Reports that Heidi still alive 'absurd'

NEIL REID

Family of the two Swedish tourists murdered by David Tamihere are outraged at a report that claims Heidi Paakkonen may still be alive.

The theory was published just days before Tamihere prepares to front the Parole Board on Tuesday in his latest bid for release.

Speaking from the Swedish village of Storfors, the brother of Heidi's slain fiance, Urban Hoglin, said he was disturbed by the report in the November issue of Investigate.

The article's author, conspiracy theorist Ian Wishart, said he had received information that Paakkonen was kept alive after Hoglin's death and transported nearly 300km by road, and then boat, to Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

"It is absurd," an emotional Stefan Hoglin told the Sunday-Star Times.

"It cannot be the truth.

"I understand if they take the chance and do this. But if they say it is like that, why shouldn't she have been calling us?"

Stefan believed the motivation for the story was for financial gain.

He said stories like this one made for great plot lines for a fictional "book, film... for writing material for a TV series".

But it caused great offence to the relatives of Urban and Heidi.

The contents of the article also angered retired police officer Del Read, who played a leading role in the search for the missing Swedes.

"I think what you have just described to me [the article] is bizarre," Read said.

"Urban's body was found on the Coromandel. And I believe one day Heidi will be found [there]."

As someone who helped co-ordinate the search for the pair's bodies, he shared Heidi's family's hopes that she would eventually be able to be laid to rest respectfully in Sweden.

Urban and Heidi, then aged 23 and 21, went missing after heading into bush on the Coromandel on April 8, 1989.

Tamihere was on the run at the time, living rough in bush in Mataroa Bay, Coromandel, having absconded after being bailed in 1986 for the sexual violation of a 47-year-old woman in Auckland.

He was eventually arrested in May 1989 so he could finally be tried over the sexual violation charge.

Five months later Tamihere, while an inmate at Paremoremo Prison, was charged with the murders of Urban and Heidi.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1990.

And, as the 20th anniversary of his imprisonment nears, he still maintains his innocence.

Urban's remains were found by pig hunters in October 1991.

But despite intensive searches, Heidi's resting place has never been discovered.

In the article, Wishart claims to have obtained a confidential briefing paper that was sent to former police commissioner John Jamieson which suggested Heidi was kept alive after Urban's murder.

She was said to have been relocated to Kawau Island, where she was held in a house with a large underground facility.

Wishart claimed to have received documents from the estate of a deceased person which included the briefing paper's claim that Heidi had been sighted on the Hauraki Gulf island while police were searching for her on the Coromandel.

The paper noted: "There is an extremely remote possibility that Heidi is still alive."

Stefan Hoglin said he was mystified by the claim.

When asked if he was adamant Tamihere was correctly jailed for the pair's murder, Stefan replied: "Yeah, yes I am sure about that.

"The police did a very good job. They talked about what they thought had happened and what they knew. It was perfect from the police side."

But Urban's brother said he was still not satisfied that Tamihere had acted alone, saying he believed someone had escaped punishment for their role in the grisly murders.

That theory has previously been aired by award-winning documentary maker Bryan Bruce.

In his 2008 book, Hard Cases, Bruce argued that forensic evidence from Hoglin's remains indicated he had been stabbed from the front while being held from behind.

Tamihere's brother, broadcaster and former Labour MP John Tamihere, said he had been made aware of the "sighting" of Paakkonen during the early 1990s. "But we just didn't have the resources to investigate it."

Another reported "sighting" placed Paakkonen in the Fiji capital city of Suva in 1995. It had been provided by a junior member of Tamihere's defence team.

"We had a sighting of her coming in from a yacht," John Tamihere said.

When asked if he believed his brother was guilty of the murders, John said: "I do not believe there is any evidence that would convict him beyond reasonable doubt. It was a case based on circumstantial evidence. Circumstantial evidence is speculation.

"The speculation then is could he singularly [have] restrained both of them, because they were young, fit and virile. The answer to that is that there was always a possibility... you can't rule that out absolutely.

"[But] you would say it would have been difficult. Was it do-able? It was do-able."

Jamieson refused to comment when contacted by the Sunday Star-Times, as did David Tamihere's lawyer Colin Gibson, saying it was a "delicate time" with his client's pending parole hearing.

A spokesperson for Police HQ said police weren't prepared to comment on the article unless they saw Wishart's information. It would then be assessed by the national crime manager.

Tamihere will front the six-strong extended Parole Board at Paremoremo Prison, north of Auckland, at 10am on Tuesday. He will be transported there from Waikato's Spring Hill prison where he is currently staying in a self-care unit.

The written report following his last parole hearing in August revealed he was battling "quite serious health conditions". It is understood those include arthritis and a heart problem.