Ben, Olivia search to go on: Hawkins

Police Minister George Hawkins has countermanded Police Commissioner Rob Robinson, saying he wants police to try to recover what could be the bodies of murdered Blenheim friends Olivia Hope and Ben Smart.

"Police will be looking at retrieval and he has been discussing that with Deputy Commissioner Steve Long," said a spokeswoman for Mr Hawkins.

"Mr Hawkins' understanding was that the objects were to be recovered."

Her comments came just hours after Mr Robinson said there was insufficient evidence to justify another expensive search of the Tory Channel seabed in the Marlborough Sounds.

Mr Robinson later issued a statement confirming that a recent private search of the area had not found the bodies.

"My information is that the private search was of the area subjected to sonar examination by the Navy and that it found only one object, which was not Ben and Olivia.

"Police certainly do not have a closed mind on this subject and if further evidence is available, which lends credence to further investigation around potential searches, then we will work with the families to examine it."

Mr Robinson's comments came after it was revealed that Detective Inspector Rob Pope, who headed the investigation, had asked for a further search of the channel entrance. It would cost up to $20,000.

In a letter to former Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Fitzharris, he said sufficient information existed to conclude that there was a "high probability" that the remains of Ben and Olivia were in the area. Mr Fitzharris rejected the request.

Last August, the Navy boat Moa surveyed 6.6 sq km of seabed near the entrance to the channel. It made 56 sonar contacts.

Two were considered to be of interest. One was a T-bone shaped shadow measuring 73cm by 118cm by 28cm, lying in about 95m of water. Another was about 20m away and measured 26cm by 62cm by 5cm.

A drag mark provided a possible link between the two objects but there was little evidence of dense material.

Mr Robinson said the Navy report was clear in its findings.

"The remains of Ben and Olivia are not in the area searched."

The naval search was extensive and had used the most sophisticated equipment available in New Zealand. Although Mr Fitzharris' decision referred to the police's "tight fiscal" situation, money was not the determining factor. There was no evidence, Mr Robinson said.

Mr Pope and Detective Senior Sergeant John Rea, another officer on the case, had made an understandably impassioned plea for a further search, he said.

But he agreed with the decision made by Mr Fitzharris.

Everyone would dearly like closure but nothing would happen unless new evidence was presented.

Olivia's father, Gerald Hope, said he was confident the points identified by the Navy were Ben and Olivia's remains. But nearly a year had passed since the search and another search would be needed to reconfirm the objects' position before retrieval was attempted.

He said the families had absolutely no grudge with the police or Navy, who had been so thorough.

"We're still optimistic that we can take a look, but we're less optimistic with time."

Ben's father, John Smart, said that because of the Navy report and evidence presented at the trial, he also suspected Ben and Olivia's bodies were near Tory Channel. Ben and Olivia disappeared on January 1, 1998, after New Year's Eve celebrations in the Sounds. Scott Watson was convicted of their murders and is serving a life sentence.

- NZPA

Feature: The Sounds murders