(EERIE, FOREBODING MUSIC) - Where has he gone? Why would a smoker leave his house with a new packet of baccy sitting in his room, his cell phone in the lounge of the house? He was inseparable from his cell phone. - Bodies just can't get up and walk away. - From the outset, the disappearance of 43-year-old Bevan Wright seemed sinister. - You start to suspect just about everybody. - Bevan was last seen returning from his job sheep-shearing at 1.30pm on Wednesday the 9th of January 2008. - He had his gear with him, so he put that in the laundry at the address and then headed off to his bedroom. - And he's never been seen again. - There's got to be more to what's going on. Just not knowing is... It's not fair. It just really isn't. Bevan deserves more than this. - Police believe it's never too late to solve a cold case, but your help is imperative. They've brought together a team of highly experienced investigators to review some of New Zealand's most haunting unsolved murders. They'll use their skills, expertise and up-to-date technology to look at things with fresh eyes. - There are a number of matters that require explanation, and the reality is Bevan has still not been found, and he needs to be. - There is no obvious reason why Bevan Wright... is not with us today. - We want to put this to rest for the family. We wanna find out. We want to know the truth. - Can you help us find Bevan Wright? (UNSETTLING MUSIC) Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2020 - Bevan Wright was reported missing by his mother, Gwen, on the 7th of February 2008. The day prior to that, she had gone to the address of 19 Beattie St in Feilding, where Bevan had been living for the past two months. - A contract shearer, Bevan lived at Beattie St with his younger sister Janelle and her two daughters. - And Janelle and said to her mother that Bevan hadn't been at the address for some time. Her big concern was the fact that he had been away and had not been in contact with her for a month. - I knew something was wrong. Hm. Well, and then I reported him missing to the police. - Going off on his own was totally in character for Bevan, but not touching base with anyone immediately set off alarm bells. - Bevan Wright was a very independent person. He would go away and it could be, like, a week at a time where he didn't make contact with people, but at the end of the day, he did always contact his mother at some point. - He just, like, would randomly (CHUCKLES) be there. No warning, no justification, no why he was coming; it was just, like, he was there, and, 'You should've known I was coming.' (LAUGHS) And he'd never stay for long. He'd just pop in ` check you out, sand things out, make sure everything was going to plan ` and off he'd go again. - He was a caring person who was a very reliable employee. He had a small social set, and he wasn't a person to frequent the local hotels. - (CHATTER) - Bevan was funny. He was a contradiction. He was reserved, self-contained. - (CHATTER CONTINUES) - CHILD: Mum? He was old for his age. He was an old man in a young person's body. He... had good work ethics. He looked after his own. He never owed money. He had very strong will, very strong boundaries he wouldn't cross. - Bevan also had a daughter, who he adored. - Absolutely his world. Um, everything he did and thought of was for Indy, and when he talked about her, his face changed, you know? - Indy recalls that every birthday, Bevan would not fail to contact her and say, 'Hey, happy birthday, kid.' - Bevan Wright had had interactions with the police on a few occasions ` of minor nature, so minor driving matters and minor drug-related matters. He had no association with any serious criminal activity that we were aware of and certainly no aggressive or violent history that raised any concerns for us. - But there were immediate problems. The original inquiry team was already four weeks behind. - The delay in reporting Bevan missing impacted the investigation and created challenges around people not being able to recall what they had seen or heard on that day that he went missing. The first things you look for in relation to a missing person case is the when, where and by whom they were last seen. So in this case, for Bevan, we went to the address and spoke to his sister, who lived there at the time as well. We also conducted an examination of the address. We had been investigating the matter for two months at that stage, and my team had looked at all avenues of enquiry, such as bank accounts, phone records, immigration, his employers... - And his car was still parked, locked, on the front lawn