CHRISTCHURCH - Homicide detectives tracking the killer of Timaru 20-year-old Lisa Blakie will take a drive to Porters Pass tomorrow - in the car they have seized as part of their inquiries.
Operation Porta spokesman Detective Senior Sergeant Peter Read said the 1985 Mark 5 Cortina seized in March would undergo tests on the road over the next 10 days.
Police have bought the vehicle for a "small sum" so as not to inconvenience its present owner. It will be sold at the end of the murder inquiry.
They will drive the Cortina to Porters Pass today, provided the pass is not closed by snow, to run tests on its speed capabilities and fuel consumption.
While the Cortina had undergone forensic tests for evidence since it was seized two months ago, police had waited for the availability of experts from the University of Canterbury's school of engineering to check the car's capabilities.
"We're looking at things like how far it will go on a tank of gas, what sort of speeds it was capable of doing and whether it was able to undertake overtaking manoeuvres at certain parts [along State Highway 73]," Detective Senior Sergeant Read said.
Darfield man Timothy Taylor, aged 30, has told police he gave Ms Blakie a lift from the outskirts of Christchurch to the Kowai River layby in Central Canterbury on February 2, the day she disappeared.
Taylor has denied having anything to do with Ms Blakie's death.
The young woman, who had Timaru gang associations and links to the sex industry, was seen at a Springfield garage with a solidly built, balding man with fair hair driving a square-shaped four-door car about 1 pm on the day she disappeared.
Her fully clothed body was found in the Porter River, west of Springfield, near a layby on February 6. Police believe she was murdered on February 5.
Detective Senior Sergeant Read said the tests were to try to confirm information the police had been given from interviews.
He declined to reveal the car's purchase price. "We won't be making a profit or anything like that."
The Cortina had "gone through several hands" and had been in police storage since March.
- NZPA
Detectives retrace Blakie route
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