Teresa Maida Cormack (18 June 1981 – 19 June 1987) was a six-year-old murder victim from

Napier, New Zealand Napier ( ; ) is a city on the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Hawke's Bay region. It is a beachside city with a seaport, known for its sunny climate, esplanade lined with Norfolk pines, and extensive Art D ...

. After fifteen years, advances in genetic analysis led to conviction of Jules Mikus (28 September 1958 – 6 December 2019) for the crime. He had been identified as a potential suspect early in the investigation, but had offered an alibi that was accepted at the time.

Murder

Teresa lived in

, with her mother, Kelly Piggot, and her younger sister Sara. On Friday, 19 June 1987, the day after her sixth birthday, Cormack departed home on her normal walking route to Richmond Primary School, which was a short distance from where she lived. She was reported missing to the police that evening after she failed to return home. It was later discovered that she had not arrived at school that morning. On the morning of Saturday 27 June 1987, Cormack's body was discovered at the base of a tree on Whirinaki Beach by a woman walking her dog. An autopsy revealed that she had been raped and suffocated.

Investigation

Three male pubic hairs were found orally and in her underwear, and semen was found vaginally on Cormack's body. However,

genetic fingerprinting DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is cal ...

at the time was not advanced enough to find her killer. Jules Mikus, born 28 September 1958, drew interest from police due to his record of sex offenses that began when he was a teenager. Mikus was asked to provide blood and saliva samples and was later photographed at his home. It was decided at the time that he was not an eligible suspect due to an alibi he’d provided for the assumed time of her disappearance.

Breakthrough

The Cormack murder case was re-opened in 1998 and new testing was done at a crime lab in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Due to advances in genetic fingerprinting, a minute sample of semen stored sealed between two microscope slides was able to be profiled in 2001 by technicians at ESR ( Environmental Science & Research, a

Crown Research Institute In New Zealand, Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) are corporatised Crown entities charged with conducting scientific research. In January 2025, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced plans to merge the existing crown research institutes into t ...

owned wholly by the New Zealand government). Despite having this profile, an arrest was not immediate. A public television broadcast by the detective in charge and seen by Mikus provoked a reaction in front of the people with whom he lived but they did not contact police. Eight-hundred and forty-five blood samples had been taken, of these, four were of insufficient quality to make a profile. After nearly a year of testing the blood (taking until 22 February 2002), only one blood profile matched the semen and it came from Mikus. On 26 February 2002, fifteen years after Cormack's death, police arrested Mikus for the murder. Although Mikus pleaded not guilty, a jury found him guilty for kidnapping, rape, sexual assault and murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, preventative detention for rape, and 14 years each for the sexual assault and abduction, all served concurrently, with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years. Mikus died while serving a life sentence for the death of 6-year-old Teresa Cormack. It was reported he was dying from a brain tumour and died 9 December 2019.

Aftermath

The case attracted widespread interest in New Zealand. In 2004, Rowene Marsh-Potaka (who had campaigned to stop her brother from being paroled for murder) collaborated with Cormack's mother Kelly Piggot to write an anti-

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

song. They wanted the song to let people know that offenders such as Mikus should serve their full sentences. Paul Rothwell's play ''Golden Boys'', which ran at

Circa Theatre Circa Theatre is a professional theatre company in Wellington, New Zealand, that was established in 1976. They present a number of plays each year in their two auditoriums, and have a unique partnership and funding model with incoming shows unde ...

in early 2006, was inspired by the Cormack case.

References

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/118052123/teresa-cormacks-killer-jules-mikus-dies

External links

A mother's lament for Teresa Cormack
13 March 2004 Anne Beston

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand ...