Burning car adds mystery to fatal explosion

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 1

Burning car adds mystery to fatal explosion

By

JEFF HAMPTON

A car found burning on the Port Hills last evening has deepened the mystery of the killing of a Christchurch truck driver, Denis Drinkwater.

The burning vehicle was a red Vauxhall Victor which homicide detectives said yesterday they sought urgently. It had been set alight and pushed off the Governor’s Bay side of the Summit Road about 120 m down a rocky, bush-clad hillside.

The car is believed to have been pushed from a lay-by about 500 m on the Gebbies Pass side of the Sign of the Kiwi. The attempt to hide and damage the car is a startling development in the investigation in the bombing of a truck driven by Mr Drinkwater.

He died at the Mogal Bin Services depot in Waterloo Road, Sockburn, a week ago after a device wired to the door of a truck cab exploded. Detective Inspector David Haslett, who heads the investigation, said last

evening that the police were »following strong leads into people being on the Port Hills near where the car was pushed from the road. He urged the people to get in touch with the police. "We would like to make contact with them ur-

gently,” said Mr Haslett. “It would be better for them to call us than for us to find them.” Mr Haslett also appealed for anyone who saw a 1968 Vauxhall Victor on the Summit Road last evening to get in touch with the homicide base at the Christchurch

Central Police Station. The car had primer paint on the left rear guard and the licence plate D 05455. It was reported stolen from Blenheim Road on February 17. Anyone who saw such a

car being taken from a garage yesterday is also asked to call the police.

Mr Haslett confirmed that the police believed the vehicle found on the hillside was the one sought by detectives.

It appeared that those in possession of the vehicle had panicked after publicity about it yesterday, he said.

A Governor’s Bay resident saw the glow from the burning car about 6.40 p.m. and called the bay’s volunteer fire brigade.

Firemen could do little when they reached the scene. The car had been badly damaged. It appeared to have been pushed from a small shingle lay-by which overlooked Lyttelton Harbour.

Access to the bumt-out vehicle is difficult and it must be presumed that it was put there in the hope

that it would not be found.

A police guard was kept on the vehicle overnight. The vehicle is expected to be hauled up the hillside for examination this morning.

The police seem to have ruled out the possibility of gang involvement in the death of Mr Drinkwater.

“The widely reported rumour of possible gang involvement cannot be supported by any information received to date,” said Mr Haslett.

It was believed that the device was intentionally set for Mr Drinkwater, he said.

Mr Haslett said that the inquiry remained “broadbased.” He declined to specify what lines of investigations were being pursued, but said that the police had spoken to many people.