Couple call on TV psychic to help find son's grave

The family of a man police believe was slain over drugs are Sensing Murder.

Darrell Crawford's stepmum is visiting psychic Kelvin Cruickshank star of TV2 show Sensing Murder, which tries to unlock mystery killings to find the 35-year-old's body.

"We want to find his body so we can start grieving," Fiona Crawford told Sunday News.

"We have searched and searched but found nothing.

"You go out some days feeling positive but come home at the end of the day deflated.

"It is frustrating because your life is on hold."

Fiona admitted the family's approach to Cruickshank might be seen as grasping at straws, "but you have to explore every avenue".

In April, police offered a $50,000 reward to find the killers of Crawford and William Taikato, 40.

Both disappeared from Tauranga last year.

"Our inquiries show both of these men have been murdered as a result of their involvement in the gang and methamphetamine scene in Tauranga," Tauranga detective sergeant Daryl Brazier told Sunday News. "They were both users but heavily ensconced in the drug scene.

"Taikato has been very involved in the scene for many years and has significant contacts with the Mongrel Mob and Greasy Dogs gangs.

"Both these men knew each other but we are not sure if they were killed by the same people.

"There is a connection but nothing specific we can alert to at the moment."

Neither Crawford, who disappeared on August 12, or Taikato, who vanished on December 18, has accessed his bank account or uplifted benefit payments since.

But Taikato's mother believes her son is still alive.

"I don't feel in my heart that he's dead," Lyn Taikato said.

"I think he has gone into hiding.

"My feelings won't change until I get a body.

"His (two) children are thinking the worst because he hasn't texted them back but we haven't been able to tell them anything."

Crawford's father, Mt Maunganui mechanic Dave Crawford, said his son had a bright future earlier in his life.

"That was until he got into that P," Dave said.

"He had a racing car and racing bike and a good job but once he got hooked by the drug, that was it."

Fiona said the last she heard from her stepson was by text, a couple of weeks before he disappeared.

The message said: "Hi mum, it's your long-lost son here.

"Still in the land of the living. Hope you are all good."

Brazier said Taikato's Green Commodore, registration UF9688, could hold vital clues to the pair's disappearances.

He urged anyone who had information to phone police on 0800 SPEAKUP or (07) 577 4300.

 

- © Fairfax NZ News