. - Front door was what we call a rim nightlatch. At any time you can get out of the house by simply turning the knob, walking out and slamming the door behind you. Through the door is mounted a lock. There's only one way of opening the door from the outside, and that's with the key. - However, the fire had left the lock severely distorted. - The front door, the Yale had totally melted. There was nothing whatsoever left to analyse or look at. - Looking at the back door lock, the obvious thing was that there was a lot of heat involved. The brass parts had actually melted and fallen out or fallen down inside the lock. But overall, the lock was relatively undamaged. - The locksmith was able to tell us that the back door at the time of the fire was unlocked. - Well, we've read John's statement. John's adamant he left the back door locked that night. - Yes. - And again, that was a routine thing every single night, wasn't it? - When I made the statement that it was in the unlocked state, suddenly the police started asking lots of questions, because to them that was quite interesting, because it changed the effect of what evidence they had been working with. So I had to go back. Was I really certain of it? Was I absolutely certain of it? (CHUCKLES) This pin is attached to this plate. If we put our key in, turn it to the locked state, this pin is now on the outside there. There's no way that pushes back. It stays in the locked state. But on their one, that pin was on that side. So that was definitely in the unlocked position at the time of the fire. - This raises alarm bells because John was emphatic that he had locked that back door when he left. - Absolutely positive. I always checked it. - This is part of their routine, this is something they do every night. - So it was locked. I have no doubt. - If the back door was locked before the fire, and the only back door key kept inside, was there any other way someone could gain access to the house? - The only key to that front door was kept outside on the water tank so that the caregivers and immediate family knew how to get into Russell, should they need to in an emergency. And that was the only door key there was. The concrete pad's still here. This is a little square where the water tank was secured on. - Yeah. And where the keys were. - Yeah. What we're looking for here is that sole front door key for the front door. - That's right. - We spent probably a good day in the water tank sifting through every single piece of ash, wood, to try to find a front door key. I think that corner's where the rest of the other farm keys were found when we were sifting through here to try and find the front door. - Right. - We found a number of keys, all hidden exactly where we were told the front door key should be. The one key that was missing was the front door key. - During the course of the scene examination, we have never been able to recover the front door key. We don't know why. There's no explanation for it. - Which is really interesting, isn't it? Because there's only a few people that know where the keys are held. - That's right. - who knew about that key? - Well, just the caregivers and a small group of friends that needed to know where the key was for Russell's safety. - Right. - Only John, another family member, and a small group of caregivers knew about their key. That's a group of no more than five people. * - Police spent five days combing the ashes of the Te Karaka farmhouse which burned down in the early hours of January the 25th, 2013. Inside, 88-year-old Russell Allison had been asleep in his bed. Investigators have determined the fire started in the kitchen. Now police are prepared to reveal a crucial detail that has previously been withheld. - One of the key things that we discovered during the course of the scene examination is police locate an item of interest outside the rear of the property, adjacent to the clothesline. (SINISTER NOTES) - Our item of interest was located just over here, wasn't it? - Just over there, between the water tank and the washing line. - Right. - Sort of around about over here was where the item of interest was located. And when you look back at the house, how close is that. - The grass had been scorched all the way back here. - That's right. - And the item of interest was lying on the scorched grass. - And the item of interest was undamaged. If it had been there, you know, a day before or before the fire started, it would have been damaged. - Right. - Police won't reveal what that item of interest is, but they are prepared to share some details. - It is something that is usually kept inside the house. - OK. - It should have been there the night of the fire. And that item of interest has been moved. - And it's been placed there after the house has been fully engulfed. - There's no damage to that item of interest. - No, nothing. - But given the extensive scorching of the ground, if it had been there before the fire, we would have expected that item to be extensively... - Definitely. - We have spent hours speculating about the significance of that item of interest and the location that it was found in. That item has been introduced to the scene well after the fire has occurred but before the fire service arrived. Only a very select group of people knew about that and the importance of that item. - So then that's indicating that the person's been there long enough for the grass to scorch... - Correct. - ...all the way up. - That's right. And Russell was going to die. - ...trapped within the house. (PENSIVE MUSIC) - Could this key piece of evidence still reveal more significant information? - We need to see just how far we can take that in terms of a new forensic examination. - It's a critical piece of evidence. - We have a very small group of people who know intimately how Russell lives, where things like the key to his door is and the outside tank, how he moves around the house on a daily-nightly basis. - And out of that small number of people, of course, we've got one person in particular that has really drawn our attention for a number of reasons. - We've had a number of persons of interest that we've looked into throughout the investigation. There is one particular person of interest that keeps bringing themselves to the fore. - Police first knew about a person of interest the night of the fire. - When we turned up at the scene in the early hours of the morning and spoke with Russell's