It has been 25 years since 2-year-old Amber-Lee Cruickshank disappeared from Kingston on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Initially she was presumed drown but quickly police and her mother Nicola suspected something far more sinister happened.
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It has been 25 years since 2-year-old Amber-Lee Cruickshank disappeared from Kingston on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Initially she was presumed drown but quickly police and her mother Nicola suspected something far more sinister happened to the little blonde girl. Video / Mike Scott
NOW PLAYING • Chasing Ghosts
It has been 25 years since 2-year-old Amber-Lee Cruickshank disappeared from Kingston on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Initially she was presumed drown but quickly police and her mother Nicola suspected something far more sinister happened.
Thoughts of what was done to her, where and how her body was dumped and the likely pain, suffering, terror and loneliness of her last moments.
Gray’s daughter Breanna Muriwai disappeared from Te Horo Beach on the Kāpiti Coast in the early hours of August 28, 2022.
She is one of hundreds of Kiwis reported missing every year. While most are found within hours or days, some families are left completely in the dark about what has happened to their loved ones.
“We’re in a constant state of limbo,” Gray told the Herald.
Permission or payment to Woman's Day is required. Jasmin Gray holds a photograph of her daughter Breanna Muriwai. Photo / Woman's Day
“When it first happens, you go into an instant state of shock ... then it gets harder.
“You’re constantly trying to process everything ... you go through grief, you have no sense of time, it’s physically, mentally and emotionally very exhausting.
“The hardest part is not knowing ... the unknown, the multiple scenarios that go through your head about what could have happened to her. Actually seeing a scenario in your head ... that’s what’s really hard.”
In the beginning, Gray thought about her daughter “constantly”.
But with younger children at home to care for, she had to push the situation out of her head so she could provide “a bit of normalcy” for the rest of the family.
“The guilt is still there. You try and get on with things but the guilt pulls you back, you feel like you should always be out there searching but you can’t.”
False hope was also hard to cope with.
Whenever police called, whenever a body was found, she desperately hoped for answers.
But to date, they have not come.
Breanna Muriwai, captured with a male associate on the CCTV of a Palmerston North liquor store. Photo / NZ Police
“To be able to carry on is a struggle. Breanna’s siblings even feel guilty for just being able to be themselves, being able to live their lives.
“It affects all of us in different ways, it comes in waves.”
Gray said she had accepted her daughter was not coming home alive.
But she wanted her home. “That is my only priority – I just want her location.
“By sharing our loss, by keeping her in the news, it helps us as a family ... it gives us hope.”
Lost - New Zealand’s missing people
While mystery surrounds their whereabouts and what happened to them, one thing is certain for every person who has gone missing in New Zealand.
They are much-loved mums, dads, siblings, aunties, uncles – they are people’s partners, children and friends.
This list is not exhaustive and does not include cases where people have been convicted of the murder or manslaughter of a person whose remains are yet to be located - for example, the disappearances of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in the Marlborough Sounds, Michael McGrath in Christchurch, Palmerston North man Nicholas Pike or Waikato mum Sara Neithe.
It also does not include cases where a coroner has made a ruling on the likely cause and circumstances of death - such as Iraena Asher or Quentin Godwin.
Kirsa Jensen was 14 when she vanished. Her case is one of New Zealand's most enduring mysteries.
Has not been seen since November 19, 2022. His vehicle was found three days later in the carpark at Donnelly Flats, Mt Holdsworth.
Breanna Muriwai, 22, Te Horo Beach
Reportedly last seen running off into the darkness at Te Horo Beach on the Kāpiti Coast, on August 28, 2022. Police interviewed two men she was with the night she died, but have not established what happened.
John William Mills, 52, Auckland
Has not been seen since June 26, 2022. His car, a blue Nissan Pulsar with the registration YD4731, was last seen in the Waikato area. A year after his disappearance, his eftpos card was used by someone else.
Last seen at his Pāpāmoa Beach home on March 11, 2022. Alarm bells sounded when he failed to turn up for work at Tauranga Hospital. Holland was initially believed to have gone for a swim at the beach.
