- Without a deceased and a body, bringing a homicide charge is exceptionally difficult. - Missing person cases will always be open until we find that final conclusion, however long it takes. - On the morning of November the 8th 1994, Timothy Pridding left his dog and car with a friend and said he'd be back in a couple of hours. - Tsar was a year old. They were inseparable. - They had a very, very strong bond. - He's never been seen again. - Pretty unusual to just walk out, leave your dog behind, people that care about you ` parents. It just doesn't happen. - He would never leave his dog alone, no. At the time, he was in fear of his life, but what he was worried about was beyond our knowledge. - It was almost a month before Timothy was reported missing. - It was just a matter of weeks having no contact with him, and then, bam, the detectives turned up. - I was very sceptical about some of the information that we were giving and the motives behind it. That suspicion only grew the further we got into the investigation. - Almost 30 years after Timothy Pridding disappeared without a trace, police believe it's never too late to solve a cold case, but your help is imperative. We've brought together a team to review this haunting unsolved investigation. They'll use their skills, expertise and up-to-date technology to look at the evidence with fresh eyes. For those involved over the years, it's a constant torment the case didn't get solved. - You do tend to look at it from your own perspective and how you would feel if that was your child. - It's one of those things that always sits in the back of your mind. You obviously deal with a lot of people, and you often wonder whether, in fact, we got all of the best information out of them at the time. - Almost three decades on, police believe the passing of time gives them a distinct edge. Can you help us find Timothy Pridding? Captions by Julie Taylor. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2021 - On the 2nd of December 1994, George Pridding presented at the Mosgiel Police Station and reported that he had not seen his son for two months and that he wished to make a missing persons report. October 14th was the last time that they spoke to him. - The report was filed in early December and made its way into Kallum's hands almost two weeks later. - Some of the things that were on it then lead me to be suspicious. The circumstances of him leaving his dog with a friend, leaving his car at an address just didn't seem to add up. - The team's first priority was building up a profile of Tim's life in the months leading up to his disappearance. - He was quite transient. He had friends and Oamaru and Dunedin, and he travelled quite a bit between those two places. Timothy was a train mechanic. - He was very good at his job. There wasn't many times he couldn't fix something. He had pretty dry sense of humour, Tim. He was never very serious for long about anything. The ladies liked him. He wasn't an oil painting, but he had a way with ladies all right. - He was one of two siblings, both adopted. He was always very respectful to George and Betty in terms of the way that they had brought him up. They would do anything for Timothy. - I think Tim being adopted never really played a big part in his life. His parents were his parents, and that was all there was to it. We loved him dearly. - George and Betty basically painted a picture of Tim as a likeable rogue. They were concerned when he got into trouble. He's come home a couple of times with stitches. Timothy dabbled with some pretty undesirable people. - Timothy was known to police as a low-level cannabis dealer. - It was never anything serious. It was just amongst friends. He may have used that as a barter system ` build an engine and get paid with whatever, you know, or vice versa. - And after his disappearance, police learnt Timothy may have accrued debts related to drugs and car work he hadn't completed. - On occasion, he received monies early to either pay his labour costs, sort of buy parts and stuff. Unfortunately, Tim didn't always follow through on his promises. - In the months leading up to his disappearance, Timothy had been staying with friends in the Oamaru, and they were all planning on moving out of Otago. - The company I worked for at the time had offered him a job, and he was pretty adamant that he would be coming north with us. It was gonna be a whole new life for him. He was just tidying up some loose ends. - When Timothy's friends moved north in October, he returned to Dunedin to clear some debts. - He was quite worried about his own safety at the time. I was unsure what he was so worried about. He was very private. We'd cut an agreement that he would be a certain place every Wednesday to take a phone call so that we knew that he was still safe. But it was hard to know when we were so far away that we could do nothing to protect him. When it became a couple of weeks and we couldn't get in touch with him, it became quite worrying. - There'd been no movement on Timothy's bank account since early November. So Kallum and his team were five weeks behind. - Five weeks is a significant period for anyone, but talking about sightings of a missing person, that stuff was pretty much gone. CCTV and some of the digital tracking that we use now wasn't available, so we were reliant pretty much on people's memories. - Kallum and his team painstakingly pieced together Timothy's final movements. - He'd negotiated to take up a flat and St Clair, but it appears that he didn't spend a great deal of time there. That was a difficulty in terms of the investigation, because he was quite transient. - Police appealed to the public for any sightings of Timothy. - We got a large number of sightings in a large number of places in the South Island, but some of the sightings, based on what we knew on the file couldn't be accurate. After a large amount of police work, we established that on the 8th of November, Timothy and an associate left an address in Bayview Rd, Dunedin, and travelled to a location north of Dunedin. That's the last confirmed sighting that we have confidence in, in respect of Timothy's disappearance. - As the team dug deeper, it was revealed that Tim's car and drug debts may have been catching up with him. - Timothy was not Mr Asia. He was a small-town dealer. But we know there were people out there that were predisposed to seeking money or harming Tim because of the wrongs that he may have done them. We did learn that he had been assaulted in relation to a car deal where he took the money and didn't come back and fulfil the contract. - For Kallum, the world Tim was moving in meant he feared for his safety. - I think it's a feel thing ` you know about the individual that's missing, you know about the parties that he's been hanging around with, and you exclude the fact that he's just going to have some time out somewhere. So the only real other scenario is that he's come to some serious harm. If not, he's been