son, John, it was then that he told me about a phone call that his father had received early morning on the 24th... that was really concerning to his father and really concerning to John. As soon as we turned up that night, or early that morning, John has told us about the phone call. - So we know that call went for 22 minutes. And as you say, we certainly know that Russell was really upset and distressed by that call. - Because of the phone call, John told police he made certain the house was especially secure that night when he left. - He's been extremely worried about that phone call. So concerned that he's checked that house to ensure that it's secure. - And worried because the phone call was being made by a person whom they have some real concerns about. * (FIRE CRACKLES, SIREN WAILS) - In the early hours of the morning, as firefighters were still putting out the blaze of the Te Karaka farmhouse, John Allison told police that his father had received a very disturbing phone call earlier that day. - Right at the time, I thought it was suspicious. You know, that's why I'd said to the policeman there on-site, I said, 'Hey, look, I need to tell you this right now. 'I think this is a result of the phone call.' - Just a few hours earlier, as John was putting his father to bed, Russell had his usual last thought of the day. - Hand to the light switch. Bang. 'Oh, John, I should tell you, I had a call today. 'It wasn't a very nice one.' And I said, 'Oh, OK, what's the story? He said, 'Oh, I've just had a disturbing call. 'I've had a little bit of a bloody threat.' - Both father and son knew the person who'd made the threatening phone call. Police do not want to reveal the relationship between Russell and the caller, but it was not the first time it had happened. John and Russell made a plan to deal with the threats in the morning. - I suppose it must have been 20 past 11 or so when we were actually having the discussion. I remember saying, 'I might have to step up security a bit or something, then, you know, if you're worried. 'We'll chain,' you know, 'put an extra lock on the door or whatever.' But, yeah, that was just his usual thought of the day and it just happened to say, 'I'm vulnerable.' - The phone call was another event in what was a distressing series of events between Russell, John and the caller. There was a real degree of urgency to locate the whereabouts of the person who made that call. - At about 5.20am, Tauranga police visited an address to check whether the person of interest was there. 'They weren't.' Police were informed that the person was in Auckland and had gone up there for a work trip. - The occupant of the Tauranga address gave police the location in Auckland where Russell's caller had said they were staying. - And we now know that that person did not stay in the place where we had been told and hadn't been in Auckland all. - And we know that the person of interest also had not told the occupant of the house exactly where they were that night. - We were able to establish that the person was driving a blue Nissan March. - That's quite critical, isn't it, because we've got photos showing the Nissan March travelling down towards Whakatane. - Basically in the opposite direction to Auckland. - Yeah. - Surprisingly, actually, to the investigation team, we found much more CCTV footage of the blue Nissan March than we had thought we were going to, which has proved really beneficial to this investigation. - Enquiries show the person who phoned Russell went to work on the morning before the fire, but immediately went home sick. On their way home, they stopped at the supermarket. - And that's prior to the phone call made to Russell Allison. - That's right. The phone call to Russell Allison occurs... - ...at 11am. - ...at 11am. So then at 2.54 that day, we see CCTV footage of the person driving the blue Nissan March at Caltex Service Station on Welcome Bay Road in Tauranga. - The next one we have at 4.29. We have CCTV footage of that vehicle. - That's this one here in Matata. - Matata. And then we come down to CCTV footage that we have in Taneatua. - That's right. - That's at 5.43. - And the CCTV image shows our person in the blue Nissan March driving into the township quite erratic in their driving manner. - The blue Nissan March is next spotted in Opotiki. - Yeah, that's quite a clear picture there. That's from the supermarket in Opotiki. - And that was at 7.35 on the night of the fire. - Literally 15 minutes before you get to the Waioeka Gorge heading towards Gisborne. - That's right. - In addition to the CCTV, police also traced the cell phone of Russell's caller. The data aligned with the footage, polling all along that same route. - The next time the phone coverage comes into play is when it hits the Te Karaka cell site. - Right. - Which is approximately an hour and a half later, which we all know; we've driven that gorge many times ` that time frame for getting through the gorge is an hour and a half. - So as soon as this person has driven into cell phone coverage, it's pinged, and we know exactly what time that is. - The polling data from Te Karaka is significant. The Te Karaka cell site only provides coverage to a very small area, including Russell's house. - So someone had to have been close to the house, within 8.8km of 290 Whatatutu Road. - So we're now close on 9pm, which we also know is the time that John is getting to his father's house. - The person sends a text message that night at 10.47pm. Again, it polls off the Te Karaka cell phone tower. - So then this person has been in this area for about three hours until John Ellison has left the father's address. - That's correct. At that time, John was still at the house, probably putting his father to bed, doing all those normal caring things he's always done for his father every night. - So we know that John Allison left his father's house at 12.05am, leaving his dad in bed snoring away. - That's right. - The next thing we know is that the house is fully engulfed by fire at 1.30am. - Police are confident Russell's caller was in the area of the farmhouse in the hours leading up to Russell's death. - So they're there after having taken a trip to the area, after having lied about where they were going to be. - Awful long way away from Auckland, where they said they'd be. - We've got them tracking via our CCTV all the way to Te Karaka, where we've got phone polling, certainly the last polling at