Tauranga Hospital anaesthetist David Holland. Photo / NZME
The French exchange student failed to return to his host family’s house on March 6, 2020. Police later confirmed the last sighting of him was the next morning as he left a West Auckland train station. Cellphone data later placed him in the area of Piha Rd at 9.18am but there are no confirmed sightings.
Last seen on CCTV about 3pm on January 23, 2020, driving his blue and silver 1998 Nissan Pulsar at the Poike roundabout in Tauranga. At 1am the next day his car was found burned out and police said bullet holes were found in it.
Julian Varley.
Michael Murdoch, 44, Ngāruawāhia
Reported missing on September 26, 2019. He was last seen on CCTV footage from Waitomo Wills service station in Ngāruawāhia at 7.41am. In May 2020 police said they had found evidence his phone had connected to cellphone towers two days after he was last seen. Murdoch’s phone last pinged off cell towers in the Horotiu area at 6.08am on September 28. The phone also pinged off towers in the Te Puroa Rd area in Ngāruawāhia between midnight and 5am that Saturday morning.
His mother positively identified pieces of clothing found on the beach but believed they had been placed there by walkers who had found them somewhere in the bush.
Last seen in the Marlborough town of Renwick on March 19, 2019, driving her mother’s red Holden Rodeo ute. The vehicle was found three days later at the Lake Chalice carpark in the Richmond Range. Police initially thought Boyce was a missing person but upgraded her case to a homicide.
Jessica Boyce.
Isaac Peratiaki, 54, Whanganui
Last seen in Whanganui on May 17, 2018.
Christopher Bates, 22, Alexandra
Told his father he was heading off to meet a friend and go for a swim on February 11, 2018. He bought some cigarettes from a petrol station and was not seen or heard from again. In 2023 a coroner ruled he died soon after he went missing, but that the circumstances of his death remained a complete mystery.
Has not been seen since February 4, 2018, when she hitchhiked to her cousin’s house in Kaeo, showered, changed her clothes, had something to eat and left, heading south.
Leonie Emery, 26, Auckland
The mother of five was last seen in Ngāruawāhia on January 26, 2018, three weeks after her last contact with her family in Auckland. She was not reported missing until February 2019 as she moved around frequently.
Leonie Emery.
Karl Roberts, 31, Taranaki
On August 1, 2017 his vehicle was found down a bank on Uruti Rd, east of New Plymouth. Police believe Roberts lost control of the car before it slid off the road and down the bank, stopping near a stream. His sandshoes were found stuck in mud on the other side of the stream, about three kilometres from his car.
Athol Turner was discharged from Nelson Hospital at 3.30pm on July 11, 2017.
His bank card was used the next night, at McDonald’s. Since then there has been no sign.
Yuri Santana, 17, Clandeboye
On October 4, 2016 the teen left his family home and went for a walk in the Temuka area of South Canterbury. He has not been seen since. Police said there had been a sighting in Temuka but, as he did not have a car or bike, he would have needed a lift to have got there.
Has not been seen since she went missing from the garden of her daughter’s Dunedin home on March 30, 2015. Searches involving police and hundreds of volunteers failed to find any trace of her. She has not used her cellphone or bank cards and there have been no leads since.
John and Mike Beckenridge, Invercargill
The Swedish-born helicopter pilot broke a court order by collecting his 11-year-old stepson Mike from his school in Invercargill on March 13, 2015. Their car was found at the bottom of a cliff in Curio Bay, Southland, but their bodies were never found. There has been speculation they may have faked their deaths and gone on the run. A coronial inquest was held last year to establish whether the missing pair are dead. A decision is yet to be released.
Last seen in the kitchen of the boarding house where he lived on July 13, 2014, the day after a taxi camera recorded him coming back from Hutt Hospital. After that, the boarding house manager said, “He just evaporated.”
Christian Ulf Prehn,19, Nelson Lakes National Park
Last seen by two trampers on February 25, 2014, after spending the night at Upper Travers Hut during a tramping trip. His backpack was found several days later by a Department of Conservation worker. Several searches in the area, including one last year, have failed to find his body.
