Without a trace: New Zealand's most enduring missing persons cases
Saturday, 8 April 2017
In the seven years since teenager Leo Lipp-Neighbours vanished in Nelson, thousands of other people have been reported missing in New Zealand.
While his cold case looks set to close - after the recovery of his car, containing human remains, earlier this week - other families have waited years, even decades, for news of their missing loved ones.
More than 8000 people are reported missing here each year. Nearly all turn up within two weeks, but others are never seen or heard from again.
Right now, there are 333 people who have been missing for more than a year. Here are some of New Zealand's enduring disappearances:
**READ MORE:
* More than 400 New Zealanders recorded as missing by police
* How was Leo Lipp-Neighbours' car found after seven years missing?
* Human remains found in car**
MONA BLADES
For more than 40 years, Mona Blades' disappearance has puzzled police.
The 18-year-old was last seen on May 31, 1975, while hitchhiking from Hamilton to Hastings to spend Queen's Birthday weekend with family.
She was spotted getting into an orange Datsun 120Y station wagon on the Napier-Taupo road, near Taupo.
Blades was reported missing three days later when she failed to return to Hamilton, where she was due to start a new job.
Two years ago, on the 40th anniversary of her disappearance, police dug up the floor of a Kawerau house once owned by suspect Mervyn Hinton, who had died three years prior - but they found no new evidence. The case remains open.
PETER TALALELEI
Tupulaga 'Peter' Talalelei was last seen at a boarding house in Petone, north of Wellington, about 2am on July 13, 2014.
The boarding house was only a few hundred metres from Petone Beach, but those who knew him doubted the 70-year-old could have walked there unaided; he'd checked out of hospital a day earlier, and had leg trouble.
CCTV cameras on neighbouring Jackson St, the main road in Petone, never showed him leaving the boarding house, though his walking stick was also missing.
Before he vanished, Talalelei had spread all of his clothes and belongings on his bed. His bank accounts were untouched.
Police said there was no suspicion of any foul play but it remained an open case.
KAYE STEWART
Kaye Stewart, 62, disappeared during a short bushwalk in Rimutaka Forest Park near Wainuiomata, north of Wellington, on June 13, 2005. She was reported missing after failing to pick up her daughter that day.
The last person to see her alive was Department of Conservation worker Gary Bak, who said he gave her directions in the bush.
In 2015, police revealed they were examining 'fresh information' in the case, and re-interviewing people who had spoken to the inquiry in the past.
They also released a transcript of a 2009 police interview with Bak, in which he was asked if he had 'potentially hit her with your quad bike' - an accusation that he denied.
He also told police: 'If I know what had bloody happened to her, she would have been found, wouldn't she?'
MICHAEL DUDLEY
This week marked 39 years since Michael John Dudley disappeared in Dunedin, aged 20. His is the oldest case on the New Zealand police's missing persons website.
Dudley had been working for a TV repair company in Dunedin, and went for after-work drinks with his colleagues on the night of April 3, 1978.
He left in his work van, with 'Bell TV' markings, to head home - but never made it, and has never been heard from since. His van was never seen again.
KIRSA JENSEN
Kirsa Jensen went missing while riding her horse in Napier.
Napier schoolgirl Kirsa Jensen was last seen on September 1, 1983, while riding her horse, Commodore.
Her horse was found near the Tutaekuri River bridge but Kirsa, 14, vanished without a trace.
One witness told police they had seen her with blood on her face, saying she'd fallen off her horse; two others gave evidence suggesting she may have been taken by a man driving a white ute.
The prime suspect, John Russell, committed suicide nine years later, while police discounted the 1999 'confession' of an Australian man who claimed to have killed her.
The case remains open.
PETER COOP
Police believe Peter Coop staged his disappearance. SUPPLIED
The 28-year-old Dunedin doctor disappeared in June 1989, seven months after he got married.
Police believed he staged his disappearance, due to pressure from his parents about his career.
It was thought he'd initially gone to his parents' home in Nelson, while they were overseas, as a witness reported seeing the lights on at the house.
From there, his whereabouts were unknown. His siblings believed that if he were still alive, it was likely he'd left New Zealand. His wife, Galina, had him declared legally dead so she could remarry.
In 2003, his mother, Margaret Coop, told police she thought she had spotted him on a Nelson riverbank, prompting a public appeal for sightings.
AMBER-LEE CRUICKSHANK
The two-year-old vanished from Kingston, near Lake Wakatipu, in October 1992.
A huge search and years of public appeals have failed to find her, despite numerous tips.
Amber-Lee's disappearance featured on TV show Sensing Murder in 2007, where psychics said they believed she was abducted and her neck broken by a man seeking revenge over a drugs dispute with her family.
Police confirmed the psychics had identified a person of interest; however, no one was arrested.
Bones were discovered in Kingston in 2011 and 2015, both times prompting hopes of closure in the cold case, but tests confirmed both sets of bones were from an animal.
JIM DONNELLY
The 43-year-old metals scientist was last seen at his job at the Glenbrook Steel Mill, southeast of Auckland, on June 21, 2004.
The contents of his wallet and his work keys were found in a vat of acid. It was drained, but his body wasn't found.
His bank accounts and cellphone had not been used since, although there were suspicions he may have staged his disappearance.
A fresh search of the mill's grounds in 2010 failed to turn up any sign of his remains.
Michael Waipouri, who was last month convicted of killing Lance John Murphy in 2015, alleged during his trial that Murphy had killed Donnelly.
NZ'S MISSING PEOPLE:
* More than 8000 people are reported missing in New Zealand each year
* Half are found within two days, with 95 per cent found within a fortnight
* Currently, 333 people have been missing for more than a year - some since 1939
* Some go missing by choice; others due to 'mishap or misadventure'
* NZ police say missing persons files are never closed. The files are reviewed at regular intervals, and further investigations may take place if new information comes to light.
* You do not need to wait 24 hours to report someone missing
* If you have information on a missing person, contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or submit information online