New publicity may solve 30-year-old murder case

This 1975 Datsun station wagon, registration number GM 3191, is central to the case.

Renewed publicity may be the key to solving the disappearance of hitch-hiker Mona Blades, almost 30-years ago, police say.

A truck driver saw the 18-year-old getting into an orange Datsun stationwagon on the Napier-Taupo road on May 31, 1975.

Witnesses later saw the car stopped on the Matea Road, on the way to Napier. She was never seen again and none of her personal belongings has ever been recovered.

Detective Inspector Garth Bryan, of Rotorua police said today he hoped the renewed publicity, including a documentary aired on TVNZ last night, might jog somebody's memory about the disappearance.

"Every now and again as a result of somebody watching a TV programme or talking to someone, they make contact with the police and say 'Look I haven't told you this before, but back in 1975 I remember this car or that person or I heard this when I was in a hotel somewhere and heard some people talking', just little bits of information."

But he said none of the information they had investigated so far had taken the police any further in the enquiry.

"However we're obviously always hopeful that that crucial bit of information's going to come the very next time and that will lead us to solving the mystery of Mona Blades disappearance."

Mr Bryan said any new piece of information police were given was compared to the information they already have in Ms Blades file.

"And we do find that a lot of the information has been investigated before, but I would never want to put anyone off contacting us with something they thought would be relevant."

Mr Bryan said that since the re-investigation was launched police had received more than 60 phone calls from the public in relation to the case.

He said a lot of the information related to where Ms Blades body might be found.

"There has been information over the years that people believe she may be buried under the culvert at the end of Matua Road, but that was looked at quite thoroughly in 1975 when the culvert was under construction. We're obviously not in a position to take that any further at this time and we trust they did a thorough job back then."

When Ms Blades disappeared police initially working on the case focused on three suspects. One has since shot himself dead, and Mr Bryan said they would not be speaking with the other two unless new information linking one of the two to the disappearance arose.

"We're hoping for more information to come from the public. At this stage we're not in a position to prosecute anybody or locate Mona Blades' body.

"We know that somebody within NZ has the information we need to take this another step further and we are very hopeful that person will contact us."

- NZPA