The German tourist has not been heard from since he left for a fishing and kayaking trip on Lake Hāwea, near Wānaka, on August 28, 2011. Police believe he was not wearing a lifejacket.
The mystery deepened a week later when clothing similar to his was found placed neatly on a riverbank in an area that had been searched several times.
Troy Liddington.
Gafatasi Samuelu, 37, Auckland
Also known by the names Gafa Samuelu and Tasi Samuelu. Last seen at Lifewise Mission in Airedale St, Auckland, on October 2, 2009, and was known to frequent the areas of Grafton Bridge, Auckland Domain and missions within Auckland City.
Last seen in Frankton, Queenstown, on October 29, 2008. His car was found the next day at the Roaring Meg carpark on State Highway 6. Some of his belongings, including a cellphone and sunglasses, were also found at the lookout.
William Taikato, 40, and Darrell Crawford, 35, Tauranga
Crawford was last seen leaving his house in Oropi on August 12, 2007. His car was found in Tauranga a few days later. Taikato was last seen in Papamoa on December 19, 2007. He told associates he was going to pick up his car in Welcome Bay Rd and disappeared. After a homicide investigation police charged three men with one or both of the murders. All were acquitted after trial.
William Taikato and Darrell James Crawford.
Jim Donnelly, 43, Auckland
Left home in June 2004 heading for work at the Glenbrook steel mill. He parked at work, signed in, went to his office and changed his clothing and then vanished. Five days later, his hard hat was found beside an acid vat inside the mill. The vat was drained and some of his belongings were found inside but Donnelly has never been located.
Has not been seen since the weekend of August 30-31, 2003. Police said Henderson led “a colourful life”, mixing with people much younger than himself.
At the time he went missing from Onewhero, in Waikato, his right leg was in a moon boot.
Judith (Judy) Yorke, 25, Tauranga
Judy Yorke dropped her toddler with her parents on October 20, 1992, and said she was heading to Mount Maunganui for some drinks. She never came home. She was last seen in a Matapihi orchard packing shed between 1am and 2.30am on October 21. Her muddied shoes were found in the orchard two days later.
The toddler was visiting Kingston with family on October 17, 1992, when she vanished. Despite exhaustive land and water searches, there has been no sign of her in three decades. Police are certain she is not in the lake and have not ruled out foul play.
Peter Douglas Coop, 28, Dunedin
The Auckland doctor vanished while in Dunedin for a course on June 4, 1989. He checked into a hostel and called his wife of seven months. He did not show up for the course the next day. His family believe he may have died after an accident while tramping in the bush but police think he staged his disappearance.
Peter Coop went missing in 1989, aged 28.
Joanne “Joe” Chatfield, 17, Auckland
Disappeared on her way home from a concert at the University of Auckland Student Union with friends on November 1, 1998. She was last seen walking on Princes St. In 1999, and again in 2018, police offered rewards for information but Joe’s case is still a mystery.
Last seen leaving his home in Henderson, Auckland, about 2pm on March 6, 1987, and has not been seen since.
Luana Williams, 25, Tauranga
Known by family as Laverne, she was last seen on the evening of June 5, 1986, at her home in Munro St, Tauranga, and was reported missing by her partner. Police offered rewards in 1994 and 2013 but the case remains unsolved.
Luana Williams.
Kirsa Jensen, 14, Napier
The schoolgirl was last seen alive with her horse Commodore near a gun emplacement north of what is now the Waitangi Reserve at Awatoto, Napier, on the afternoon of September 1, 1983. Commodore was found but Kirsa had vanished.
Last seen in the Waitematā area of Auckland on November 16, 1980.
Michael John Dudley, 20, Dunedin
The TV repairman left after work drinks on April 3, 1978, hopped into his van, with “Bell TV” splashed across the side, and drove away. He never made it home. Neither he nor his van have been seen since.
Police investigated twice but found nothing to solve the case. An inquest determined there was insufficient evidence to determine the cause of death but declared Peter officially deceased.
If you have information on any missing person - please contact police on the non-emergency number 105.
You can also report information anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz
