Van details fresh lead in Kirsty case

ASHBURTON - Police hope the release of new information about a rare Commer van will lead to a vital breakthrough in the Kirsty Bentley murder inquiry.

The 15-year-old Ashburton girl was last seen alive on December 31, 1998, when she left home to walk her dog on the banks of the Ashburton River.

Her body was found 17 days later at Camp Gully in the Rakaia Gorge.

Inquiry head Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Williams said yesterday that the green Commer van remained the priority for the inquiry team.

The release of descriptions of the van's occupants could prompt a vital phone call pointing towards Kirsty Bentley's killer or killers.

The van's movements and the failure of its occupants to come forward were highly suspicious, he said.

The vehicle, registration number EP9888, was a green 1961 series van set up as a camper. It was not registered after 1993, and the hunt for it has been hindered because many vans of its type were used by tourists and transients without being registered.

Police said a witness reported seeing the van on December 15 with three young Maori men inside. One had light-coloured, three-quarter-length dreadlocks.

The same witness had seen the van again on December 27 and a young Maori man standing on the footpath next to it.

The man was in his early 20s and was wearing a light-coloured waistcoat vest, high-cut black leather boots and dark trousers.

The witness saw the van again on January 10 parked outside the Beach Rd dairy in Ashburton. The Maori man with light-coloured dreadlocks was driving the van and a European man got out and went into the dairy.

The European was in his 20s, tall, slimly built and wearing light-blue stone-washed jeans with rips across the knees. He had white gumboots on and a large tattoo on his left upper arm, which may have been a long dagger. He had short auburn hair and was clean-shaven.

- NZPA