What happened to Leonie? A family’s seven year wait for answers

Malanena Emery wants answers.

It’s been seven years since she last heard from her daughter Leonie Emery, then 25.

In the months that followed, she didn’t hear from the mother of four. By June 2018 she posted on Facebook asking if anyone had seen or heard from her.

Believing her daughter, who had recently served a sentence of imprisonment for arson, may have been in prison, she says she tried writing to her, even wishing her a happy birthday.

It wasn’t until early 2019 she was told her daughter wasn’t in prison. She then went to police and reported her missing, telling them no-one had heard from her for about a year.

Then, in April 2025, police made a significant announcement.

“Police have examined several possible scenarios but believe it is most likely that Leonie has been the victim of foul play,” Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Hunkin said.

Malanena is frustrated no-one has been held responsible for her daughter’s disappearance, and is desperate for closure.

‘Everybody’s friend’

Leonie was a free spirit who regularly moved around.

She grew up in Paeroa and spent several years living with her grandfather so she could be closer to her cousins.

“She was smart, outgoing, and she got on well with people,” Malanena says.

“She was everybody’s friend.”

In 2003, she moved back in with her mother shortly after her little sister was born. About three years later, she went back to living with her grandfather.

However, after she got into trouble with the police, she moved back to Whangārei and went to Te Kamo High School.

In year 10, she was expelled, so her mother helped get her a job on a farm doing some relief milking with her brother.

She eventually moved in with her brother and his partner for a few months before moving back home.

“I didn’t mind, she was helpful with her siblings, helping around with housework and shopping when she wasn’t working.

“You could ask her to do anything, she would never complain,” Malanena says.

Shortly after, Leonie started dating a man – her family believed she was happy, and was starting to make a new life for herself.

Tragically, things began to change after her first baby girl was stillborn.

Leonie struggled to cope in the aftermath, turning to alcohol to help ease the pain.

“Her daughter’s death hit her really hard, which caused those demons,” Malanena says of Leonie’s struggle with alcohol and her anger.

Later that year, she gave birth to another child and would later have three more children.

However, in 2014, there was a violent alcohol-fuelled incident where Leonie stabbed her partner in the arm with a fork. The couple then separated.

In 2016, Leonie was jailed on an arson charge. Around the same time, the children were placed in their father’s care.

Her family says Leonie was a changed person when she got out of prison.

“The first thing she did was go looking for her children,” her mother says.

There were issues between Leonie and her ex-partner, and while she began to move around a lot, she kept in close contact with her mum.

By late 2017, however, things began to take a positive turn for Leonie, and she started a new relationship with a truck driver.

“I thought things were going good for her,” Malanena says.

However, once again, her relationship ended following a violent confrontation.

He told police he dropped her off outside a police station on December 21, 2017.

The missing persons report

Leonie spent Christmas with a cousin in South Auckland’s Papakura. On Boxing Day, she was invited to go to Waikokowai in North Waikato for New Year’s.

Her last post on Facebook was on January 3, 2018. It was a photo of a dog tied up to a tree.

“Free to a good home. Preferably ideal for farming, needs training. Reason why I’m advertising her is because I find it cruel for her to be tied up like this when she will be a good working dog.”

Police said it was believed Leonie was picked up around January 12 by a woman who was described as being Māori and looking like a “female rugby player” in a light blue Nissan Pulsar-type hatchback.

Two weeks later, on January 26, she attended a party at a relative’s home in Ngāruawāhia.

While at the party, she was allegedly assaulted by a group of young women.

She later arrived back in Papakura between January 26 and February 4. No one reported seeing her or talking to her again.

“It’s so emotional,” Malanena begins as she thinks back to early 2018, when she first started becoming concerned for her daughter.

The days turned into weeks, then months, with no word from Leonie.

“Who would ever think it would happen to your child?”

In June 2018, Malanena took to Facebook asking if anyone had heard from or seen Leonie.

She also went searching herself. In late 2018, she and a friend went to a set of units in Bombay Hills where Leonie had previously been living.

Malanena was unsure which flat it was, so she knocked on several doors. At one of the properties was a young couple who said Leonie had moved.

Given her recent time in prison, Malanena wondered if she had been imprisoned for something else, as there was a warrant out for her arrest.

She believes she first wrote to Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility in June/July 2018, asking Leonie to touch base and wishing her happy birthday, and got no reply.

She also tried messaging her on Facebook with no luck.

Worried she had sent the letter to the wrong prison, she sent another letter down to Arohata Prison in Wellington.

She also emailed Corrections in February 2019, asking if her daughter was there.

Deputy Commissioner of Women’s Prisons Kym Grierson confirmed to RNZ that Malanena emailed Corrections on February 12, 2019.

“We wrote back to her on the same day to let her know that Leonie was not in prison.

“On February 15, 2019, she wrote to us again, asking us to let her know whether Leonie had been in prison at all, and if so, where she went afterwards.”