of Beattie St, and, most worryingly, he still hadn't contacted family. - On March the 10th 2008, the investigation into Bevan's disappearance was upgraded to a homicide inquiry. - You know... (EXHALES SHAKILY) Bevan's, like,... dead, and you sorta try and cope with it, and then you walk down the street and, like, something just up and` It just hits you. You see people in a doorway and you think, 'Hey, that` 'No, no. No, it's not.' And it just... It brings it all up constantly. We can't finalise anything. We can't say, 'Bevan's passed; Bevan's at peace,' cos he's not. - The effects on a small town such as Feilding are quite significant. There's a lot of rumours when you've got an investigation of this nature. - You get all sorts of stuff given to you. Some is direct ` 'My name's John Smith, 'and I heard so-and-so say this and so-and-so say that.' They're easy. The other ones are the anonymous phone calls that say, 'Hey, you need to go and take some shovels out to such-and-such an address, 'because Bevan Wright 'is buried there.' Those bits and snippets of information cannot be ignored. - You hear rumours and... supposed theories, but there's no finalisation. It's always under the next stone. I know he's dead, and I... really think he was murdered. But this not knowing and not having anything to base anything on tends` leads you to suspicions, and I don't like being like that. It makes you suspect people and things that` You've got absolutely no proof, but you` Little theories keep just popping in and popping out. And that's where we are at. We've got no idea, really. Like I said, there's somebody that knows a whole lot more than they're sayin'. We just need to know what's going on with Bevan, where he is... and get him home. - I have never forgotten Bevan Wright, and I've also always worried and wondered where Bevan actually is. This is not about the police, this is not about me, but it's about the family, and, actually, we want to come to a conclusion. We want to know the truth. We want to know why Bevan disappeared. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) (UNEASY MUSIC) - On the 9th of January 2008, in the small rural town of Feilding, Bevan Wright simply disappeared. 12 years later, the murder remains unsolved, and Bevan's body has never been found. We have brought together three experienced officers to delve deeper into the Bevan Wright file. Leading our review will be Detective Senior Sgt Craig Sheridan. - This is a case where there is a lot of unanswered questions, and I hold a view that if we can answer some of those questions by further investigation, that's gonna take us a long way to finding out where Bevan is, what happened to him and if there was a third person involved. - Assisting him is Detective Sgt Grayson Joines, who's been reviewing the case and searching for any new information. - Why did Bevan disappear? I don't know. Somebody out there does know. Somebody was with Bevan when he was killed, and someone knows where Bevan is now. - And Inspector Jeanette Park, who was part of the original investigation. - His body would have had to have been removed. It has to have been somewhere ` it's occurred somewhere ` and then the body has to have been disposed of. - Three detectives; one cold case. It's time for the Bevan Wright investigation to begin. We will also be looking to you, the viewer, to help solve this case. - Well, hey, thanks for the meeting today, Grayson and Jeanette. To start off, can we talk about the last day that we know Bevan has interacted with people? - Yes. Um, Bevan left for work that day round about 6 o'clock in the morning. The first person that we speak to that can confirm his presence that day is when he's dropped off after shearing at 1.30 in the afternoon. Usually, it'd expected that he'd work until about 6 o'clock, but they got rained off early that day, so they got dropped off early. - That's exactly right. I think he was dropped off about 1.30 at the BP, and it's only 200m to his house. - And he was actually seen by members of the shearing gang walking towards his house. - That sequence of events, would that be normally what would happen on a day-to-day basis, like day after day after day? - He wasn't a person that would come home, dump his gear and then perhaps off down the road to the pub each night. And his sister explained that he was a fairly private sort of person within their house and more or less spent a lot of time in his bedroom. - So Bevan... goes to his sister's place, where he's staying, and stays there? - Well, that's the question. We accept that he arrived at his house, because his shearing gear's there. He then goes into his bedroom, and we have no further sightings of Bevan Wright since about 2pm on Wednesday the 9th of January 2008. - (TRAIN TRACKS RATTLE) - What was happening in that family that day or the days around that? Was` Is there anything that occurred that we need to know about? Was there any friction in the air? - While Bevan was at work the day he went missing, his nephew Jesse Wright, the oldest child of Bevan's sister Janelle, had asked to come back to 19 Beattie St to pick up some of his clothes. