Murdered drifter attended funerals but no one went to his

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Dressed in the shabby pinstripe suit he had bought from a Salvation Army op-shop, Jason Johnson left Napier last July and began hitchhiking to a funeral in Auckland.

The 31-year-old had spent years drifting to funerals around the country, partly for the company, partly for the free food and hot drink.

But when Mr Johnson was murdered by a 17-year-old who stopped to give him a lift on his way back from carrying out a home invasion, no one came to pay their respects.

Mr Johnson's face was recognised by Maori throughout the North Island - he was notorious for turning up to the tangi of people he did not know.

Service station employees also remembered him wandering in to read a newspaper on the day he disappeared.

But he had little contact with his family in Porirua and his body - pulled from Lake Whakamaru, 10km southeast of Mangakino - was cremated without a service.

Yesterday, Ratima James Osborne jnr, now 18, pleaded guilty to murder in the High Court at Rotorua.

His father, Ratima James Osborne snr, 41, admitted tampering with the evidence to help his son to avoid arrest.

Why the hitchhiker was beaten over the head with a wooden baton and then run over, leaving large burn marks on his body from the exhaust, remains unknown.

Police say Mr Johnson, a homosexual, may have made advances towards Osborne jnr - something he had done that day to a man who had given him a lift.

Peter Kerr spotted Mr Johnson just outside Hastings carrying a large cardboard sign saying "Auckland".

He thought the light-skinned Maori with acne scars on his face looked interesting to talk to, and offered him a lift to Taupo.

Mr Johnson, who police say was of limited intellect and had a slight speech impediment, struck up a conversation about Maoridom before asking whether Mr Kerr had any gay friends.

When he replied yes, Mr Johnson then asked if any of them had made a pass at him.

"I said no and that if they had they certainly wouldn't be my friends any longer.

"At that stage I think he realised he's maybe pushed the boundaries a bit far."

The pair then sat in silence for more than an hour before parting company in Taupo.

It was there that police first heard the name Jason Johnson. They arrested him for disorderly behaviour after he peeped into a men's public toilet cubicle.

When they released him on bail later that evening they never dreamed Mr Johnson would soon be the centre of a murder inquiry.

Police would also quickly learn the name of Ratima Osborne jnr.

The 17-year-old, who lived with his parents at Mokai, 29km northwest of Taupo, had driven into town that evening and carried out a home invasion.

Along with a stereo, television and other electrical items, Osborne jnr also took a long wooden baton from the house and later used it to inflict "massive" head injuries on Mr Johnson.

When he cropped up as a murder suspect, he was already in custody for the aggravated robbery.

Life imprisonment was yesterday added to the five-year sentence he received last year for that crime.

Osborne's mother wept but did not look at him yesterday as he was led from the dock.

His father is also likely to go to prison when he is sentenced on Friday for tampering with evidence. He had helped to clean Mr Johnson's blood off the white car's bonnet, grille and windscreen before travelling to Turangi, where his son set the car alight in bush.

Detective Senior Sergeant Karl Wright-St Clair said it was a sad way for the drifter's life to end.

"He enjoyed what he did, which was hitchhiking around the country going from tangi to tangi," he said.

"He certainly wasn't a violent guy. There was never any suggestion that he harmed anyone in his life."