Police tell of inquiry shifting

By Alison Horwood

WELLINGTON - Police investigating the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope shifted the focus of their inquiry when they realised that water taxi driver Guy Wallace was the only person to report seeing a ketch on New Year's Eve 1997.

Detective Bruce McLachlan told the court yesterday that extensive police inquiries could not confirm the presence of the two-masted yacht Mr Wallace said he dropped Olivia Hope and Ben Smart on to with a stranger.

Photographs and videos taken by the public of the 113 boats at Endeavour Inlet, Marlborough Sounds, on New Year's Eve did not show the vessel described by Mr Wallace, he said.

The jury in the Scott Watson double-murder trial has already been told that the Crown has no compelling evidence that such a ketch exists, and Olivia and Ben instead boarded a sloop called Blade with its owner, Watson.

The court heard how Detective McLachlan was in charge of identifying, tracing and eliminating from the inquiry all the boats moored off Furneaux Lodge.

In its early stages, the investigation focused on a ketch. A full statement was taken from the skippers and passengers from four ketches at Furneaux Lodge, and a fifth at The Pines, further around Endeavour Inlet.

Soon, however, the police began to change tack.

Crown prosecutor Paul Davison, QC: Is it correct that none of your inquiries could confirm the presence of such a craft described by Mr Wallace either before New Year's Eve, during New Year's Eve or after New Year's Eve at Furneaux Lodge?

Detective McLachlan: That is the position.

Earlier, he said: "It became apparent that the ketch described by Mr Wallace hadn't been seen by other people there, so we had to turn to another way of establishing what that particular boat was. Once we established that Mr Wallace may have been mistaken we focused our efforts on the area to the south of the jetty and close to the jetty."

He said a chart produced for the court of the 113 boats at Furneaux, divided into ketches, yachts and motorboats, showed that Blade was one of only two yachts to apparently leave between 4 am and 6 am on New Year's Day.

Detective McLachlan will continue to give evidence tomorrow.