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) - There was challenges with Jesse's relationship with his mother, and Bevan had tried to, sort of, instil respect into his behaviour, and respect for his mother, because he showed a lot of, um, animosity towards his mother and wasn't respectful. - I think things came to a head around about Christmas/New Year of 2007. - (CHATTER, LAUGHTER ECHOES) - (LOUD ROCK MUSIC PLAYS) - Janelle had some friends around for New Year's Eve. Things got out of hand with Jesse and Janelle that particular night. Janelle had had enough. She sought some help, and Jesse was trespassed from her address. Jesse rang Janelle saying that he needed some clothing from the house. - That's correct. So he's gone back to the address approximately 11 o'clock,... - Yes. - ...and the things that he was looking for were out at the front of the property. - He wasn't happy with just picking up the bag of clothes that Mum had put outside for him. She went out. A discussion took place. Things got out of hand. - And Jesse picked up a shoe and threw it at the window. - (GLASS SHATTERS, CLINKS) - To everybody's surprise, Jesse turned up at the Feilding Police Station, hands in the air, and said, 'Hey, I think you'll be looking for me.' - And did anything come of that? - Charged with intentional damage. - Oh, he was? OK. - Mm. - Yeah. - So, he was bailed from the Feilding Police Station that day. - The police were well aware of the history in that family. It was pointless just bailing Jesse back out on to the street, so Jesse's auntie in Kawakawa Rd said, 'I'll look after Jesse. Bring him round to my place.' So just after 1 o'clock that day, Jesse was dropped off at his auntie's place. - So what I'm hearin' from, uh, you guys is there are clearly some warning flags... arising. (OMINOUS MUSIC) - When Bevan arrived home, Janelle said nothing to her brother about Jesse's meltdown. Bevan went to his room, and she and her younger daughter went out for a walk. - Janelle had been at home with her daughter ` so, one of her daughters had been unwell and was on the couch. - Ah, that's right. The little one. - Yes. Yes,... - Yeah. - ...the youngest one, yes. And Janelle believed they'd gone to the supermarket and they weren't away for any longer than about three hours. - (NOKIA RINGTONE CHIMES, BUZZES) - Soon after Janelle returned, there was a call to Bevan's cell phone. - Janelle answered the phone. - Oh, OK. - It turned out to be Bevan's employer, and he was ringing to confirm that, no, Bevan didn't have work on Thursday the... 10th of January. - 10th. Yup. - Janelle had said that Bevan didn't want her answering his phone. He was quite particular about his phone; he always had it with him and always contacted people. She` Actually, she went looking for him, too, didn't she? - She knocked on Bevan's door. There was no answer. She went out to the laundry, called out to Bevan; he wasn't, obviously, in the backyard, so she answered the phone. Janelle said she then turned off Bevan's phone and she placed it on the dresser. - What time was that call? - 5.49pm, on... - ...that same day? - Yes, the 9th of January. - Yeah, on the 9th. - OK. - Now, it's very, very interesting that that is one firm point we have in this investigation. His phone never... was active since then. - Following that. - The phone call at 5.49pm was about to become crucial to the investigation. - So between 1.30 and 6 o'clock, Bevan has disappeared into thin air. Somebody knows what happened at that address between 1.30 and 6 o'clock. - Four weeks after Bevan is reported missing, and the team is beginning to suspect foul play. The house is searched. - We had, um, the ESR in there, of course,... - OK. - ...and, uh, fingerprints. We had luminol at the address as well, looking for blood and anything that might show or help us in relation to his disappearance. - And, as detectives, we always get excited with blood,... - We do. - ...especially when there's luminol testing. - Mm. - So... This was a small three-bedroom bungalow. Without exception, there were droplets of