'Good Samaritan' comes forward

File photo / Daily Post

A retired policeman has come forward as the good Samaritan police were seeking in relation to the events surrounding the murder of Donald Stewart in Hamilton.

Three teenage boys, aged 14, 15 and 17, appeared in Youth and District Courts in Hamilton last Friday charged with the murder.

Mr Stewart, 74, was found dead near a public toilet in London St about 6am on June 27. A pathologist reported that he had died from a blow to the head.

Hamilton police have been appealing for information from a good Samaritan who gave a group of people a ride into town from Collins Rd, on the outskirts of Hamilton.

"During the morning of Sunday 27 June a driver stopped on Collins Rd and gave a group of people a lift after it appeared their car had crashed into a ditch," Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Greene said.

"As it turned out the car, a white Peugeot sedan belonged to our murder victim, Wellington man Donald Stewart."

When police went to recover Mr Stewart's white Peugeot the following day it had been removed. It was found stripped three days later in an Auckland car wrecker's yard.

Mr Greene said the driver who had given the group a lift had come forward after extensive media coverage.

"Ironically it turns out he is a retired policeman, his workmates had been reading about the case at work during smoko and he realised he was the Good Samaritan we were seeking."

Details of the three teenagers arrested have been suppressed and they have been remanded to reappear in court on August 4.

- NZHERALD STAFF