Mystery lingers after car find

By ALISON HORWOOD

Two wheels poking from the icy Oreti River signalled the end of a mystery for the families of three missing Southland teenagers.

Silence reigned on the frost-covered riverbanks in minus-four-degree cold as a crane yesterday hoisted a crumpled Mazda 323 from 1.5m of water in a section of the fast-moving river between Invercargill and Winton.

On the back seat were the bodies of good friends and fellow team members in the under-19 Collegiate rugby team Richard Kelly, Carl Wilson and Marc Hill, all aged 18. The boot of one teenager dangled from a broken window as if he had made a last attempt to escape from the sinking car.

For their families, the long wait since Saturday is over.

But they are left wondering why the trio left the Hill family home at Otatara and travelled 30km to the river when they appeared to be popping out for takeaways and planned to return to watch videos and the All Black test against Scotland.

"They were teenagers. Why they came here will probably remain a mystery," said Detective Sergeant Tim Haughey on the riverbank yesterday.

The Invercargill detective said Carl used to live nearby and could have been familiar with the area.

Police investigations are continuing, but it appears that the Mazda, belonging to Richard, plunged off a 2m drop in a section of the privately owned gravel road which became eroded a week ago. A further half-metre fell away yesterday after people headed to the river to remove the bodies.

The Mazda flipped and travelled 100m downstream to rest upside down under a willow tree.

Detective Sergeant Haughey said the car was discovered after a tip from a member of the public. Police confirmed that it was the missing vehicle at midnight on Tuesday and informed the families at 1.30 am yesterday.

The farmer who owned the land and the road, Bruce Jordan, said the boys should never have been on his property and were trespassing.

"Why can't people wake up to the fact these three hooned on to my property when they shouldn't have been here and it was their own fault they drove off the cliff."

He is happy for anglers or picnickers to come on to his land in summer, but says there are only three reasons people come in winter - "to nick something, to dump something or do something they shouldn't."

An Environment Southland representative said the private road the Mazda plunged off once led to a popular beach, only 500m upstream.

On Saturday night, in poor conditions caused by darkness and a light fog, the teenagers may not have been aware a section of the road had washed away.

The Southland District Council roading manager, Ian Hill, said it appeared the gravel road was privately owned and therefore should be maintained by the landowner. He said the council would investigate the legality of the road and its upkeep because there also appeared to have been gravel excavated from the area.

Detective Sergeant Haughey said it was too early to talk about whether charges could be laid if the road had not been sufficiently maintained.

Allan Hill said his son Marc and his friends spent Saturday afternoon together after their 1 pm rugby game was cancelled.

They went to McDonald's and bought a new CD before picking up videos and arriving at the Hill family home about 5 pm. Yesterday, a Cheech and Chong video and the 1970s car-chase thriller Vanishing Point were still stacked in the lounge.

About 7 pm, Marc told his father, "See ya, dad, we are going into town ... We will be back shortly."

The trio - who did not appear to have been drinking - took the CD to listen to in the car, and never returned.

Mr Hill told the Herald yesterday: "We are devastated. We have lost our son. But at least now we can stop wondering what happened and start rebuilding our lives."