The wrecked car found in thick bush in the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Park yesterday, a skeleton hanging from it, crashed at high speed, Tokoroa police say.
They will not put a name to the skeleton until the remains have been formally identified.
However, they said earlier today the remains
were thought to be those of a Tirau man who disappeared in February 1985 after a row with his girl friend.
He had driven off from Rotorua, headed for his home in Tirau.
The Mark III Ford Cortina, found by a pig hunter in the bush off State Highway 5 between Rotorua and Tirau, was wrapped around a tree and badly damaged.
The skeleton was hanging out of the vehicle, Detective Sergeant Kevan Verry, head of Tokoroa CIB, was quoted as saying today.
He said in a statement tonight the 1985 police file was currently on its way from Wellington to Tokoroa and so little was yet known of the circumstances of the man's disappearance.
But the scene in the bush was "consistent with a high speed crash".
He added the remains will undergo a forensic examination to try to formally identify the victim.
- NZPA
