Information After Reward Offer

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32265, 7 April 1970, Page 1

Information After Reward Offer

The $3OOO reward offered for information on how Jennifer Mary Beard died at the Haast River bridge on December 31 has brought a flood of suggestions and information to detectives attempting to find the solution.

Detective Inspector Mitten, the officer in charge of the inquiry, which has been in progress for nearly three months, said yesterday that it was too early to say whether any of the information received was significant. “A significant attitude towards the offer of a reward is the number of people who have come forward with information. Many have said they are not interested in any claim they may have.on the reward,” he said. The information offered has come from persons who were on holiday in the area at the time and from others who think they know the man who answers the description of the person last seen with Miss Beard.

Some of the persons have travelled long distances in their efforts to- help the police who have said they will protect the names of their informants. * In Wellington yesterday 75 police were engaged in the huge task of checking through more than one million motorregistration files to find all persons who possess a 195357 Vauxhall. This task will not be finished before the end of the month and then the mammoth job of checking each car will begin. In Christchurch 30 detectives are working full-time on

the inquiry and in other centres between Invercargill and Auckland another 28 detectives are engaged.