Mona Blades vanished 50 years ago while hitch-hiking from Hamilton to Hastings, sparking a major manhunt.
Former policeman Tony Moller suspected Derrick Hinton’s involvement, but no evidence or body was found.
Police continue to receive and assess information, urging anyone with details to come forward.
One of the last conversations a former policeman’s daughter had with him before he died was about his regret that he couldn’t find “the smoking gun” to prove his theory about the disappearance of Mona Blades.
It is 50 years today since the 18-year-old’s disappearance, and the circumstances remain amystery – making it one of New Zealand’s most famous cold cases.
Blades vanished while hitch-hiking from Hamilton to Hastings for her nephew’s birthday in 1975.
Police released this picture of a 1975 Datsun station wagon, registration number GM3191. They wanted to speak with any past and present owners. Photo / File
A truck driver saw a woman fitting her description getting into an orange Datsun in Taupō and then travelling on the Napier-Taupō Rd.
Her disappearance sparked one of the country’s largest manhunts, with more than 500 suspects, who either owned or had driven orange Datsuns, investigated.
Other suspects and theories were investigated over the years, but no strong evidence of foul play or Blades’ body and belongings were ever found.
Former Kawerau policeman Tony Moller always believed his ex-colleague, the late former traffic officer Derrick Hinton, was involved in Blades’ death – allegations that have been strongly rejected by Hinton’s family.
Despite being retired from the police at the time of his suspicions, Moller compiled information that was sent to the then-Bay of Plenty field crime manager, Detective Inspector Mark Loper. The emails were released to the media under the Official Information Act in 2012.
They said Hinton was seen with another man in a green Swanndri in the mid-1970s dumping a “large black polythene article” described as “big enough to have been a body” into a hole on Hinton’s property, near where a concrete mixer was operating.
Mona Blades was 18 when she vanished. Photo / File
Moller said Hinton had taken several bags of cement from another Kawerau man’s garage without asking.
Other emails to Loper alleged Hinton had grabbed another woman by the throat, and told someone he could “make people disappear”.
The emails also accused Hinton of being involved in the unsolved murder of 13-year-old Tracey Ann Patient, whose body was found in the bush of the Waitākere Ranges in January 1976.
Based on Moller’s allegations, police in January 2012 used excavators to drill into the laundry floor of a Kawerau property where Hinton lived in the 1970s.
Former Kawerau policeman Tony Moller talks to a police officer as the excavation of a Kawerau laundry takes place in January 2012. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post
A crowd of media, members of the public and Moller watched on – but nothing was found. Police closed their inquiries into Moller’s claims, but the Blades case remained open.
It said the Hintons built the home, and published photos dated before Blades disappeared showing the poured concrete laundry floor.
It said of Moller’s claim of a link to Patient’s death: “There is not, on the [police] file, one single other word to support this allegation”.
Moller, who was a policeman for 29 years before retiring at the rank of sergeant, died in October 2018.
His youngest daughter, who didn’t want her name published, said her father was a strong man, diligent in his beliefs and had a strong sense of justice.
“Police life was everything to him.”
She said she returned to Kawerau in the weeks before her father’s death, when he was presented with a Kawerau Community Award for services to the community.
She said her father knew he didn’t have long and spoke to her about his beliefs about the Blades case.
“One of the last conversations before he died was his regrets of not finding the smoking gun. It was one of his biggest regrets – not being able to give her family answers.”
The other theories and suspects
Police investigated whether a man called John Freeman could have been involved before he killed himself.
Police revealed at the time that he had rented an orange Datsun the weekend Blades disappeared.
Two weeks later, police announced they were searching for an orange Datsun. On the same day, Freeman shot and wounded a student at St Cuthbert’s College in Auckland before killing himself.
Rotorua police detectives sift through the Mona Blades file in 2005 hoping to find new clues. From left, former Detective Inspector Garth Bryan, former Detective John Hope and former Detective Sergeant Tania Blackbourne. Photo / Andrew Warner
New Zealand man Charlie Hughes, who moved to Australia from Hamilton, was also named a “person of interest” after it was thought he was the driver of the orange Datsun at the centre of the case.
He was interviewed by police four times, in the 1970s, 1980s, 1997 and 2005, but was never charged.
In 2003, police investigated a report that Blades’ name had been found etched on a garage floor in a Huntly house, which the house’s occupants feared might be a makeshift grave.
It was found to have been inscribed as a joke, and the former owner of the property apologised to her family.
Detective Inspector Mark Loper, who is now retired, in 2012. Photo / NZME
In 2018, a fresh look at the case, led by Loper and forming part of a Cold Case television documentary, suggested crucial evidence could have been overlooked because police could have gone down the wrong track.
The documentary revealed that the truckie who spotted the orange Datsun might not have given reliable evidence after possibly being influenced by what he had seen or read.
That meant the inquiry team possibly didn’t put enough weight on other possible sightings of Blades in the Taupō area, particularly from those who said they saw her drinking at the Spa Hotel with another young woman.
Evidence that wasn’t followed through was a woman who saw two men carrying rolled carpet into the back of a red Toyota station wagon at night in Taupō.
That linked with another sighting of a red Toyota station wagon stopped and travelling in convoy with a bike gang at a service station near Taupō.
Loper said at the time the documentary aired that he didn’t believe Blades left Taupō alive. He declined to be interviewed this week.
Following the documentary’s screening in 2018, a man contacted the Rotorua Daily Post saying members of the Highway 61 gang killed Mona Blades and were talking about it at a flat in Auckland a year later.
The man, who the Daily Post agreed not to name, said he was told years ago by a friend, who had since died, that the Highway 61 gang was involved, but he never did anything with the information because he thought police were looking for a man driving an orange Datsun. He said the documentary made him realise what he had heard could have been true.
The Rotorua Daily Post passed on the man’s details to police at the time, but it didn’t lead to any progress in the case.
The documentary revealed that people might not have come forward with sightings of Blades because the photographs released to police at the time of her disappearance were not a true reflection of what she looked like.
Mona Blades' hair as a bridesmaid looked very different from the mullet style she wore when she went missing. Photo / File
The photo circulated was when Blades was a bridesmaid and her hair was long and curled, but when she went missing her hair was shorter, in a mullet-style haircut.
Blades’ family are based in Hawke’s Bay and have not talked publicly about the case.
Blades’ brother, Tony Blades, told the Rotorua Daily Post in 2005 it was too hard on them as a family to speak publicly, including for immediate family members who had died not knowing what happened.
The family could not be reached for comment this week.
What the police say now
Detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Yardley of the Bay of Plenty Police is now in charge of the Blades case.
He said there was always a steady stream of information coming from members of the public following media coverage.
He said the information was assessed and reviewed as it was received for potential lines of inquiry police could follow up on.
“It has been 50 years since Mona went missing in 1975, and we would like to acknowledge her family, who have been left with a number of questions around her disappearance.”
He encouraged anyone with relevant information to think about doing the right thing for the Blades family.
“Cases are never fully closed, and it is not too late to provide Mona’s family with answers they have long wanted. If you have information that may assist in our investigation, not yet reported to us, please contact police.”
Information can be passed on by calling 105 either online or over the phone, with reference file number: 111213/1604.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
