Without Trace: On the Trail of New Zealand Missing Persons

by Scott Bainbridge

Was Heidi Charles the second victim of a homegrown serial killer in Rotorua, New Year's Eve 1976? Did notorious criminal Ronald Jorgensen die in a car crash on the Kaikoura coast in 1983 or did he fake his own death? What led police to suspect the disappearance of Judith Yorke from a party in 1992 was being covered up? Where is Sara Niethe, Kaikere mother of three, who left the home of a friend early one morning in 2003 and has not been seen since?

Sixteen of New Zealand's most baffling unsolved missing person cases spanning five decades are profiled in Without Trace, which explores the theories, official investigation, sightings and unanswered questions that continue to frustrate police and family. In many cases murder, drugs or foul play are suspected -- in others the investigators are simply unable to account for the individuals or solve the mystery behind their disappearance. Among the police opinions some are published here for the first time.

Genres: True Crime

189 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

High School education at Te Awamutu College.

NZ true crimes writer & investigator.

Reviews

[Vanessa Meachen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books about murder are common. Books about missing persons are rare. I suppose it's the lack of any kind of closure, since the person is still missing. But I find books on missing persons are just as interesting and moving as any on proven and solved crimes.

This particular book is fantastic. Most of these are cases I'd never heard of and in many cases there is no information available about them online. The writing is excellent and Bainbridge has been really detailed and thorough in his investigations and interviews. It's fairly easy to guess what happened to a few people (I'm sure Roselyn Tilbury lies somewhere not far from the Heaphy Track and Wendy Mayes was dead very shortly after her disappearance) but many of these cases are very strange, with tangled clues that seem to point in many directions and yet none at all. Heidi Charles and Sidney Fiske are the real standouts here.

I wish someone would do something like this for some Australian missing persons!

[Shana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, probably because I am not in New Zealand and had not heard of most of the cases. I'd like to get other books by this author but I think I'd have to physically go to New Zealand, as they seem to be hard to come by.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to find in the United States, this book covers sixteen cases of mysterious disappearances from New Zealand dating back as far as the 1950s. The chapters are about ten to twenty pages each in length and are usually, but not always, illustrated with black and white photos. I was impressed by the author's ability to pack so much information into these relatively short essays. He interviewed many of the parties involved and some of the information in this book can be found nowhere else.

If this selection of cases is anything to judge by, New Zealand disappearances can be quite as weird as those in the United States. In the case of Cynthia Grierson-Jackson for instance, the police found a lone, naked woman's leg that was probably hers. But one leg looks much like any other, they never found the rest of the body, and the leg was never conclusively identified.

Any missing persons/true crime buff would find this book intriguing. I only wish the author had included law enforcement contact numbers to submit tips.