A yellow Mazda Demio car is being held in connection with the murder of Jo Pert. Photo / Supplied, NZ Police
A yellow Mazda Demio car is being held in connection with the murder of Jo Pert. Photo / Supplied, NZ Police
Police are still appealing for sightings of slain mother of two, Jo Pert, and her alleged attacker.
The 41-year-old was killed as she went for her morning run in the upmarket suburb of Remuera on Thursday, and a 24-year-old Mt Roskill has been charged with her murder after handing himself in to police that day.
His name is currently suppressed, but police have this afternoon released a photo of the car he was driving that day - a yellow Mazda Demio hatchback - in the hope of getting more information about what occurred before Ms Pert's death.
Detective Inspector Kevin Hooper is leading the investigation, named Operation Solitaire, and said he was "heartened" by the public's response to the plea for sightings.
Since the dedicated 0800 number and email address - 0800 765 842 and solitaire@police.govt.nz - were published yesterday, there have been dozens of calls and messages, all of which will be followed up.
There was a confirmed sighting of Ms Pert at 9am on Thursday in the Viaduct area, near where she lived in a central city apartment.
"Our information is that she would have run from there to where she was later found by residents of a property in Shore Rd at about 10.45am.
Jo Pert was allegedly murdered while running in Remuera on Thursday morning. Photo / Supplied
"Staff are trying to reconstruct her movements between 9am and 10.30am as we are aware that her alleged killer was at another location by 10.30am.
"Jo could have taken any one of a number of routes to get to Shore Rd and, because we know there would have been many other women running in that area between the times of interest to us, we'd like to hear from them so that we can eliminate sightings of them as relevant to our investigation.
"Other runners may also be able to advise us of any suspicious behaviour or approaches they observed or were subjected to."
Mr Hooper said that, when the alleged offender handed himself into police at Auckland Central Station, he arrived in the yellow hatchback car.
"We want to hear from anyone who saw this vehicle anywhere between Wednesday, January 6 and midday on Thursday, January 7."
