Police deny arrest of murderer near

Press, 30 August 1989, Page 8

Police deny arrest of murderer near

The police have ruled out an imminent arrest in the Martin Reid murder inquiry amid revelations yesterday that his real father is a convicted drug runner, Wayne Beri. After four months of intensive investigation, the suspect list has been narrowed to a small group of Christchurch people heavily involved In the drug scene. Mr Reid was shot dead in the Garry riverbed near Oxford 15 months ago. This was after a drug deal he was involved with turned sour, detectives believed.

“We’re not going to make an arrest tomorrow or the next day. But we’re far more optimistic now than we were six months ago,” Detective Inspector Paul Johnstone said last evening. Only two detectives are now working parttime on the inquiry, but information gained during recent investigations had taken the

police closer to solving the case, he said. Mr Johnstone has declined to comment on the relationship between Reid and Beri, but “Press” sources said the revelation was purely coincidental. It was believed Mr Reid did not know who his natural father was, and Beri learnt of it only recently. Beri, who is serving a life sentence in Paremoremo maximum security jail in Auckland, was 15 when he fathered Mr Reid. The baby was adopted out a week later.

“Press” sources said that if Mr Reid, who made out he was a big time drug dealer, had known who his real father was, he would have boasted about it.

Beri, aged 43, has spent most of the last 13 years behind bars. He was released from prison in August, 1984, after serving 8y 2 years of a 13-year sentence on a heroin charge.

One year later he and

eight others were arrested after a threemonth police investigation code-named Operation Fruit.

It was alleged that he was a key player in a New Zealand-wide heroin importing ring. He later admitted charges of possession of heroin for supply and conspiracy to supply. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the High Court at Auckland.

Mr Reid had tried to find the identities of his birth parents through the Adult Adoption Act before he died. The application was declined at the request of his birth mother. Like Beri, Mr Reid was the father of the children of two women. He was engaged to both women at the same time.

Beri was a top rugby league player in Canterbury during the early 19705. Mr Reid was a recognised sprinter in his youth and a useful rugby union player.