Couple hope ?lost? murder case video still exists

A former Masterton man could have crucial evidence in the glovebox of his car that proves there was a mystery ketch in the Marlborough Sounds when Olivia Hope and Ben Smart went missing seven years ago.
Frank Osborne and his wife Sandra now live on Australia's Gold Coast but when living here caught on camera a ketch that had made its way out of the sounds on to the open sea soon after the young couples' disappearance.
Scott Watson, 34, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Miss Hope, 17, and Mr Smart, 21, who went missing on New Years Day, 1998, after partying at Furneaux Lodge.
The Crown case against Watson revolved round him having taken the pair aboard his single-masted sloop where he was said to have murdered them, probably after a sexual attack on Miss Hope, and taken their bodies ? that have never been found ? out to sea to be dumped.
From the very first days of the police investigation several people who were in or near the Marlborough Sounds at the time have been adamant that there was a white ketch with a blue stripe in and around the area.
A water taxi driver who delivered Miss Hope and Mr Smart said he had taken them to a ketch ? a two-masted yacht ? but police have consistently dismissed the idea.
Speaking from their Gold Coast home yesterday, Mrs Osborne said she and her husband had been on an overnight visit to Ngawi at New Year, 1998. They had stayed at Top House and in the early morning Mr Osborne had walked out into the car park to "play with his new toy" ? a Sony camcorder with a powerful zoom lens.
Having a wonderful view far out to sea he had filmed a freighter making its way along the coast, but soon after being joined by his wife they had noticed a much smaller vessel bobbing along.
"I said to Frank what's that, surely no-one is out there in a small boat, put the camera on it."
Mr Osborne panned across to the boat and zoomed in on it.
"I could see quite clearly that it was a ketch, I am as positive of that as I am positive I have two legs," he said.
The couple filmed the boat for about a minute and didn't think anymore of it until they returned home to Miki Miki just before 6pm.
It wasn't until the disappearance made national news that they realised they could have something significant.
They telephoned Masterton police and Mrs Osborne said a young policewoman drove out to their house and picked up the film.
"That was the last we saw of it for a long while until I came home from work one day and Frank said the video tape had been returned to us because the police said it was of no use to them."
Later, when controversy mounted over whether the vessel thought responsible for involvement in the supposed murders was a ketch or sloop, the Osbornes realised they could have held the answer but believed they had since erased the image of the ketch by filming over it.
Now, they are not so certain.
Mrs Osborne said since being approached by Television New Zealand Close Up at 7 reporter Brent Fraser about the incident they had discovered two broken video tapes in their home.
"One of them just might be the tape with the boat on it.
"We are waiting for a technician to work on them to see what they show ? they could just be of us dancing, but there is a slim chance the boat could be on one of them."
Former Masterton area police controller Rod Drew said evidence delivered to a police station during a major investigation is handed on to the investigating team for their appraisal. He said if the film belonging to the Osbornes had been handed in it would have been referred to the detectives at the homicide inquiry base.