Nellie's Baby

Introducing: Nellie's Baby

Kirsty Johnston follows Sarah as she hunts for her biological mother, who turns out to have been an institutionalised mental health patient in Porirua Hospital. And that's only the start of the story.To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.In the summer of 2022, investigative journalist Kirsty Johnston saw an email in her junk folder with an intriguing subject line: "Investigating the possible murder of my mother"The message came from Sarah, a New Zealand woman living in the UK who'd been adopted at birth from Porirua Psychiatric Hospital.Now in her mid-30s, Sarah had mustered the courage to contact her birth family, only to learn that her biological mother, Nellie, had died years earlier in what her biological aunt and cousins believed to be suspicious circumstances.Sarah was left with unanswered questions. Who was her birth father? Why was Nellie admitted to Porirua Hospital in the first place? How did she truely die?In this eight-part RNZ podcast, Sarah and Kirsty work together to uncover Nellie's story.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Email from a stranger

Out of the blue, Kirsty receives an email from a stranger titled "Investigating the possible murder of my mother". The author is Sarah, a young woman who was born to Nellie Wilson in a psychiatric hospital in the mid-1980s in Wellington and secretly adopted out.To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.Out of the blue, Kirsty receives an email from a stranger titled: "Investigating the possible murder of my mother".The author is Sarah, a young woman who was born in a psychiatric hospital in the mid-1980s in Wellington. Sarah was adopted out, and only learned the true circumstances of her early life recently, after her birth mother, Nellie, died.She wants help to look into her past, and to answer the many questions about Nellie.Why was she in an institution? Did she have another baby? And most of all, was her death an accident, or something worse?Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Women and Girls

Kirsty and Sarah start investigating from opposite sides of the world. We learn what it was like to live at Porirua, and fight through red tape to get Sarah's adoption records, which reveal more about Nellie's background.To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here."I feel like they've got control of the narrative - if it's one of several men they say were my father why don't they name them? Are they leaving that out to protect me?" - SarahHow did Nellie end up incarcerated as a teenager? Kirsty and Sarah start investigating from opposite sides of the world - Sarah lives in the UK and won't be back in New Zealand for another month.We learn what it was like to live at Porirua, and fight through red tape to get Sarah's adoption records, which reveal more about Nellie's background.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

I found him!

Sarah and Kirsty call in the big guns: DNA. A strong match comes up: a woman who shares 28% of Sarah's DNA. Is it Nellie's first child? Eventually, Fran, the genealogist, suggests the match could be an aunt, and Sarah works up the courage to send a message to this mystery relative.To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here."To know that I have two people who did really want me - if he's mentally disabled and she was, they probably wanted me but they just couldn't - for the first time I feel like I belong properly." - SarahSarah and Kirsty call in the big guns: DNA. Working with a genealogist, they dig through ancestry records to try to find Sarah's relatives.A strong match comes up: a woman who shares 28% of Sarah's DNA. Is it Nellie's first child? But the woman's profile is private and all of Sarah's insecurities surface - do her family want nothing to do with her?Eventually, Fran, the genealogist, suggests the match could be an aunt, and Sarah works up the courage to send a message to this mystery relative.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A trip to the asylum

The mystery relative turns out to be Sharon, her father's sister. She decides to fly to Australia to meet her newly-discovered niece. Sharon tells us how her family was extremely poor and her mother, Thelma had all her children taken from her. Gordon, Sarah's dad, was one of those kids.To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here."He liked the hospital. But he didn't like the shock therapy. ... He said the name of the doctor. He liked doing it." - SharonThe mystery relative turns out to be Sharon, Sarah's aunt and her father's sister.She decides to come to New Zealand from Australia and meet her newly-discovered niece. Sarah is nervous, and keen to find out more of her father's backstory.Sharon tells us how her family was extremely poor and her mother, Thelma, had all her children taken from her. Gordon, Sarah's dad, was one of those kids. He ended up in foster care, and, aged 18, tried to kill himself.He was left brain-damaged and that's how he ended up in Porirua. Sarah and Sharon meet for the first time, and take a tour of Porirua psychiatric hospital, which is both eye-opening and disturbing.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details