What happened to Joe? Auckland teen’s disappearance still a mystery after 35 years

It has been 35 years since teenager Joanne Chatfield left a concert in central Auckland - never to be seen again.

Someone knows what happened to the 17-year-old - known as Joe - but has never come forward.

Her loved ones and the police are ever hopeful that the mystery will be solved and on the latest milestone of her case are calling again for those with the vital information to come forward.

On Saturday, November 19 1988, Joe attended a concert at the Auckland University Student Union with friends.

The bands Tinnitus and Ministry of Compulsory Joy played and then just before midnight, Joe headed off.

Her friends saw her for the last time walking away on Princes St, in the direction of Wellesley St.

Nothing was amiss and no one ever thought it would be the last time anyone would see the teen.

Joe’s mother Claire reported her missing the next day.

Tragically, police at the time treated Joe as a runaway teenager, believing she would show up in a few days.

But there has never been any sign of Joe.

In 1999 and again in 2018 police offered $50,000 rewards for anyone who could provide solid evidence leading to the identity and conviction of the person or people responsible for Joe’s disappearance or death.

Neither reward produced any successful leads.

Joanne Chatfield disappeared on the night of November 18, 1988. Twenty years on, she is yet to be found and a coroner has declared her dead.

In December 2008 - 20 years after Joe was last seen - she was officially declared dead, presumed murdered.

Coroner Murray Jamieson concluded Joe had been killed on the basis she “had not made contact with friends and family, did not have the economic resources to survive if she moved in New Zealand and because he found no evidence that she had left New Zealand”.

“Ms Chatfield had died on or after November 19, 1988, but the cause and circumstances of her death remain unknown,” he ruled.

In 2020 police revealed new details in a bid to flush out new witnesses or information.

On the television show Cold Case they revisited the case and revealed that the night Joe went missing, another young woman who attended the gig was attacked.

She was “threatened, grabbed from behind and forcibly removed from that gig and taken in the direction of the Auckland Domain where she was sexually assaulted”.

Three years on, police are still hopeful they can solve one of Auckland’s most enduring mysteries.

“Police would like to acknowledge the 35-year anniversary of the disappearance of Joe Chatfield,” said Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers.

“Despite an extensive police investigation that included conducting hundreds of interviews, we were unable to bring a resolution or closure for Joe’s whānau and friends, and she remains missing.

“In December 2008, the Coroner ruled that Joe was dead, presumed murdered.

“We never give up hope to bring the family closure about what happened to Joe.

“As with any missing person case, the file has not been closed.

“Police regularly review these investigations for any new opportunities, and we remain open-minded about the circumstances.

“We will continue to assess anything new that comes to our attention.”

Who was Joe Chatfield?

Joe lived with her mother Claire in South Auckland, but the weekend she went missing she was supposed to move in with her father Bruce to a flat above the bookshop where she worked.

The teenager identified with the punk rock scene and would often be seen sporting a mohawk which frequently changed colour, fishnet stockings and a leather studded collar.

Her boss at the bookstore - where she was about to start working fulltime - remembered her as a spirited and strong-willed teenager and said while she had a “tough” punk image, underneath she had a soft and likeable nature.

“She was a really neat person,” said Warwick Jordan.”I was very fond of her. We had some really good conversations.

$50,000 rewards were offered for information relating to the disappearance of Joanne Chatfield.

“She’d turn up and she’d have her hair done in a mohawk and bright colours and things.

“She was really into the punk image but she wasn’t a punk in terms of the aggression side of things.

“She was very much anti-McDonalds, the classic teenage rebellion stuff.

“She certainly had her opinions on things.”

Jordan said Joe had a “great sense of humour” and “loved dressing up to appear rather outrageous”.

But she did that “more for herself than others”.

“I think she loved being a non-conformist,” he told the Herald in 2018.

Warwick Jordan started Hard to Find Books in 1983. Photo / Supplied

“She was a really decent person, intelligent, with a lot of prospects.”

Jordan recalled having a disagreement with Joe the week before she disappeared.

“She’d been walking around Auckland city at night on her own and she mentioned it to me,” he said. “She said she had the right to do it - she was a woman and women should be allowed to do those things.

“I said to her ‘I’m allowed to do them too but I wouldn’t because it’s just not safe’.

“At the time it was one of those conversations that you have with someone which don’t count for anything but afterwards of course, it counted for a lot.”

Jordan said everyone was extremely worried when Joe did not arrive home, or move into her father’s flat as planned. “It wasn’t like her to not turn up,” he said.

Over the years Joe’s family and friends have expressed disappointment at the initial police response to her disappearance.

They felt that because of her appearance, they wrongly dismissed her as a runaway.

Her mother told media in the mid-2000s that police had admitted they “mishandled” the case and that “they had found things that should have been done that weren’t”.

“I felt judgment calls had been made because of how she dressed,” she said.

There have been many theories about what happened to Joe over the years including suicide, taking off to Australia and joining a cult.

Not a shred of evidence has ever been found to support these theories.

Jordan told the Herald:

“I don’t think she killed herself. I don’t think she’s disappeared, run away. I’d like to think she’s run away ... I believe she was murdered.

”I have seen the suffering from Bruce’s perspective, let alone her Mum’s, which must have been worse.

“I don’t believe she was the sort of person who could just stand back and go ‘too bad about them’.”

Jordan said he was haunted by Joe’s case - mostly the unanswered questions.

”It’s bugged the shit out of me,” he said.

While Joe’s friends believe she was heading home when they last saw her, police established the teenager “was likely to have had further plans for the evening”.

A police-issued map showing the last place Joe was seen.

Over the years they have appealed for anyone at other gigs that night to come forward if they saw her.

She was known to follow a band called Warners that was playing near Queen St the night she vanished.

“Could Joe have gone on foot to another punk gig at Knox Hall in Parnell and taken a shortcut through the Auckland Domain? Or perhaps been given a ride to another venue entirely?

Joe’s friends have also expressed anger that her case is not featured on the usual “cold case” lists often covered in the media.

Because Joe was listed as a missing person and her case was never escalated officially to a homicide investigation - her name does not appear alongside other whodunnits like Jane Furlong, Kirsa Jensen, Kirsty Bentley, Amber-Lee Cruickshank or Tracy Patient.

“The original police response was woeful,” said one friend.

“Joe deserves a whole lot better than the efforts she got… She has never had the same publicity.”

If you know what happened to Joe Chatfield - please come forward.

• Contact the police - phone 0800 2653 2273 (0800 COLD CASE)
• Click here to visit the police cold case website and send your information directly to investigators
• To report the information anonymously you can also contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or click here to submit the information online
• Or email senior reporter Anna Leask anna.leask@nzme.co.nz

Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based senior 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.