just before 11pm. 10.47. - And we've got such a short window of time between John leaving and that fire being well involved by 1.30. - You know, I put the put the blame on myself for a little while, cos I thought my ute was there, I drove out. Did I...? Did I see anyone? A car anywhere? Did I...? Cos I wasn't looking. So I burdened myself a little bit in the beginning because I... you know, I was Dad's keeper and I failed. * - Police have a person of interest in this case. They believe the evidence shows this person was in the area of Russell's house just hours before the fire started. - Tell us about the movements back towards Tauranga. - The police have gone to visit that person of interest's address at 5.19am. That person has then tried to make contact with our person of interest via text and via, certainly, a voice message. - 5.23 sent a text, 'Are you awake?' - Yeah. - Still thinking that the person of interest is in Auckland asleep. And that's where they've told them that the police have been around, don't know why. - At 5.41, the person phones the Tauranga police station, but no one answers. - The first official media release about Russell dying in the house fire at Whatatutu was on the 6 o'clock news that morning. - That's correct, yeah. 25th. - Yeah. And we know that at 6.02 that the occupant of the Tauranga address has phoned and told them that there's been a report about the fire on the news. - The news report does not name Russell Allison as the victim of the fire. But shortly after hearing the news, Russell's caller uses their phone. - 15 minutes later they've text their employer. - And the text message, the words were, 'Do me a big favour. 'If anyone contacts you, tell them I have been with you all night. 'I explain later.' - Mm. - What does that say? - It's quite telling, isn't it. - 6.11am. - A few months into the investigation in 2013, police spoke to the driver of the blue Nissan March. - They were not helpful with their responses to our team. - The person who made the disturbing phone call to Russell has briefly spoken to police. This has left many unanswered questions. There are many reasons why people choose not to continue to talk to police. However, it is very frustrating that we don't have these answers. - Police are fully aware that over time, loyalties change. The team believes the investigation into Russell's death will be solved. - It's achievable, otherwise we wouldn't be investing time and resources into this investigation. We believe it's always been solvable, but sadly, some investigations like this take time and patience. - So we've established a new investigation team. We're certainly going to be focussed on reanalysing and reassessing every statement we took. We'll be re-interviewing some people, particularly people we think may be able to offer us something more. And we're certainly going to relook at a number of the exhibits that we seized ` in particular, that one key item of interest to us. - We're going to need to re-appeal to anybody who knows anything about this to come forward. Because somebody else knows what happened to Russell Allison on that night. - Do you know anything about this case that could help solve it? If you have any information about the death of Russell Allison, police need to hear from you. - Sometimes time's our friend. Time can often erode a relationship that exists or erode the trust or the goodwill that exists between parties. - Since the fire, John has tried to track down as many photos as he can of his father. - And I got another call, one that only popped up a short while ago. It's of Dad sitting in his chair in the lounge. That's how I met him every night. Just look the corner of the door and there's Dad, you know? And that's him there, exactly as I... as I saw him. With a fire like this, you don't end up with many photos. I've ended up with what friends have given me. A few I had hidden away. You know, they're all precious. That one is cool. It's been in a frame. I did have that one. That's my dad and myself at the Anzac parade down here. Dressed up and medals on. - But it wasn't just the photos that were lost in the fire. - When Mum died, we had the service and she was cremated. And I asked Dad what he wanted to happen, and he said he wanted Mum to wait for him. - And so in the lounge, on top of the china cabinet, said Marie Allison's ashes. - I remember remarking to the policewoman in charge, Tina, I said, 'I should tell you my mum's here, too.' - That became really important to give him back his mum, who he felt like he'd lost a second time. - ESR scientists sifted through the china cabinet, identifying different kinds of ashes. - I got a call. Didn't expect it, but I got a call to say that... not a lot, but we've found Mum. Because as far as I can tell, Mum was on the top, and there was a big carving dish in the cabinet below her. Everything went, 'Boom, boom, boom, boom.' Everything burnt away, and Mum's ashes ended up on the... below. So we were able to salvage some of Mum. I know from the... what happened to Dad that some of Dad still remains on that site ` and so does Mum. But I just know that they're happy because they're both still... One's in the lounge and one's in the bedroom; they're close. (FIRE CRACKLES) I have a suspicion in my mind. There's nothing I can do. And I... I, yeah, I just live with this, (GROWLS) you know? I'm helpless. - I've remained in contact with John throughout these seven years. Every time I make a phone call to him, I feel like he's waiting for me to tell him something more than what I'm giving him. So that's something that's really important to me. - Absolutely. - That's a driver for us all. - That would be the biggest change I could make to... flick on, you know? Just to say, 'Great,' you know, 'it's over. My dad... 'The memory is good now.' You know, it's not a... it's not a pain any more. I would think if it happened to Mum and Dad had already been put to rest, just go in and see them. Tell 'em it's over. Cos I can't hold them forever. They deserve rest. - It certainly impacts on us. We know it definitely impacts on John and his family. - I feel like we have a responsibility to John, and I don't want to let that responsibility go. - We owe it to the community and family... to resolve this matter. - We can solve this. - For Russell, for John, for the Allison family, we are very determined to solve this. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2020