blood ` really could only be identified by luminol testing ` in every bedroom. - (LENS WHIRRS) - (SHUTTER CLICKS) - So the luminol's picked it up,... - Yes. - ...it's not a big amount,... - No, exactly. - No. - ...and it's not visible to the eye? - No. - There was no area in that house... - Yeah. - ...where an obvious altercation or disturbance had taken place. - Yeah. - But police were able to pinpoint crucial belongings of Bevan's that were missing. - So, that's the phone` - Well, that was my obvious question, whether the phone... - Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yup, the phone, his wallet... His car was still parked on the` - Oh, yeah, of course. - ...um, at the address, with` and it was locked, but the key was not there. - And I think they lead straight away to just reinforcing that, 'Hang on. This isn't just someone (CHUCKLES) who's gone for a walk; 'There's something sinister involved here.' A new packet of baccy ` he had his roll-your-owns ` - Yes. - that was sitting in his bedroom, and one of the children at the address also mentioned that 'Uncle Sleeping Bag' was missing. - Yes. - And that was a green sleeping bag with a yellow liner, and that item has not been located. - Yeah. So it's started to not look` So, when we start talking about some of the scenarios around him going bush` - Not looking quite so good. - CHUCKLES: No, exactly. - You got no cell phone, no wallet... - Nope. Nope. - ...and no Bevan. - Mm. - The concerning thing is his cell phone. Why wouldn't he take his cell phone with him? - Bevan's cell phone was at the house at 5.49pm, but Bevan himself had already vanished, and now, eight weeks later, after his disappearance, the phone is nowhere to be found. Police turn their attention to possible motives. Did Bevan have enemies? Had he got in over his head, possibly with the drug scene? - There was a small leather bag that contained eight syringes, a little plastic bag of white powder, and they were sent off to the ESR for analysis. It came back that... Bevan's DNA was on three of the syringes, that five of the syringes had remnants of meth attached to them. - Oh, OK. - But there was certainly nothing in his history or his background that showed that he had any connection to any serious criminal activity. - So, when I'm saying he had no enemies, he had no debts, he wasn't involved in the drug world, I also have to be quite open and say, 'I don't know what I don't know. 'I only know what's on the file.' - And it was about to get more tangled, with the amount of unsubstantiated leads that were coming in. - From two separate sources, information was received along the lines that Bevan's body had been buried in the area of the Aorangi Bridge. And one of those sources of information actually said he had been placed in the workings of the bridge,... - Mm. - ...because in 2006, 2007, the bridge was still undergoing repairs. We were able to put the burial site to bed, so to speak, in that we categorically can show that all the workings on that bridge were completed in December 2007. - Mm. - Therefore, Bevan's body cannot be buried in the piles of the bridge. - That's correct. - OK. - Three years after Bevan went missing, police receive two calls from a phone box in nearby Dannevirke about another bridge. - 'Bevan Wright's body is buried near a bridge 'in the area of Mt Bruce.' Police went down there, searched the area and, in fact, found what appeared to be a burial site. - Yeah. - There was blue tarpaulin there, and wrapped up in the blue tarpaulin were bones. - Mm. - The bones were later examined by a pathologist, and ` obviously, to the family's relief ` it was not Bevan's remains, and they were the remains of an animal. Hm. - It's interesting, though ` so someone was sufficiently motivated to make that call. - The call. Yeah. - Yeah. - Police have never been able to identify that caller and still think there's more information to be had. Can you help police solve the murder of Bevan Wright? (UNSETTLING MUSIC) VOICEOVER: Wholegrains - aren't they great? That's why we put every single bit of these wholegrains into our snacks. Delicious. Try Micellar Cleansing Water. Micelles work like a magnet, not only removing make-up it cleanses dirt and impurities and soothes sensitive skin for the cleanest skin every day. Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water by Garnier, naturally. * - The Cold Case detectives are re-examining the 2008 disappearance of 43-year-old Bevan Wright. When Bevan left his Feilding home, either voluntarily or forcibly, his phone was still there; his sister had answered it. But later, when police searched the address, the phone was missing. - The morning of the 8th of January 2008, so the day before Bevan was last seen,... - Yup? - ...he had sent a text down to a previous employer in the South Island ` so it was somebody that employed him down there ` and the text went along the lines of, 'Can you contact me urgently?' - So Bevan sent that text? - Yeah. So, of course` But` - Or Bevan's phone sent that text. - Yes. - So, what we were able to determine from the telco data we received was that... Bevan's phone, when it was used to send the text message to Timaru, it was at 5.59 in the morning, and it pinged off the cell phone tower in Feilding. So I would suggest that at that time of the morning, Bevan was up for the purposes of going to work. - Mm. He would've been in the van, more than likely. - Yes. - Mm. - That phone message, or text message, was not noticed by the receiver until that evening. They tried to contact Bevan ` and there was no reply ` because they were a little concerned about the tone of the text message. Was this Bevan calling out for help? Was this Bevan in trouble? - Further telco data revealed a string of unanswered calls to Bevan's phone, and, even more interesting, subsequent investigation revealed escalating tensions between Jesse and Bevan. - There was no secret ` in 2007, Jesse and Bevan were not the best of friends. Over the Christmas period, Bevan had mixed with other family members, and he had reinforced to those family members that he was really concerned about the way Jesse was treating his mum, and even made a comment to one of his family friends that, um, Jesse better be careful or else he could well end up putting him in hospital. - A friend of Jesse's repeated to police what Jesse had said ` 'Bevan hates me and will kill me one day.' - So I'm hearing a story that around the time that we're focusing on, there is still tension in the air. - Yeah, absolutely. - Yes. Yeah. - Jesse was still at his auntie's, and soon after Bevan vanished, Janelle and one of her daughters went to visit friends in Dannevirke for two weeks. But at Beattie St, there were things that didn't quite add up. - There's just a couple of things that cause me concern ` the food in the house wasn't rotten, hadn't gone off in a month; the dog that belonged to Bevan was still at the house, and it wasn't dead on the end of a leash. So somebody had to have been at the address during that time. We don't know. - Could it be Jesse, or not? - It could well have been Jesse. - Could be` Yeah. - Yeah. - No one knows. Mm. - The other thing was ` before the end of February, Janelle had arranged to have Bevan's dog euthanised. That seemed a little bit strange, um, that... maybe she could have asked around ` did somebody want to look after the dog? Because when Bevan returns, I'm sure he wouldn't be that happy about hearing that Janelle had put his dog down. - A little earlier on the briefing, we spoke about cars. So, we know... that Bevan's car was parked at the Beattie St address; and you also spoke about a family car, a red car. Did that lead us anywhere? - Information came to the inquiry team by way of a signed statement in which the maker of the statement said she was at her home address one evening in January 2008. - Mm. - She was sitting outside on the front doorstep, having a smoke, and a red car was parked in the driveway next to her. She describes in her statement as, (READS) 'I heard some knocking 'coming from the boot area of that car.' - (EXHALES HEAVILY) - The person was concerned and repeated to her companion... - READS: 'There's something strange with that car. 'I can hear knocking noises coming out of it.' - The person replied... - READS: 'Yes, you will. We used the vehicle 'to transport a body.' - Oh my God. - READS: 'It was a guy who died at a house. 'He had blood coming out his mouth and nose. 'We wrapped him in a white sheet, 'put his body in the car and transported it to a place 'where it will never be found.' - And so when that information came in, the immediate thought is, 'We need to find that car.' - Police turn their attention to everyone connected to the red car. - So, Jesse was spoken to about this car, about his mother's car, and he told the investigators he had crashed that car, had hit his head on the steering wheel and had broken a tooth; that he had then taken the car to a location on Makino Rd, Fielding and had set fire to it, and it was burnt out. - (EXHALES) OK. - And enquiries were made in Makino Rd, and, sure enough, there we located an area where a motor vehicle had been burnt out. We then made enquiries with the fire