New leads on 43-year-old murder mystery

Murder victim Jennifer Mary Beard. Photo / File

Members of the public have come forward with new information about the 1969 murder of Welsh hitchhiker Jennifer Beard.

The new information follows a Westport News story on a new film about the incident.

Private investigator Cindy Roberts is making the film, which will screen on the Coast ahead of the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival.

Miss Beard had been travelling through the South Island on her way to meet up with her fiance when she disappeared. Her body was found under the Haast River Bridge 19 days later.

Roberts said one person who contacted her believed he'd seen Miss Beard and a middle-aged man sitting in a car by the Haast River before she went missing. He'd given her the car's licence plate number.

Another member of the public had told her about somebody who confessed to the murder in 1970 before being committed to a psychiatric hospital.

She'd heard from somebody else who was also working on the cold case.

Roberts appealed to the public to come forward with any other information they might have.

They could contact her by emailing msginvestigation@hotmail.com.