Victim in alleged Boxing Day kidnap and motorway death can now be named

Jovan Pora at a Manukau District Court hearing after being charged with manslaughter. Photo / Dean Purcell

The young woman who died on an Auckland motorway on Boxing Day after an alleged kidnapping was Katelyn Rua-Tuhou.

The 19-year-old was found dead inside a crashed car facing the wrong way on Auckland’s State Highway 20 in the early hours of December 26, 2022.

Jovan Pora, 20, was arrested at the scene and later charged with manslaughter.

Justice Graham Lang allowed an interim non-publication order on Rua-Tuhou’s name to lapse at the High Court in Auckland this morning, saying there were no longer any grounds for continued suppression.

Court documents show Pora is accused of causing the young woman’s death “by threats or fear of violence to open the door of a moving vehicle”.

He pleaded not guilty in February to charges of manslaughter, kidnapping, driving without a valid licence and refusing an officer’s request to give blood, and is due to go on trial in May 2024.

Dressed neatly in black, Pora appeared at the brief administrative hearing and was remanded on bail until his next court appearance in May.

A number of supporters sat in the public gallery and the hearing proceeded without incident.

An earlier appearance for Pora at the Manukau District Court had been tense as supporters of Pora and the deceased clashed outside the courtroom until security intervened.