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Missing Auckland teenager Joanne Chatfield has been officially declared dead - presumed murdered - 20 years after she was last seen alive.
In November last year, police announced a $50,000 reward in the hope it would prompt someone with information on the case to speak up.
But the incentive produced no new leads and officers are no closer to knowing what happened to the 17-year-old, who was last seen walking up Princes St as she left a function at Auckland University just before midnight on November 18, 1988.
Since then, there has been much speculation over what happened to Ms Chatfield, including rumours that she had run away or moved to Australia, but nothing has ever been confirmed.
However, Auckland coroner Murray Jamieson has reviewed the case of Ms Chatfield's disappearance and at a court hearing in the Papakura District Court in October, revealed that he believed Ms Chatfield was murdered.
Dr Jamieson said that he had drawn that conclusion based on the fact that Ms Chatfield had not made contact with friends of family, did not have the economic resources to survive if she moved in New Zealand and because he found no evidence that Ms Chatfield had left New Zealand.
At the inquest, Ms Chatfield's mother Claire Chatfield suggested her daughter had been kidnapped by a cult, but Dr Jamieson said there was also no evidence of that.
In his report into the matter, released to the Herald this month, Dr Jamieson states: "Her mother still faithfully holds the hope that some day her only child may return, and I admire her for that demonstration of her love for Joanne."
Dr Jamieson said Ms Chatfield had died on or after November 19, 1988, but the cause and circumstances of her death remain unknown.
