Three charged with student’s murder

Press, 21 October 1989, Page 1

Three charged with student’s murder

By

CHRIS MAHONY

in Timaru

Three youths, aged 19, have been charged with the murder of a Massey University student who disappeared more than two years ago while on a ski-ing holiday in the South Island. j The arrests came 24 hours after the police discovered a body in a shallow grave at the northern end of Lindis Pass. The police have yet to positively identify the body as/hat of Craig David Merryweather, who was 20 when he disappeared, but

Detective Inspector Harry Hawthorn said the police were convinced that the student had “met a violent end” near the site of the grave. Palmerston North detectives travelled to the area, between Oinarama and Tarras, on Thursday, following an upgrading of the inquiry after the case was highlighted on television’s “Crimewatch” last week. Mr Hawthorn said progress in the case was a direct result of information received after the programme. He appealed for a

woman who had provided them with vital information to contact the police again. Mr Merryweather was last seen on August 16, 1987, on a Cook Strait ferry heading for a ski-ing holiday in Queenstown. Skis he had forwarded to Queenstown were not collected and his ski boots and several items of clothing were found down a bank near Picton on August 18. The three men arrested yesterday were all originally from the Palmerston North area but

one has recently being living in Hastings. Two youths, aged 19, appeared in the District Court at Palmerston North charged with murder and another youth, aged 19, appeared , in, the Children and Young Persons Court, because he was aged 16 at . the time of the alleged offence. All the accused were remanded in custody until next Thursday by Judge Toomey. No pleas* were entered and all names were suppressed.