Few leads after a year

Press, 28 December 1988, Page 7

Few leads after a year

PA Auckland A year after a Taupo roofer, Milton Channing, vanished the police are no nearer to solving the mystery of his disappearance. If anyone knows why the 23-year-old roofer never made it to a Coromandel Peninsula town, he or she is not saying. The police know Mr Channing left the family home on New Year’s Eve to join some friends, and talked another male friend out of making the trip with him. His reasons for dissuading the friend from travelling with him were not nefarious, according to Detective Sergeant Joe Mickelson, of the Taupo police. Mr Channing was not reported missing until January 5, when friends returning to Taupo said they had not seen him.

The police now believe the missing man’s distinctive white utility was left on the side of Forest Road in the Mokai Forest, north-west of Taupo, the day he left for Whangamata. They think the missing man went straight from his home to the spot, Detective Sergeant Mickelson said. The vehicle was left on the side of the road and its stripped shell was found in a remote part of the forest six months later by two hunters.

Mr Channing’s disappearance was not thought to be connected with the stripping of the utility. Detective Sergeant Mickelson has dismissed the numerous suggestions on why the utility was left on Forest Road as mostly speculation. It was fairly obvious Mr Channing was dead but, without a body, the police had nothing to go on.