40 years since Kirsa Jensen's disappearance to be marked by officers involved in case

Sunday, 30 July 2023

The 40th anniversary of what might fairly be considered the nation’s most enduring murder mystery will be marked by a small gathering of mostly retired police officers on a patch of seaspray-covered grass near Napier.

The group, probably of about ten will assemble on September 1 in memory of Kirsa Jensen, who was just 14 when she went missing while riding her horse, Commodore, along the beach 40 years ago.

Her body has never been found and the prospect of ever solving the case is diminishing, though hope is certainly not lost, especially among the small group that will gather beside the four young pōhutukawa, and small plaque that mark the site where Kirsa was last seen alive.

Retired detective inspector Ian Holyoake, 81, who headed the inquiry team when Kirsa was first reported missing, will be there. So will detective Darryl Moore, who holds the file now.

**READ MORE:

* 'He was everything to us': The New Zealanders who never came home

* A little girl's abduction and murder changed how we thought of children's safety

* The Lost: What happened to missing girl Kirsa Jensen?

**

Holyoake, who visits the site on every significant anniversary, and some of his former colleagues, decided to put word around others involved in the case over the years to ensure the upcoming anniversary was marked.

“We’ll meet at the site, spend a bit of time there, and maybe go for a bit of a coffee afterwards,” he said from his Napier home.

“In years gone by Kirsa’s mother Robyn would come along, but unfortunately she is not well and won’t be making it this year,” he said.

Holyoake retired in February 1999 after “40 years and three weeks” in police, over which time he served in various roles all over the country.

Over that time he worked on “dozens and dozens” of murders. They were all solved. Apart from the Kirsa Jensen case.

“So naturally it stood out more than all the others. It was such a huge case. Largely because it involved a 14-year-old school girl and it came out of left field. It was beyond the belief of the public. It stayed on the front page of the paper for a month,” he said.

“It’s always been on my mind, and I’ve never forgotten the first of September for the past 40 years,” Holyoake said.

He believes prime suspect John Russell, who took his own life in 1992, was most likely the one who killed Kirsa.

Holyoake wasn’t sure many people would turn up at this year’s memorial.

“I wouldn’t think there’d be a big crowd. Maybe eight or ten, something like that. A lot of people who worked on this case, needless to say, have passed away now,” Holyoake said

“There’s always been a detective holding the file. Every now and then a bit of information comes in. I still get people approaching me telling me they know something about the case they’ve never told anyone before. They’ll give me their details and I pass it on to whoever holds the file at the time, and they’ll look into it,” he said.

“Every bit helps. You never know. Finding the body would be great. You always hope, but as time passes of course there’s less and less chance”.