Julie Randall, a good friend of Michelle Calvert, speaks about the mysteriou drowning under suspicious circumstances at Te Atatu in 1996.
Friends and family of a young television stunt double who died in mysterious circumstances are renewing their pleas for information in the hope the case will be resolved.
Michelle Calvert's mother and best friend are speaking publicly for the first time in decades after the 22nd anniversary of her death passed last month, with friend Julie Whiu promising not to rest until justice is done.
Calvert, a stable hand and Xena: Warrior Princess stunt double, died in hospital on April 12, 1996, after being plucked unconscious from West Auckland's Whau River where she had boarded a dinghy with her ex boyfriend Richard John Faulkner.
Not long after, Faulkner raised the alarm, saying Calvert had fallen into the river. He said he struggled to pull her out of the water and she disappeared from view.
A pathologist later found Calvert had bruises on her scalp consistent with blunt force trauma and the official cause of death was deprivation of oxygen to the brain secondary to drowning.
After her death, police didn't lay any charges but Calvert's family hired a top lawyer in 1997 and the investigation was reopened, which shed further doubt on the circumstances of her death.
After a 2000 inquest, Coroner Mate Frankovich ordered the case remain open and this week Detective Sergeant Murray Free confirmed the death was still considered suspicious and police would "welcome any new information that would assist this investigation".
The police case file into her death remains open. Photo / Supplied
Calvert's best friend Whiu told the Herald on Sunday she had a simple message for anyone who held information that could advance the decades-old cold case.
"Give it up. Let us find closure for Michelle," she said.
"It's still very emotive to me."
Calvert had ended a relationship with Faulkner when she died, and was tentatively entering a new one when, for reasons that are unclear, she met Faulkner at the Te Atatu Boating club on April 10, 1996.
Whiu is still angry at how the police investigation played out and police treatment of the case.
"[The police] painted a picture of a girl going the wrong way down the track ... I was so incensed. She was strong, she was compassionate, she was caring," Whiu said.
"I always promised her that justice would come out of it. We pushed and pushed and I won't ever let it rest. The truth will come out eventually."
Calvert's mother Susanne Calvert has kept newspaper clippings, Xena mementos and bundles of documents which make for sad, sometimes graphic, reading.
She admits the details included in them are so painful she's only skimmed them, and recalls the difficult decision to turn off her daughter's life support.
Michelle Calvert mysteriously drowned in April 1996. Photo / Supplied
"Even today I think, 'Should we have left it one more day?'
"I don't think you ever came to terms with it. You sort of don't feel the same. It's really difficult. You remember the happy times and then you remember birthdays and Christmas. It's always going to be difficult and sad for us, and it's never going to bring her back."
Detective Sergeant Free declined to be interviewed but said in a statement Calvert's death was tragic and the investigation remained open.
"Police have always maintained that we treated Michelle's death as suspicious, however no person was ever charged due to lack of evidence," he said.
"At this time we have no new lines of inquiry, however we would welcome any new information that would assist this investigation.
"We can only imagine for Michelle's family how devastating the loss has been and we know this grief and pain has remained with them, as she was a much loved and cherished family member."
Anyone with information should contact their local police station.
For Whiu, the anger that her friend's life was cut short remains.
"She had class and grace and poise. She had that X factor about her (but) Michelle always said, 'I'm going to die young.'
"It's not that she wanted to die, but she was tired of trying to live. I think she actually gave up in the water."
Attempts to find and contact Faulkner were unsuccessful. One close relative said he was no longer in contact with him and believed he'd moved overseas.
Coroner Frankovich previously refused an application by Faulkner for name suppression.
