A 49-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a young baker - whose van was later found in Mount Maunganui - will be revisited in a coronial inquest this week.
Graeme Leslie Timlin, of Hamilton, disappeared in May 1965. A shop assistant at his bakery arrived at work to find the ovens on, dough ready to be put in and meringues sitting on the bench, but Mr Timlin was gone.
Five days later his van was found on Marine Parade at Mount Maunganui. His disappearance was investigated by author Scott Bainbridge for his 2008 book Still Missing.
Mr Bainbridge has written two books on New Zealand missing-person cases and said Mr Timlin's disappearance was one of the most mysterious he had investigated.
"Without a doubt," he said. "The majority of cases I've ever dealt with, you kind of know what happened ... but Graeme's case, I've just got absolutely no idea.
"All the conclusions, all the possibilities, all the scenarios just don't make sense."
When Mr Bainbridge looked into the disappearance he got in touch with the Timlin family and has stayed in contact. He said he would attend the inquest with Mr Timlin's 88-year-old mother.
He understood she had been told that after a 1977 coronial inquest that found her son missing presumed dead, no death certificate was ever issued and signed. He said this inquest would be to formalise the death and file paperwork.
"It'd be nice to say that the police acted on what I presented and carried out an investigation and came up with something more tangible, but I've got a feeling it's an exercise to finalise their paperwork.
"They've pretty much said to his mum that it's to finalise a death certificate. In some respects it's good, but for her she doesn't see the sense in it.
"It's dredging it all back up. "She understands that's what she'll have to listen to."
Mr Bainbridge said weeks after Mr Timlin's disappearance a fisherman reported a man's body in the ocean near Kawau Island that fitted his description. However, police found no trace.
Mr Bainbridge said in his book an aggrieved ex-employee was the only person who may have had a motive to kill Mr Timlin, though the disagreement wasn't really strong enough to justify murder.
The coronial inquest will be heard tomorrow at the Hamilton District Court before Coroner Gordon Matenga.