service to find out that that car... was burnt out... - Mm. - ...in mid-2007... - Oh. Yep, all right. - ...and was not Jesse's mother's car. The car that Jesse's mother had owned was located at a wreckage yard in Feilding. - The car was thoroughly examined,... - Yeah. - ...but it came up with a negative result. - Although the forensic examination produced nothing, police did establish that a person had tried to sell the red car to the wrecker only seven days after Bevan had gone missing. After turning the sale down... - The wrecker later found the car just dumped outside his premises with the wheels gone and the battery gone. The red car, the knocking in the boot, the false story about disposing of the car, then the locating of the car ` that was one of the real highs of this investigation. 'We're on to it. We've got it.' So Jesse had, for whatever reason, made up the story about burning out his mother's car. - Mm. - All right. Well, that's, uh, from what I've heard so far, probably the most interesting path... - Yes, and` - ...that you went down? - Yes, and it sort of brings` This is bringing Jesse into the, yeah, inquiry well and truly. 'Has he put himself in there to be, sort of, part of it, 'or, actually, does he need to be in there?' Mm. - I know Bevan was at 19 Beattie St on the 9th of January 2008. What happened to Bevan? Somebody took Bevan away, or Bevan went away with somebody; I need that person or persons, please, to contact us. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) (SOMBRE MUSIC) - More than a decade on, the body of Bevan Wright has never been found. Although the Cold Case team believe people close to him know more than they're letting on, the detectives also know how important it is to keep an open mind. - 12 years ago, when I first stepped into the inquiry, you know, we had a` what we believed, sort of, initially, was, really, a straightforward missing person case. But it's sort of a ` uh, how would you put it? ` a weave of intrigue, really. We've got red vehicles; we've got nothing located at the house; we've got items missing from Bevan, which is items that he would ordinarily have with him; and burial sites ` the Aorangi bridge. Well, probably the challenge is to work out from` between fact and fiction. The big thing is we want all the information, you know, we could get, because you never know, and something that might seem unimportant that day could become very important later on the inquiry, cos` as you piece it together. - Yeah. So you need to get it to exclude it,... - Yeah, absolutely. - ...then try and find it. - We're the best people... - Yeah. - ...to look at the information that's coming in and decide whether it's relevant or store it till we can use it later. - Was there any themes around the information you're getting? Were you hearing a whole lot of rumours about... anything? About Bevan, about what happened to him? - Well, there's` there's one in particular. - In January in 2008, a family friend saw Bevan at a farm supply shop in Feilding. - This gentleman got in his car and then started driving back to Pongaroa via the Manawatu Gorge. As he approached the Manawatu Gorge, he noticed a red car come up fast behind him. This vehicle was behind him for some time. It then pulled out and passed him. As the vehicle went past him, he saw Bevan sitting in the front passenger seat, and Bevan was mouthing, 'Help me. Help me.' And the car drove past him... - (EXHALES) - Mm. - ...and disappeared towards Woodville. - Although the dates of when this occurred and Bevan went missing don't quite align, police have never discounted it and are now prepared to reveal a recent tip-off. - In June 2018, the team was supplied with information which suggested that Bevan had been taken to the Woodville end of the Manawatu Gorge. There, there had been an argument... about a drug debt. They had then driven Bevan to Woodville and taken him to an ATM machine. That no money was obtained; that he was taken back to the Ballance Reserve and he was executed using a shotgun. - (GUNSHOT ECHOES) - His body was discarded in bush nearby, but that the following day, his body was uplifted, was placed into a green sleeping bag and was put in the back of a red motor vehicle... (UNSETTLING MUSIC) - ...and then later driven to an address near Pahiatua, where Bevan was buried under a dog kennel and a slab of concrete. - Police have spoken to a number of people who were allegedly involved, but at this point in time, they are confident Bevan is not buried at the rumoured location. - Grayson, you've now got yourself involved in this investigation, and info's