// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Heavenly Creatures killer Pauline Parker dies in Orkney, aged 88
Peter Jackson's 1994 film of the events starred Melanie Lynskey (left) as Pauline Parker and Kate Winslet as Juliet Hulme
To her neighbours and friends, Hilary Nathan was a quiet, religious woman who ran a riding stable in the small Orcadian island of Burray.
But her death in an island care home last week at the age of 88 closes a chapter on an extraordinary life that began 70 years ago on the other side of the world with a sensational murder trial.
As a 16-year-old and under her birth name of Pauline Parker, she was convicted alongside her schoolfriend Juliet Hulme of the murder of her mother Honora Parker.
The case shocked New Zealand – and the rest of the world.
The court heard the girls had become inseparable at Christchurch Girls' High School. Fearing that they'd be separated following the divorce of Juliet's parents and a planned move to South Africa, they plotted to kill Mrs Parker, who they believed stood in their way.
They lured her to a park and bludgeoned her to death with a brick inside a stocking.
Pauline Parker (middle) and Juliet Hulme (right) were tried together in Christchurch
By the time filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson was born in 1961, both girls had served five years in prison, been released, given new identities, and left New Zealand for good.
"It was known for its tabloid sensational aspect. I know a lot of English tabloids flew to Christchurch, New Zealand, to cover the case of the 'evil schoolgirl killers'," he told the BBC's Late Show in 1995.