Girl still missing after Hamilton bridge plunge

A woman throws flowers into the Waikato River to mourn the loss of three friends, one of whom is still missing. Picture / Alan Gibson

The tightknit group of schoolgirls usually rang for a family member to pick them up after a night out.

But this time it did not happen.

Instead, they accepted a lift from two young men and, hours after their curfew, the car plunged 20m off the Cobham Bridge into the Waikato River in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The bodies of Kristin Armstrong, 14, and Sandra Tungia, 16, were retrieved from the salvaged car at the weekend, but Kristin's 15-year-old aunt, Hayley Forbes, is still missing, presumed drowned.

Yesterday John Forbes, father of Hayley and grandfather of Kristin, said:

"It is every parent's wish that this won't happen to you.

"As a rule they usually telephoned us to come and pick them up. This was out of character - at least I think it was."

Friday night had begun with the girls going to Victoria St, Hamilton's main street.

The close friends, who all lived within a few blocks of one another in the Hamilton suburb of Melville where they attended the local high school, had a curfew, Mr Forbes said, "but like every young person they tried to push the boundaries".

On Friday, he had wanted them home at 10pm but a compromise was reached and his wife extended it to 2am.

The crash, thought to have been caused by a combination of speed and alcohol, apparently happened between 4am and 5am.

Hayley's sister Selina Forbes, 17, had been dropped off home about 1am.

Mr Forbes says seventh former Selina had done the right thing by going home early.

Having tried to persuade the others to get out with her, she was "absolutely shattered", as were many of their school friends, at what had happened.

Hayley and Kristin - more like sisters than aunt and niece, although they did not live in the same home - had apparently decided to stay at Sandra's house around the corner, which they sometimes did.

"Something changed in that two-minute space of time [after Selina was dropped off and the car continued on its journey]," he said, tears welling as he spoke.

The nightmare continued because it was hours before police knew for sure that the trio had gone down in the murky water with the silver Subaru Legacy, or even how many people had been in the vehicle.

The driver, Whiti Hepi, 21, and his frontseat passenger, believed to be his cousin, managed to get out of the submerged car and swim to shore, leaving the three teenage girls in the back seat.

The frontseat passenger flagged down a courier driver about 6.15am, telling him he had been in a car which had gone into the river. The driver alerted police and dropped him home.

Hepi made his own way home, where his father found him about 11am and took him to the police station.

His distraught family, believing him dead in the crash, had been at the river performing a karakia.

Mr Forbes said his heart went out to the driver of the car "to a certain extent".

His daughter's and his granddaughter's pain was gone.

"And although we will grieve forever it is still not as bad as what the young man who was driving has to live with for the rest of his life.

"I feel for him and I pray for him. The deed is done."

Mr Forbes added: "My girls had choices. They chose to enter this vehicle."

Parents would not want their children to get into a car with a young person "at the helm", he said.

"But it has happened and we cannot turn the clock back."

The focus was now on bringing Hayley, the fifth of his seven children, home so she and Kristin could be buried together on ancestral land south of Kawhia.

"Making it difficult is that our daughter is still missing. We pray she doesn't play hide-and-seek with us for too long and comes back to us," Mr Forbes said.

Kaumatua had blessed the crash site where family gathered yesterday morning and, he said, asked for the Waikato River taniwha to give up Hayley.

Taniwhas are mythical creatures that Maori believe act as guardians of the river.

Mr Forbes said Hayley and Kristin were both bright, outgoing, social "people people".

Hayley was "very much a jewellery and fashion-follower" who had talked of a military career, probably in the Navy.

Neither girl was particularly sporty; their main interest was kapa haka.

"They are going to be deeply and sorely missed," he said.

The girls were all students at Melville High School, although Sandra had left at the end of last year.

Principal Margot Crate said the girls were well known, particularly Kristin and Hayley, who were part of the kapa haka group.

"They had a high profile within the school because of that and were very popular," said Ms Crate.

They were full of life and would be sadly missed by everyone at the school, she said.

Ms Crate spent yesterday calling all the teachers to ensure they knew what had happened.

She had also prepared a brief statement to be read to the school this morning explaining the accident to students.

The school had arranged for counsellors to be on hand throughout the coming week to help students come to terms with the tragedy.

"At this stage our priority is to support our students and also the families of the girls," Ms Crate said.

There would be some sort of memorial service after the funerals.

On Cobham Bridge, with traffic streaming by, whanau and friends yesterday wept, comforted one another and hoped the lengthy search by a police dive team would succeed.

"Hayley, come home," one man beseeched.

Tearful teenage girls left flowers above the swift, smoothly-flowing river.

Below the bridge on wet sand someone had scratched over a wide area in large letters: "Hayley, Kristin, Sandra RIP".

Police said they were still investigating where the teenagers had been on Friday night, what they were doing and when they were picked up in the Subaru.

The driver, who was not hurt, and his frontseat passenger, believed to have suffered broken arms and ribs, have been interviewed at length.

Charges are expected to be laid in a day or two.

- additional reporting: Stuart Dye