The final phone call made by the Whangarei gunman after he shot and killed two women who had entered his house for property managment has been revealed.
Quinn Patterson's sister, Gloria, told Fairfax she received a voicemail from Patterson who said "goodbye" and that he was "going to do something to himself", shortly before his house went up in flames.
Police say Quinn Patterson, 55, who shot dead Wendy Campbell, 60, and daughter Natanya Campbell, 37, on Wednesday morning did not have a firearms licence.
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He had also served 18 months in prison for stabbing a police officer multiple times with a hunting knife in 1983.
Victim of the stabbing, former dog handler Bruce Howat, lost a lung in the event.
"It's 48 hours now and it's still... it gets at me in the inside... it's still absolutely raw," he told TVNZ, saying Wednesday's incident brought back painful memories.
Gloria told Radio New Zealand her brother's mental and physical health had deteriorated rapidly this year and she had urged him to seek help.
Mental decline
Newshub reporter Michael Morrah, who has been covering the story since the news broke, said there was "no doubt" he had become very paranoid, particularly in the last two weeks.
"He was highly anxious, and we know he had acquired a huge stash of illegal weapons. He never had a firearms licence but had amassed a huge arsenal."
Mr Patterson had acquired grenades, rifles, shotguns, multiple pistols, bulletproof vests and other items.
Morrah said while at least one of his friends was aware of the weapons, people needed to know he was highly protective of his property; he never allowed anyone to come up to his house.
It was only his close friend Ross Thompson who had access to the property; he trusted Mr Thompson.
Over the two weeks before the shooting, Mr Patterson had started barricading up the windows and installed surveillance cameras around the house - along with the substantial stash of weapons.
When Morrah asked Mr Thompson why he didn't go to the police, or tell someone, he said he didn't think he was capable of doing anything like that; he thought Mr Patterson was joking.
Friend and workmate noticed decline
Trevor Thompson, brother of Mr Patterson's best friend Ross, was a friend and ex-workmate of Mr Patterson's.
He told Newshub he was struggling with the news.
"I've been up for the last two nights asking myself; could I have made a difference? Could I have saved two lives, had I picked up what was going on?"
Trevor hadn't seen Mr Patterson in two weeks, and said he had deteriorated.
"It definitely started with guns and that. I thought he must have had a licence - I thought 'ooh - he's got all these criminal convictions, why has he got a gun?'"
Things went downhill rapidly, "once the property manager people could come on site", he said.
He said he thought Wendy and Natanya were walking into a situation they had no idea of.
Run-in with landlord
Mr Patterson had in the past had a run in with the landlord of the property, Neville Cox, Trevor said, and thought the confrontation would have been close to a violent encounter.
"He would have told the guy what he thought of him."
Morrah said as he understood it, the house was going to be put up for sale, and Mr Patterson was told to leave, and was really annoyed about it.
"He had spent many years at this property. And he was highly agitated and angered at the prospect of having to leave. He had done a lot of work on the property, and even though it was a rental he absolutely considered this to be his home."
Morrah said Mr Cox had so far been unwilling to comment on the circumstances surrounding the women's visit to the property.
Trevor said he believed the visit "would push him [Patterson] over the top".
"They went into his house as far as I know - that's what put him over the top, I think - actually going into his place. I've never been in his place - he's never invited me in over the years."
He had let in his brother Ross, though, who told him he had noticed guns and steel bars installed over the windows.
People in the community were asking themselves whether they should have said something, he said, and neighbours had heard guns fired the weekend before.
"You just don't know. Stress and mental illness is definitely a factor. "
"Stress on stress on stress - that point, you know. We really need to start talking. Mental health is definitely an issue."
Oversights
Morrah said there was "no doubt there should have been better checks on this person" given his previous encounters with police.
There were a few things that raised the question of why there weren't checks carried out.
"We know that neighbours used to hear high powered rifles going off on his property- he wasn't a person who went hunting."
Morrah said from the information given by those close to him, Mr Patterson obtained all his weapons from overseas.
"He imported them illegally; using fake names, using multiple internet sites- so he got around the system, this type of thing is happening a lot in New Zealand at the moment."
Morrah said that from the recent Government inquiry into firearms, the Police Association "have huge concerns with the amount of weapons that criminals are getting hold of, either stealing them from licensed owners or illegally importing them."
Newshub.
