The bodies of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope have never been found.
GERALD Hope is no closer to knowing what happened to his daughter Olivia today than when she disappeared in 1998 along with her friend Ben Smart.
Scott Watson was convicted for the pair’s murder in 1999, but questions still remain over the case that has captivated and troubled New Zealanders for almost 20 years.
A recently released book on the murder of Ms Hope, 17, and Mr Smart, 21, has put forward a new theory on their disappearance.
But Mr Hope told news.com.au until his daughter’s body was found and he knew exactly what happened on New Year’s Eve in 1997 there would be no closure.
CASE THAT HAS CAPTIVATED A NATION
December 31 1997. New Zealand’s beautiful Marlborough Sounds is full of thousands of partygoers ready to welcome in a New Year.
Among the revellers were two friends Mr Smart and Ms Hope. But also lurking among the drinking, dancing, waterways and islands, was another man. Their murderer.
The young friends were last seen on a water taxi as they headed back to land, early on New Year’s Day, after discovering there was no room on the boat they’d planned to sleep on.
A mystery man also on the water taxi offered them a place on his boat. They accepted his kind offer, stepped off onto the boat and were never seen again.
So began what has been dubbed the ‘Sounds Murders’. It has captivated and troubled New Zealanders for almost 20 years.
But it’s no cold case — police charged a man, Scott Watson, with murder relatively quickly after he emerged as a suspect early in the investigation. He was convicted of double murder the following year amid massive publicity during an 11-week trial.
For many it was case closed. Certainly for police. But the controversy in this case has centred largely around lingering doubts about whether they got the right man; the tactics they used during the inquiry, and whether under-pressure homicide detectives were so tunnel-visioned they obsessed over the wrong suspect, who had a criminal history and was in the right place at the wrong time.
Of course, there are many who believe Watson was guilty as charged. He was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years in 1999 and has always maintained his innocence.
He has been denied parole and a pardon by the Governor-general despite a campaign by supporters who have been relentless in asking questions about the case brought against him.
Olivia Hope and Ben Smart ... Their bodies have never been found.Source:Supplied
Much of the controversy revolves around what sort of boat Mr Smart and Ms Hope got onto. The water taxi driver, Guy Wallace, gave evidence that it was a two mastered ketch, but Watson’s yacht, The Blade, was small single-masted sloop.
And unusually in successful murder cases, the bodies were never found. The police case was they were both killed aboard Watson’s yacht and their bodies dumped at sea in the Cook Strait, which separates the North and South Islands.
Now a new book, Elementary, has shattered that theory. Using witness statements taken by police during the inquiry — that have never before been made public — investigative journalist Ian Wishart claims the pair’s bodies were not dumped at sea, but taken onto land and possibly buried. Most sensationally, he alleges Watson had an accomplice, something that has never been suggested before.
THE NEW CLAIMS
One of the most controversial statements was one made from one of three men who told police they watched a yacht pull into a bay in the Sounds early on New Year’s Day 1998.
One man watched two men “unload” from the boat to a dinghy what appeared to be “a big bag or sack ... of similar size to him,” reported theNew Zealand Herald.
There were two bags moved with difficulty into the dinghy which then went to shore, out of the line of sight of the three witnesses who were watching from a balcony on a hill above the bay.
“Look at that guy. It looks like he is trying to get rid of some bodies,” one of the statements said.
A statement taken from a third person supported that view. “I commented ... That he was right and it did look like they were trying to get rid of some bodies.”
There were two men involved, one passing the “heavy looking” bundles down to the other who was in the dinghy.
They initially laughed at the suggestions, but called police when they heard Mr Smart and Ms Hope were missing.
The Herald reports Wishart wrote in the book that was probably the last time the missing friends were seen.
Scott Watson is taken to the Christchurch District Court in a police car before being charged with the murder of Ben Smart and Oliva Hope. Picture: Paddy Dillon/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
“And there the trail ends,” Wishart writes. “The last known probable sightings of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. What happened next? Scott Watson knows, and one or two accomplices still out there who helped dispose of the bodies.”
The claims are such a bombshell because — while the book agrees the police did indeed get the right man — it differs widely about how they think Watson went about it.
Doubt is cast on the official theory about Watson’s movements on the days after the pair disappeared and also contains allegations that one of the two men was seen painting the Blade even while it was still at sea.
There are further claims around the mystery ketch that was seen in the Sounds on New Year’s Day that has been the subject of so much speculation — and denials by police that it ever existed in the first place.
In an interview to publicise the book Wishart slammed police for twisting evidence to neatly fit their theory the bodies were dumped at sea, therefore easily explaining why they have never been found.
