Ben Smart & Olivia Hope : The Case That Divided New Zealand
LOVE MURDER
Jessie Pray and Andie Cassette
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2025
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On New Year’s Day 1998, Ben Smart and Olivia Hope disappeared from a Marlborough Sounds boat party and were never seen again. Scott Watson was convicted of their murders despite no bodies ever being found, and the case has remained deeply controversial. This episode revisits how the investigation unfolded, the key points of dispute over evidence and witness accounts, and the ongoing debate over whether justice was served.
Sources:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/doubt-the-scott-watson-case
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/doubt-the-scott-watson-case-2016
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/murder-on-the-blade-2003
https://www.amazon.com/Ben-Olivia-What-Really-Happened-ebook/dp/B00MCYTOGI
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Silent-evidence-Inside-police-search/dp/1869413865
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Marlborough_Mystery.html?id=TNkqAAAACAAJ
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21724557
https://books.google.com/books/about/Trial_by_Trickery.html?id=jhCJtgAACAAJ
https://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Explosive-Watson-Disappearance-Olivia/dp/0994106467
https://www.amazon.com/Elementary-2-0-Unreleased-Police-Evidence/dp/0994106475
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/519697/decision-on-scott-watson-appeal-could-take-months-judge
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/06/14/crown-says-watson-is-the-only-one-who-could-have-killed-pair/
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Credits: Love Murder is hosted by Jessie Pray and Andie Cassette, researched by Sarah Lynn Robinson and researched and written by Jessie Pray, produced by Nathaniel Whittemore and edited by Kyle Barbour-Hoffman
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Okay, Andy, I'm so thrilled to be back listening to your very special New Year's episode. |
| 0:05.3 | What do you have for all of us? |
| 0:07.3 | In the early hours of New Year's Day, 1998, best friends Ben Smart and Olivia Hope disappeared after leaving a party in the Marlboro Sounds, setting off one of New Zealand's most complex and controversial murder investigations. |
| 0:20.3 | I'm Jesse Prey, and I'm Andy Cassette, and this Hi, Jesse. Welcome back everyone to Love Murder, a podcast about party goers, |
| 0:53.5 | freeloaders, and love gone fatally wrong. You can find Love Murder, a podcast about party goers, free loaders, and love gone |
| 0:55.3 | fatally wrong. You can find Love Murder on TikTok and Instagram at Love Murder Pod and on Facebook |
| 1:00.1 | by searching Love Murder Podcast. If you are enjoying this show, pretty please love slash murder |
| 1:05.1 | of five star rating on your podcast app, subscribe and review to help new people discover the show. |
| 1:10.7 | Also, if you're interested in supporting the show more directly, you can do a couple of different |
| 1:14.3 | things. You can head on over to patreon.com slash love murder pod, where you can learn all about |
| 1:19.0 | the different tiers of support, or you can go to our website and shop in our merch store, which |
| 1:23.9 | so many of you lovely humans have done this holiday season. And it's so cute to see all the |
| 1:28.6 | orders come through. I love that. Love it, love it, love it. And love all of you and especially love |
| 1:33.7 | you today, Andy, because you are doing all the work for this New Year's episode. And I appreciate it. |
| 1:40.5 | I'm going to get to enjoy a little more time with my family. I love that. |
| 1:49.0 | So we don't have any patrons to welcome because we literally just recorded last night together. |
| 1:49.5 | Yep. |
| 1:51.5 | And we're back at it today. |
| 1:54.2 | We did Christmas Eve episode yesterday. |
| 1:56.3 | We're doing New Year's Eve episode today. |
| 2:01.4 | So I think we should just jump right into this extremely controversial, still controversial case. |
| 2:06.0 | Yeah, Andy gave me a little side heads up that I might be a little frustrated today. |
... |
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