New DNA tests shed light on Teresa Cormack's murder

By NAOMI LARKIN

New DNA test results may solve the 14-year-old inquiry into the murder and sexual assault of Teresa Cormack.

Napier police will tomorrow reveal details of further scientific tests involving DNA samples taken from the six-year-old's body.

The new tests were done at the Environmental Science and Research (ESR) institute in Auckland.

Napier Detective Sergeant Brian Schaab confirmed yesterday that a new development had arisen in the inquiry, but said police needed time to assess the results of the testing.

"We're hoping that by Tuesday we'll know exactly what we've got and what we can do."

Teresa vanished on her way to Richmond School in Napier on June 19, 1987, the day after her sixth birthday.

Her body was found eight days later in a shallow grave on a beach beside the Napier-Wairoa road, 19km away.

She had been sexually violated and suffocated.

Her death prompted marches in Napier and Auckland at which protesters called for harsher penalties for violent crime.

ESR general manager Wayne Chisnall said yesterday that the institute had completed the testing, but the police needed "every opportunity to manage it the way they want to".

"The public of New Zealand is wanting a result in this particular case, it's very high-profile and we don't want to do anything that jeopardises that outcome," he said.

The Cormack case came along when DNA tools were in their infancy.

In 1988, forensic samples taken from her body were sent to England. It is understood that it was the first time DNA technology was used in a New Zealand case, but after five months of testing, the results were inconclusive.

Also in 1998, hair samples from 21 men, most considered suspects, were sent to the Australian Forensic Science Centre in Adelaide for analysis.

Tests failed to find a match between the samples from the suspects and the three strands of foreign hair found on the 6-year-old's body.

Teresa's mother, Kelly Pigott, said yesterday: "We're closer than we've ever been. It's heartening but frightening that we are getting closer to the truth."

In 1993 Napier man Wayne Gary Montaperto said he was the police's prime suspect but denied any part in the murder. He was among those who gave body samples for DNA testing. At the time of the murder, he had lived two streets from Teresa's home in a house backing on to Richmond School.

A year after Teresa's death, Mr Montaperto was jailed for three years for kidnapping children and performing an indecent act.

Mr Montaperto, who was among about 600 local people who helped search for Teresa, said police were out to get him and he was set up.

At the 1998 inquest into Teresa's death, Detective Inspector Ron Cooper, who first headed the investigation, said 945 suspects had been interviewed throughout the country.

Most of them were able to provide alibis or were eliminated for other reasons.

Others were asked to provide the samples sent away for testing. After the testing, almost all of the suspects were dropped from the inquiry.

But Mr Cooper said several suspects "probably will never be conclusively ruled out".

In the past police have said that they think they know who was responsible for Teresa's murder, but they just did not have the evidence.