Cardno case raises other unsolved ones

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 9

Cardno case raises other unsolved ones

PA Wellington As the days pass and the whereabouts of the Hutt Valley schoolgirl, Karla Cardno, remain a mystery, residents’ thoughts are turning to other unsolved cases involving the disappearance of young women.

One was Marion Granville, aged 29, who disappeared from her Naenae home on August 30, 1980.

She has not been seen since two men drove off with her in a white sedan after she had told her three children she was going to a dairy. Her car was returned mysteriously to her home about two hours later.

Mrs Granville had been due to appear in court to face a drugs charge with her de facto husband. A number of theories were put forward — abduction, absconding from bail, a conspiracy to start a new life elsewhere — but, in spite of massive searches, she was never found. Another case was that of Wendy Catherine Mayes, aged 16, believed to have been murdered by a butcher and storekeeper, John Frederick Maltby, in September 1961. She had replied to his advertisement for photographic models and was seen with him the night she disappeared. Maltby, who had a criminal record in both England and Australia, was ques-

tioned, but there were insufficient grounds to hold him. Although the police kept a watch on his home he gave them the slip. Several days later his body was found on the beach at Island Bay. He had apparently committed suicide. No trace of Wendy Mayes’ body was found. Other mysterious disappearances in the North Island include those of Mona Blades, aged 18, last seen hitch-hiking from Hamilton to Hastings 14 years ago yesterday, Kirsa Jensen, the Napier teen-ager whose horse was left riderless on the beach in September, 1983; and Yvonne Bennett, aged 24, missing from her R.N.Z.A.F. Hobsonville home since April, 1982. Other unsolved cases where the bodies were found; • Maureen McKinnel, aged 38, murdered on Boxing Day, 1987, at her parents’ Arrowtown home. • Teresa Cormack, aged 6, abducted on her way to school in Napier on June 19, 1987. • Tracey Ann Patient, aged 13, murdered in Henderson on January 29, 1976. • Olive Walker, aged 18, whose body was found in a rest area south of Rotorua on May 15, 1970. • Jennifer Beard, aged 25, a holidaying school teacher whose body was found under the Haast River Bridge in January, 1970.