Westport homicide enquiry JAE HYEON KIM

No change to the overnight situation. 3 persons have now been charged, and all will appear in the Westport District Court on 24 July.

Enquiries continue in both Westport and Nelson with associates of those charged.

Detective Inspector Winter said that he had tasked the Greymouth CIB to also conduct a review of the investigation into a reported fatal road accident near Greymouth in May 2004.

A 64 year old Japanese tourist had gone missing around the 30th May, and his body had never been found. The smashed remnants of his car were found in the surf off the 17 Mile Bluff, north of Greymouth, on the 4 June 2004, and an investigation at the time concluded he had accidentally run off the road.

The Missing Persons Unit at Police National HQ in Wellington had been asked to provide any assistance on other missing persons in the Tasman District, and a report was being generated.

D/I Winter said that one difficulty was that unless tourists had a physical link with a particular location, they would not be reported missing within that Police District, which made searching and the investigation more difficult.