Not examining the possibility Watson sailed south instead of north allowed doubt and suspicion to creep into the case — something that has fuelled speculation and fed conspiracy theories ever since.
“Having now seen the evidence they didn’t use but should have used, I’m absolutely confident Scott Watson is the killer of Ben and Olivia,” Wishart said.
RETRACTIONS, DENIALS, CONTROVERSY
The most important witness, Guy Wallace, the water taxi operator, has been a controversial figure from the beginning. His evidence was naturally closely examined — what was his memory of the man Mr Smart and Ms Hope left with? And what sort of boat did they get on?
He has maintained he left them on a ketch, even though Watson’s boat The Blade was not.
There were other issues with his evidence. He initially identified Watson as the mystery man but later retracted the identification.
He was far from the only person connected with the Sounds Murders to do that.
Another witness who also identified Watson at first later changed her account, and suggested she was manipulated by police. Roz McNeilly said she served him in a bar on New Year’s Eve, but later said she couldn’t be sure.
As with many controversial cases this one featured a prison informant. This person alleged Watson confessed in prison. He too later retracted his confession.
Olivia Hope was 17 when she was killed.Source:Supplied
The witness identification process is one of the most crucial in any criminal inquiry. But the credibility and integrity of the process in this case had shortcomings so therefore has allowed doubt to fester. The identikit image issued by police at the time, as part of their appeal, was of a man with shoulder-length hair and unshaven. This jars with pictures taken of Watson on the night in question, where he has short hair and is clean shaven.
The shortcomings in the inquiry were examined by the police watchdog The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), which in an eagerly-awaited report in 2010, ruled the investigation did in fact fall short in some areas.
However, the report found they didn’t have any significant bearing on the outcome.
With regards to the identification process, the report said the construction of photo montages of Watson, and the methods used to show them to witnesses, were undesirable — as was a detective showing a suspect profile of Watson to a community group. One of the pictures shown of Watson had his eyes half closed.
But the report rejected accusations that police effectively set up Watson.
OLIVIA’S FATHER: ‘WHAT HAPPENED AND WHERE ARE THEY’
Gerald Hope is no closer to knowing what happened to his daughter today than he was in 1998 when she vanished. Or in 1999 when Scott Watson was convicted for her murder.
The release of Elementary brought mixed emotions for him and his family.
“I welcome anything that provides any new information. My primary motivation is to somehow, some way, find the truth about the disappearance of our daughter.”
But that meant painful “raw” memories returning.
In the face of Watson’s denials and the never-ending speculation, Mr Hope has maintained he has an open mind about what went on. He has even offered to meet Watson in jail to look him in the eye and hear him out.
But he hasn’t got a theory about what happened.
“There is no way I can think about anything more that hasn’t already been presented by the Crown or what Ian Wishart has recently published. We’re all second guessing,” he told news.com.au.
The book contained information he was unaware of. “They provided a different scenario as to what could have happened during the early hours of [January 1] and subsequently the next two days. So there are big differences there.”
The suggested new movements “leapt out at me”, he said.
“The prosecution put forward the best story they could possibly present and defend. I can understand that. We were none the wiser, no one was — other than Ben and Olivia and whoever perpetrated their disappearance.”
Gerald Hope just wants answers.Source:Supplied
Mr Hope said the major problem that had dogged them, and the case, from the very start was it was circumstantial.
“There was no conclusive evidence and that’s been the sticking point from day two and three from when Olivia didn’t come here.”
The only DNA evidence was two blonde hairs matched to Ms Hope from a blanket inside Watson’s yacht. They were not found on the first search of 400 hairs but were discovered on the second search. That was the same day Ms Hope’s hairbrush was present in the forensic laboratory.
“The Crown case which was supported by jury was the best scenario that was available to all of us,” Mr Hope said. “But there were sticking points. That whole night was around revelry and enjoyment with 2000 other people, there was drinking, dancing ... Their memories would be jaded and then become faded ...”
The police investigation was the largest and most expensive New Zealand had seen at the time and there were as many as 7000 witness statements.
But in the end it all boiled down to a few simple things, Mr Hope said.
“If new information comes to light — which would be the recovery of bodies, or if someone said ‘I was there and this is what happened’ or whatever, or the perpetrator ‘fessed up and said ‘This is it and I’m guilty.’”
The book’s theories were plausible and “run really well”. But still there was no proof and no definitive answers.
“The questions we still have are still there. What happened and where are they? We are not naively blundering on but are hopeful something will come available one day that will conclusively say what happened and where they are. And that’s closure for us.”
andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au