‘I DIDN’T KILL HER’ EXCLUSIVE Twenty years after Kevin Harmer was jailed for murdering his wife he tells Sam Sherwood why he is determined to clear his name

• Published date: 16 April 2023
• Publication title: Herald on Sunday

Harmer, 45, was well-known in the community and worked full-time for Selwyn District Council in Leeston as regulatory manager. Thomas, who had been diagnosed as being in the early stages of multiple sclerosis, was a former schoolteacher who looked after the farm alongside Harmer. The couple were also finalising a book on Perendale sheep

On October 4, 1999, Thomas died after a fiery car explosion at their property. Initially, police believed her death was the result of an accident caused by the ignition of flames after petrol had leaked from a container that had been standing in the well of the passenger’s seat.

However, a year later, after obtaining evidence from an internationally renowned expert in fire investigations, police charged Harmer with murder.

Inquiries revealed he had been visiting a $1600-a-night escort from Wellington he’d met a few months before Thomas’ death. Harmer’s motive, police alleged, was that he’d developed an “infatuation” with Ms C, and that he killed Thomas to have a relationship with the escort without losing the farm if he and Thomas divorced.

Nearly three years after her death, Harmer was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to life imprisonment with a 14-year minimum non-parole period.

Harmer appeared before the Parole Board for the first time in August 2016. The board said his behaviour in prison had been “exemplary”, and his ongoing risk of violent reoffending was low.

The board said while Harmer blamed himself for his wife’s death, he did not accept he was properly convicted of her murder, and maintained her death was the result of a terrible accident.

He was released on parole, with several special conditions which were to last five years, including not to communicate with media, without prior written approval of his probation officer.

Nearly seven years on from his release, Harmer, in an exclusive interview, told the Herald on Sunday he had taken his case to the Criminal Case Review Commission in the hopes of clearing his name.

“There was a vapour explosion in the cab of the Land Rover and my wife was trapped in the vehicle, was caught in the vehicle, and then died,” he says.

“The police said that I lit it, but I never carried matches, I never had a lighter, so how did I light it?”

He describes himself as a “caring, gentle person, probably a pacifist because I don’t believe in violence at all”.

He takes issue with several factors, including the key Crown expert and the police investigation.

“It was very poorly investigated and anything that proved my innocence was destroyed.”

Twenty-three years on from his wife’s death, Harmer tells the Herald on Sunday the events of that day are “well implanted” in his memory.

“It’s always there,” he says.

According to his statement to the police, Harmer left work early in the afternoon on October 4, 1999, and visited the local service centre.

He filled his Toyota Hilux Utility with diesel as well as a 20-litre container of diesel, a 20-litre container of petrol and a 10-litre container of petrol.

The diesel, he said, was for the farm tractor. The larger container of petrol was for the Land Rover. The screw-top lid was a bit loose, and it used to smell “in the back” when it was full of petrol. The 10-litre container was for the lawnmower.

Harmer then went to a publishers in Christchurch to dropped off the proofs of the book he had been working on.

When he arrived home, about 5pm, the Land Rover was parked in a lane beside the farmhouse, and he parked nearby.

He took some bags of mash from his vehicle to the back deck of the Land Rover. Because there was a “lot of stuff” on the deck, he put the 20-litre diesel container on the passenger’s seat of the Land Rover and the 20-litre petrol container in the well of that seat, both standing up.

Harmer said he then put the red petrol container on the ground and Thomas picked it up and put it on the deck. Harmer then drove the Land Rover to the implement shed, unloading the mash and taking it to the fowl house. He did not unload the fuel containers.

About 6.50pm, after the couple had dinner, they went outside to sort the ewes and lambs on the farm. It was lambing season, and Thomas didn’t have time during the day to attend to them.

The pair walked to the implement shed before Thomas backed the Land Rover out of the shed and Harmer jumped over a fence and started walking through the paddocks to meet up with her on a farm road.

He told police he “never even thought about the fuel in the cab”.

According to Harmer’s...