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Missing Auckland teenager Joanne Chatfield was a spirited and strong-willed teenager, whose "tough" punk image hid a soft and likeable nature, her former employer says.
In her spare time the Auckland girl, who disappeared almost 19 years ago aged 17, visited an elderly person in a retirement home
and was fiercely "anti-McDonalds".
Warwick Jordan, who owns Hard to Find Books in Onehunga where "Joe" was about to begin working full time, told the Herald he was pleased police last Thursday announced a $50,000 reward in relation to the case.
The investigation was always treated as a missing persons inquiry although Mr Jordan maintains she was murdered.
Joe's parents were separated and she lived with her mother Claire. Her father Bruce Chatfield lived in the flat upstairs from the bookstore when his daughter went missing.
Joe was meant to move into the flat the weekend she disappeared.
"She was really excited about it. She was a really neat person," Mr Jordan said.
"I was very fond of her. We had some really good conversations. She'd turn up and she'd have her hair done in a mohawk and bright colours and things. She was really into the punk image but she wasn't a punk in terms of the aggression side of things. She was very much anti-McDonalds, the classic teenage rebellion stuff. She certainly had her opinions on things.
"She had a great sense of humour and I think she loved dressing up to appear rather outrageous, but more for herself than for others. I think she loved being a non-conformist. She was a really decent person, intelligent, with a lot of prospects. A week before she disappeared we had a disagreement because she'd been walking around Auckland city at night on her own and she mentioned it to me.
"She said she had the right to do it - she was a woman and women should be allowed to do those things. I said to her 'I'm allowed to do them too but I wouldn't because it's just not safe'. At the time it was one of those conversations that you have with someone which don't count for anything but afterwards of course, it counted for a lot."
Mr Jordan said he remembered arriving home in November, 1988, to find Mr Chatfield concerned that Joe had not moved in.
"It wasn't like her to not turn up. He was quite worried."
Police were called and the investigation began. Since then theories on what had come of Joe were rife. Mr Jordan and later, Joe's father, travelled to Australia after reports that Joe was seen working in Sydney's red light district, Kings Cross. He found someone matching her description, but it was "definitely" not Joe, Mr Jordan said.
"I don't think she killed herself. I don't think she's disappeared, run away. I'd like to think she's run away ... I believe she was murdered.
"I have seen the suffering from Bruce's perspective, let alone her Mum's, which must have been worse. I don't believe she was the sort of person who could just stand back and go 'too bad about them'."
The worst part of knowing someone who had gone missing were the unanswered questions.
"It's bugged the shit out of me for 20 years."
The Mangere-based officer in charge of Operation Chatfield, Detective Sergeant Len Leleni, said police had received about five calls since the reward was offered but none had offered new information.
Mr Leleni said he believed Joe had been murdered and that someone had information which could help police.
Joe was last seen on Princes St after leaving a concert at Auckland University on November 19, 1988. "I'm sure that someone has interrupted her travelling on the way home," Mr Leleni said. The reward for information that closes the case, is on offer until February.
Anyone with information is asked to call their nearest police station.
