The Missing

Episode 1 - Craig Hampton

Monday 6 July 2009

It was Wellington anniversary weekend 1999. Life was looking good for Craig Hampton: he was happily married with a new son he doted on and an old mate was back in town wanting to catch up for a spot of surfing, or to perhaps dive for a few crays. With boards on the car roof and dive gear in the boot, Craig left home early. But instead of picking up his friend, he headed to a dodgy part of town. Was that why he never returned home? Or did the reason for his disappearance have its roots in Craig’s childhood?

He’d planned a surfing trip for the long weekend. But did the reason Craig Hampton

Episode 2 - Connan Bolitho

Monday 13 July 2009

Connan Bolitho was a fit, enthusiastic 21 year old and a member of the NZ Alpine club when he went missing on a solo month-long tramp in the Arthurs Pass region 18 years ago. The tramp was part of a significant training regime he had set himself to prepare to represent NZ at an international mountaineering event in the Himalayas later in 1991. Five days into his trip, Connan left a log-book entry at Harman hut outlining his intended route to Crawford Hut – something an outdoorsman of his experience should have been able to accomplish easily in a day. Despite extensive searches by police, search and rescue and members of his Tararua tramping club, Connan has not been found.

Connan Bolitho was training to represent NZ at an international mountaineering event in the Himalayas. So how did he go missing on what should have been a day’s excursion for the fit, hugely experienced tramper?

Episode 3 - Lance Kapua

Monday 20 July 2009

Lance Kapua was last seen in the early hours of the morning of his 31st birthday in downtown Rotorua. A brilliant student, who had at one stage considered entering the priesthood, Lance had become ill with schizophrenia and returned to his hometown to be closer to his family. He went out to have a few drinks with mates and didn't come home. In stark contrast to the two Swedish tourists who went missing around the same time, there was little publicity and there were few official searches for Lance, much to the family's frustration. Is his body in a thermal pool in Rotorua's Kuirau Park or did he end up, as his mother believed, in a commune on the west coast of the South Island?

Episode 4 - Cessna

Monday 27 July 2009

Thirty years ago a Cessna 180 piloted by a Southland parish priest took off from Big Bay in Fiordland to return to Riversdale. The passengers were 3 men from Riversdale who'd been with him on a hunting and fishing trip in August 1978. Despite more than 550 hours of aerial searches over 250,000 square miles in often atrocious conditions, no trace of the aircraft has been found. Many of those involved in the original search knew the missing men personally, and the failure to find ZK-BMP is still on their minds decades later. Now the families, who for years coped with southern stoicism, believe they have a clue that will help them to find their missing husband, father and brother.

Episode 5 - Patrick Fisk

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Sydney Patrick Fisk, known to his family as Pat, was an adventurous Englishman who had served in India in the Punjab Police force. On returning to England, he was bored. When he found it could take months to become a 10 pound immigrant to NZ, he bought a yacht, taught himself to sail it in 10 days and then packed up his young family and sailed here. He was working as a tax inspector in the Tauranga, Murupara area when he disappeared on a routine work trip. His government issue Vauxhall car was found in a remote location in Urawera country, known to locals as The Summit. The car door was open, his Thermos of tea was there with a cup poured two thirds full, his suitcase, tax files and briefcase were intact. Was he murdered as his family believes or did he simply tire of family life and decide to "ring-bolt" to Australia?

Pat Fisk was an adventurer, a daredevil who’d never baulk at a challenge. But then a routine day working as “the tax-man” ended in one of NZ’s most enduring mysteries. Murder? Or did he simply tire of family life?

Episode 6 - Peter Chaffe

Monday 10 August 2009

Peter Chaffe wasn't feeling well the day he was last seen in July 1974. He'd been diagnosed as a diabetic 18 months earlier and had uncharacteristically lost his lunchtime squash game that day against a workmate from Auckland University's chemistry department. After work he drove a friend home to Avondale and, after stopping for a drink and crackers, left to drive to his own home in Massey, West Auckland. Although his friend worried Chaffe was too ill to drive, Chaffe insisted. As he pointed out, his friend's home was only a stone's throw from the north western motorway route he normally took home. But although a search was mounted for Peter Chaffe within an hour of his leaving Avondale, neither he nor his unusual bright red Simca car has been seen again.

It was just a routine half hour drive home for Aucklander Peter Chaffe. But neither he nor his bright red Simca car has been seen in the decades since.

Episode 7 - Marion Granville

Monday 17 August 2009

Everyone who knew Marion Granville agreed she was a great mum. So when she did not return from a quick trip to the dairy one Sunday morning, foul play was quickly suspected. Her friends and family believed Marion, a tall, attractive, outgoing woman, would never have abandoned her adored children – a son and pre-school twin daughters. She was last seen being escorted into a white car by three men. Since Marion was facing minor drug charges, they could have been plain clothes police. But as she has not been seen again, it’s likely they had links to the drugs underworld.

A doting mum takes a quick trip to the dairy leaving her children home alone. Nearly 30 years later, her family are still waiting for Marion Granville to turn up.

Episode 8 - Dr Elizabeth Batham

Monday 31 August 2009

Dr Elizabeth Batham

Dr Elizabeth Batham was a trailblazer in New Zealand marine science. A brilliant scholar, she won scholarships both here and at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom where the professor described her as one of his most talented students. Dr Batham returned to NZ to establish the Portobello marine research facility attached to Otago Universiy and later became its director. Two species - a ribbon worm and a type of spider crab - have been named after her, as is the library at Portobello. In early 1974 she returned to Wellington where she spent time on the local beaches fossicking for specimens, which she often carried in her handbag. On the day she disappeared her unlocked car was found at Seatoun beach, with her wallet intact and her dry diving gear in the boot. Her dry bathing suit and cap, her shoes and her coat were found further down the beach. Police investigated whether Batham, who was also a keen botanist, had gone looking for specimen in the surrounding countryside and met an accident. She has never been found.
Dr Elizabeth Batham was a trailblazer in New Zealand marine science. But was the disappearance of this brilliant scholar really an accident?