still coming up? - I-It does. It does keep flowing, and we received information of another possible burial site. I have, in fact, gone to that scene and had a look at it. - How do you feel about that? Is that something that we need to be doing some more work on? - I think it does, because it actually relates to information that we have received previously and that the burial site is, in fact, near the Ferry Reserve at the other side of the Manawatu Gorge. So, uh, there is a direct link there between both the sighting in the red car with the, 'Help me, help me,' and with the alleged execution at the Woodville end of the gorge. - OK. - (GUNSHOT ECHOES, BIRD CRIES) - (DOG BARKS) - Determined to pursue this new lead, police have brought in the victim recovery dogs, trained to pick up on human scent. - We spent an hour... probing the area. So, we use an instrument like this for every 6 inches. In a certain area, we penetrate the ground... and allow whatever scent is trapped in the earth to be released and come up into the air. (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) - We then search the area with the dogs. They're both general-purpose police dogs, so they're trained to find people;... - (DOG PANTS) - ...they're also specialised in search and rescue; and on top of that, they are trained in victim recovery. The dogs will tell us if there's anything of interest that they're trained to detect. These dogs have different indications should they locate that scent. - (DOG SNIFFS) - They changed their behaviour. It wasn't a classical indication, as far as we're concerned, but it was a change of behaviour, and it will be worth investigating further. - Have the specialist dogs led us to Bevan's remains? The searchers are wary. Although both dogs showed a slight interest in one of the probe holes, it doesn't confirm human remains ` only some disturbance of the ground ` but the non-classical indication is something that can't be ignored. - When I first picked up this file, I had a meeting with the family, and I promised the family that we wouldn't leave any stone unturned. - Mm. - And after so many let-downs during this investigation, I'm grabbing this and hoping that it will lead us somewhere. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) Try Micellar Cleansing Water. Micelles work like a magnet, not only removing make-up it cleanses dirt and impurities and soothes sensitive skin for the cleanest skin every day. Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water by Garnier, naturally. (SOMBRE MUSIC) - (BIRDS TWITTER, GRAVEL CRUNCHES) - Following up a recent lead in the search for the remains of shearer Bevan Wright, victim recovery dogs have indicated a potential burial site. - I've worked with dogs and dog handlers a number of times. - (METAL SCRAPES) - In this case, those two dogs that indicated on that site, we couldn't go past it. We'd have to investigate an indication like that. (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) - So, the first thing we do is establish the safety of the site for us. We've got to establish what the boundary of the site is. So, when we went into this one, there were two depressions there. Dog had indicated on one of them, but, clearly, there's another one; if there's human remains in one, there might be something else in the other one. - Local iwi, Rangitane,... - Yep? - ...will be here in about half an hour, 35 minutes. - OK. - We might just, if it's appropriate, gather outside here. - Yeah, yeah. Yep. - And he's just going to bless the ground,... - Yep? - ...and then we'll be away. - Yep, no, that's cool. - (RECITES KARAKIA IN TE REO MAORI) Haumi e, hui e, taiki e. (SOLEMN MUSIC) - (FOOTSTEP THUDS, WATER SPLASHES) - So, the first thing we did when we started looking at the excavation site was to start moving water out of it. (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) - As we've travelled down, more water's coming in, so there's a problem that we have to manage. It's a problem because once you open it up, the water will move things around. If you're dealing with minuscule amounts of evidence, it's potentially going to cause us to lose those things, because every time we do it, hole fills up with water. So it just adds a little bit of complexity to an excavation like that. - What was that? - Something hard, isn't it? What's that? Yup. Bone. - It's a bone. - For searchers to find something, that is the goal, and you'll find as soon as something is found that we were looking for, you'll notice attention, everything just starts to boost up. We've just decided to excavate that second