Former Pahiatua woman murdered in Bolivia

A FORMER Pahiatua woman has been shot dead while on a climbing holiday in Bolivia.
Vanessa Claire Johnson, 31, and her partner were apparently shot dead by poachers who then robbed them in Ulla Ulla National Park.
The name of Ms Johnson's partner, a foreigner who lived in Wellington, has not yet been made public because his family has not been informed.
Bolivian police reports say the couple were killed by a single shot each on about August 15, though investigations did not start until 10 days later when they were reported overdue to return from their climbing trip in the reserve.
Ms Johnson was raised in Pahiatua and had been living in Wellington.
Her parents, Paul and Janis Johnson, of Bannockburn, near Cromwell, were told of her death yesterday.
Mr Johnson said the news came like a bolt from the blue,
"We hadn't heard from her for three or four weeks," he said last night.
"I wouldn't say we were getting concerned but we were starting to get to the time when we should be hearing from her."
Mr Johnson said his daughter had registered to go into the park with her partner and when they didn't return the police started to look around.
"They were both shot for a bag of trinkets on her back. For trinkets," Mr Johnson said.
Bolivian police appeared to have done a thorough job and were still investigating, but Mr Johnson said he did not hold out much hope for arrests.
"What good does it do stringing them up for us. She's gone and that's the end of the matter," Mr Johnson said.
Ms Johnson was an only child.
"Altogether, it's a sad picture," Mr Johnson said.
He said police reports indicated there had been no other violence in the attack.
"What we have taken from that is that there was no undue suffering."
The couple, who had been together for about a year, had met through a shared interest in climbing.
"Climbing was a great passion and the mountains were one of her loves," Mr Johnson said.
They were due to return to New Zealand at the end of September.
Before leaving New Zealand to travel overseas, she had been working in Wellington, preparing for what Mr Johnson said was to be a "trip of a lifetime".
"She said she was never going back in an office again and instead planned to have an outdoor job for the rest of her life," he said.
The family is making arrangements to bring Ms Johnson's body home. She will be buried in Cromwell. ? NZPA