Family slams theory on Tamihere murders

Heidi Paakkonen. Photo / Supplied

Family of two Swedish tourists murdered by David Tamihere in 1989 have rejected as outrageous claims in a magazine that Heidi Paakkonen may still be alive.

An article in Investigate magazine last week suggested Ms Paakkonen could still be alive 21 years after she went missing.

Tamihere was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990 for the murders of Ms Paakkonen and her fiancee Urban Hoglin in the Coromandel.

Mr Hoglin's body was found by pig hunters in Coromandel bush two years after he went missing but Ms Paakkonen's body was never found.

The magazine suggested she was still alive when police began searching for her, and in the company of a man who was not Tamihere.

And it claimed to have obtained a confidential briefing sent to former police commissioner John Jamieson which suggested Ms Paakkonen was kept alive after Mr Hoglin's death and transported nearly 300km by road, and then boat, to Kawau Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

Mr Hoglin's brother Stefan Hoglin told the Sunday Star-Times he considered the article's claims absurd.

"It cannot be the truth."

Stefan Hoglin believed the motivation for the story was money.

Stories like this one made for great plot lines for a fictional "book, film... for writing material for a TV series", he said.

But it caused great offence to the relatives of Urban and Heidi.

A police spokesperson told NZPA last week they were not prepared to comment on the article unless they saw the author Ian Wishart's information, in which case it would be assessed by the national crime manager.

Mr Wishart said he would be happy to discuss the magazine's findings with the police.

Tamihere is scheduled to appear in front of the Parole Board at Paremoremo Prison, north of Auckland, on Tuesday.

A written report following his last parole hearing showed he had quite serious health problems.

- NZPA