hole. and... identified what we think are more bones. So, um, sorta starting to build a picture here. Yeah, may be. Maybe he's there. - So they're those two there? - Yup. - And... - And` - And it's this one up here? - Yes, and it's moved with the water,... - SIGHS: Oh, shit. - ...but that's just gonna be the way it is. - This afternoon, a specialist search group explored a couple of small depressions in the ground within the manuka grove behind us. They've located in there what appear to be bones, um, and we have decided that we will contact a local pathologist, the ESR and an archaeologist, have a team come in here at a later date and continue with the excavation. Hopefully tomorrow, it will dry out a wee bit more and we can continue the excavation to see if these are just one or two scattered bones or whether they are connected to further matters. But, uh, that is investigation work, and that's exactly what you do. You assume nothing, and you take everything to its natural conclusion. So, the site will be now guarded ` both forensically, but also out of respect, if, in fact, those bones are human bones. It is with a lot of trepidation over the last two weeks that I've waited for this day. I'm extremely excited for the family, but... the family are very realistic that this is just a possibility, and we need to be very careful that they don't get to such a level that they're gonna hurt themselves when we find it's nothing. (SOMBRE MUSIC) - Unfortunately, the following day, the bones were found not to be human. However, the recent lead has reignited the cold case. - Well, the thing that's reassuring is that even after 12 years, without any media prompting,... - Mm. - ...we are still receiving information. So it's really, really important that anybody who` perhaps their allegiances have changed since 2008 or they're living a different lifestyle now, if they have any facts from 2008, please, we need to hear them. - It's 12 years now. This is not two or three weeks into the inquiry. Something has happened to Bevan,... - Absolutely, and some` - ...and somebody... - ...somebody knows. - ...knows. - ...knows. - You forget a lot of things after 12 years, but you don't forget significant things. - Yeah. I've always wondered, in the last 12 years, you know ` what is the gold nugget in this inquiry? And, um` - Yeah. - But I think the gold nugget will be somebody knows something. And sometimes people don't always, necessarily, come forward at the time,... - Mm. - ...but as time goes on, people have the confidence to come forward ` or, 'Actually, let's just do the right thing.' You know? Somebody needs to do the right thing and come forward and talk to us. - From reading the file, you don't have to be an Einstein to realise where your avenues of enquiry are with respect to this investigation. His cell phone is absolutely critical. Somebody knows. Bevan I do not believe left that house under his own free will, because if he had've, he would've taken the cell phone with him, he would have taken his baccy with him. No doubt about it. - Absolutely. And his account` his bank account was never used. - SIGHS: Yeah, and there'd be some tell-tale signs by now. - BOTH: Yes. - Well, there's still money in it, isn't there? - Yeah. - There was $1100, cos he was actually paid` uh, following his disappearance, he was still paid. Somebody knows. Somebody knows something. - If we can find the 'why', it'd help, wouldn't it? - Yep, it would be. - Yep. - He was` - There's more than one person knows what happened to Bevan Wright... - Yup. Mm. - ...on the 9th of January 2008. - Mm. - The Cold Case team believe they are one small piece of information away from cracking this case wide open. - These investigations aren't being done for our mana; they are being done so that the family can hold their mana within the community and say, 'We know what happened to our son, and it wasn't his fault.' And that's why we need somebody to come forward and give this family back their mana. - Bevan's parents now, sadly, are no longer with us. They've passed away. And the tragedy of that is ` as a parent, as a mother, (SIGHS) they have not been able to ever know why Bevan disappeared. So if anybody knows anything, please, this is the time. We want to put this to rest for the family. We wanna find out. We want to know the truth. So if you can please help the family and the police to find out what happened, please come forward, and this is the time to do it. Thank you. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) Captions by Maeve Kelly. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2020 (MUSIC CONTINUES)