Grierson said Corrections responded on the same day to let her know that in accordance with their obligations under the Official Information Act and the Privacy Act, they were unable to provide any personal information relating to Leonie without her written consent.

Corrections also received contact from another member of Leonie’s family on December 10 2018.

On that occasion, Corrections responded the same day and told them that Leonie was not in prison.

“We have not been able to identify any record of any correspondence from Malanena Emery to Arohata Prison or Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility,” Grierson said.

After being told by Corrections that her daughter was not in prison, Malanena visited a police station on February 22 and reported her daughter missing and made a statement to police outlining her concerns.

In late February 2019, she took to Facebook and said she had come to a “dead end”.

Leonie was not in the Corrections or police database. She said she had filed a missing person’s report and once again appealed for anyone with information to contact her or police.

In 2021, police issued a renewed public appeal into Leonie’s disappearance and said they had “grave concerns” for her welfare.

“Police are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding Leonie’s disappearance, and this is still being treated as a missing persons case,” Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Hunkin said.

Police had carried out “significant inquiries” into Leonie’s disappearance and were “determined” to find out what happened to her.

Malanena says there were no further significant updates from police until this year, when she was told police were going to be appealing for more information on an episode of Cold Case.

Evidence of ‘foul play’

Hunkin said in a statement in April that investigators had undertaken “extensive inquiries” to try to understand Leonie’s movements and what might have happened.

“Police have examined several possible scenarios but believe it is most likely that Leonie has been the victim of foul play.”

Police also revealed a forensic analysis of a property linked to Leonie in Bombay Hills indicated blood had been cleaned up at the location.

Police were appealing for the woman who picked Leonie up from Ngāruawāhia and for anyone who was at the party where she was allegedly assaulted to come forward.

Leonie appeared at her cousin’s home in Papakura between January 26 and February 4.

“Police believe that this is the last sighting of Leonie, so understanding how she travelled the 75km from Ngāruawāhia to Papakura is of vital importance to the investigation.”

They also wanted to know where she went when she left Papakura, and who she was with.

Malanena says she is frustrated it took police six years after Leonie was reported missing to announce they believed it was foul play.

“I don’t know if it was because of the investigation or maybe they didn’t have enough to go on.”

She was “shocked” to hear the results of the forensic analysis in Bombay Hills and wanted to know when police had uncovered the information.

“If they had figured it was foul play back then [in 2018] would they have done more for her?

“Would they have actually went looking for more evidence?… Is it going to get us closer to ever finding out what happened to her? Or just more questions, no answers.”

In a statement to RNZ, Hunkin said police continued to treat the investigation, dubbed Operation Exeter, as a “missing persons case”.

“It is important to note that Leonie’s disappearance was only reported to police about 12 months after she was last in contact with her whānau.

“Given that unfortunate time lapse, the reconstruction of her last known movements has been a challenge.”

What happened to Leonie was still to be determined, he said.

“One of the possible scenarios our investigation has to consider is her being the victim of foul play.”

The investigation has been active and assigned to an investigator since Leonie was reported missing.

“Leonie’s whānau and the wider public will appreciate that this is still an active investigation and there will be some sensitivities to our work.

“Given we have not ruled out foul play, there is naturally some information that will not be in the public domain for operational security.”

In relation to the forensic evidence recovered in the Bombay Hills, Hunkin said the origin and relevance of the evidence was “one of many active lines of enquiry in the investigation”.

“We are keeping an open mind because that location and the said evidence might have no relevance at all to Leonie’s disappearance.

“Police will continue to keep Leonie’s whānau across developments in this investigation, as we continue to seek answers they so rightfully deserve.”

‘I just want my daughter back’

Malanena lies awake at night wondering what happened to her daughter, where she is, and who may have been responsible.

“In my mind and reality, I’ve been searching… I’ve been wondering, and most my thoughts take me to those places.

“I end up getting up and just going, you know, searching for my daughter, searching for answers.”

Malanena suffered a stroke last year. Since then, she has been unable to go searching for her daughter, but has continued to make public appeals.

Last month, she wrote on Facebook saying she had a message for the people who were the last ones to see her daughter.

“Why didn’t you take her to the hospital like any person wud do? Especially when you knew how she met her death!” (sic).

She asked for anyone involved to disclose where her daughter’s body was.

Malanena says the last seven years have been “devastation”. She had two of Leonie’s children in her custody, the other two were with a caregiver.

She said only one of Leonie’s children, her eldest, could vividly remember her.

Malanena has been honest with them about their mother’s disappearance.

Leonie would have been 33 this week. Her mother concedes it is difficult to have confidence seven years on, but is desperate for answers.

“It would mean a lot to us. We would be able to put her to rest,” she says.

“I just want my daughter back.”

Police ask that anyone with information about Leonie’s disappearance to contact them online now or call 105 using the reference number 190222/9022.

rnz.co.nz