killed. - Even if he dealt with sinister people, there was just nothing sinister about Tim. Obviously, there was problems he couldn't fix, and it was beyond his control. - Timothy's drug dealing brought him into a sphere of people that were happy to use violence to either satisfy drug debt or to influence people to do things, and that was a fertile area for the investigation. There were a number of people that would tell us small pieces of information. There were some that were feeding us misinformation. And there were some that were downright telling us things that they knew weren't right. I'm certain that Timothy's been murdered. - On November the 8th 1994, Timothy Pridding vanished without a trace. Police believe he's been murdered, and they're determined to find him. - Tim was someone's mate; Tim was someone's son; and that's who we were working for. It goes to the core of being a detective that you never give up, that no matter what, we'll never forget that Tim hasn't come back. - The public's help in solving this case is crucial, and we really do rely on the information they can provide. Often the devil is in the detail, and that might just be the link that we need that ties everything in together. - We've brought together a group of detectives to spearhead a new enquiry. Leading our review will be Det Sgt Dylan Ross, who has previous experience of cold cases. - When we we're working on these cases, we were working at the very limits of people's memories, so they are a real challenge. But because of that, it's very rewarding when we do solve them. - Det Snr Sgt Kallum Croudis headed of the original investigation into Timothy's disappearance and is still the current OC of the file. - I'm certain there's people out there that know what happened to Tim. I'm confident that, given the passage of time, that they might see fit to come back and approach the police. - Snr Const Sandra Agnew was involved in the original investigation out of Oamaru and can provide key insights into the enquiry. - Over time, processes evolve, and we have developed new ways of investigating. It's like that jigsaw puzzle is finding those pieces that all fit together. - Three detectives, one cold case. It's time for the Timothy Pridding investigation to begin. We will also be looking to you, the viewer, to help find Timothy. - What we need to do is go back to 1994. Let's talk about what was going on in Tim's life at the time. - Tim was living in that Bedford St flat. He'd only just recently taken possession of that. He was a low-level cannabis user, and there came an opportunity through an association in Oamaru for him to start dealing a little bit of hash. - Sandy, is Tim someone that was known to the local police? - No, he wasn't. In a small community like Oamaru, we see our drug offenders on a regular basis, and not just for their drug offending; it's traffic matters, family harm. The drug scene in Oamaru was fairly low key. Mainly cannabis ` cultivating cannabis for personal use and for a bit of supply. Tim hadn't come to police notice for any activities at all. He wasn't considered a player. - Although he was involved with drug scene to some extent, and, with it, other criminals, it's fair to say that drugs were a part of Tim's life, but not to a significant level. - No, I don't think that his day to day would have been looking for the next opportunity. - In the months before he disappeared, the investigation discovered Timothy received a number of beatings. - The individual that was responsible for putting stitches in Timothy's head had told us the reasons why. He wasn't proud of that, but that had been blown out of proportion around the rumours around Tim's disappearance. Prior to that, there was at least one other where he got himself into some trouble with people over money and received a bit of a beating as a consequence. - So, how long before his disappearance that those events occur? - The stitches and the head ` months, and prior to that was earlier in the year. Tim clearly had fallen foul of a number of people. He would never like to park his car on the main road because he was worried that he would get spotted. He also changed his cars quite often. - I mean, that sort of behaviour isn't uncommon when you're dealing with drugs. - I think Tim was probably just looking after himself. He was quite a diminutive guy. He was not violent. I don't think that you could operate the way that Tim did without upsetting some people. But we're pretty confident that none of those historic beatings had any bearing on Tim's disappearance. - Let's talk about the days leading up to Tim's disappearance. - He was stopped in his car on the 7th and got a ticket on the evening of the 7th of November. Timothy stayed with a female friend at that address in Bayview Rd. And then the next morning, he was picked up by another associate. There was a conversation that was overheard that they were going to go and look at a cannabis plot, and it was identified that Timothy had gone to the back of his vehicle and removed a spade that was put into a Nissan vehicle that was being driven by the associate. - And what was his state of mind? - Timothy said to the female friend, 'Can you look after Tsar for a couple of hours?' It was everyone's understanding that he would be back later that afternoon. The driver of the Nissan indicated that he dropped him at the Botanic Gardens corner intersection with the motorway with the story that Tim had asked to be dropped there because he was heading through to Oamaru. - Rumours abounded that Timothy had been killed because of drug or card debt. But as well as foul play, officers must rule out other scenarios like suicide. - Sure, he was hiding his car and he was perhaps fearful, but there was never any suggestion that he had contemplated or taken any steps towards suicide. - PAUL: He never showed any signs of wanting to leave this world. He was very excited about getting out of the South Island and starting a new life. - What was perhaps more likely was that he had hidden himself because of those fears. But why would you leave your dog and your car when those sort of things are most important? He was inseparable from his dog. - It is quite common in the drug scene for that paranoia to go to ground a wee bit and indeed be a bit more careful about how you go about your business. - Even so, we would expect after a period of time for him to resurface. - Yes, you would. He would never have done that to his parents. It was just pretty inconceivable that he'd done that. - So all indications are pointing towards foul play. - They certainly are. That journey that he took on the 8th with the associate is the last attributable sighting of Timothy. - Police believe the cannabis plot mentioned on the morning of Timothy's disappearance may have been in Trotters Gorge, 70km north of Dunedin. - Friends of Timothy's said that he had a plot there and that he had been doing a bit of work there, preparing a plot. Trotters Gorge is between Palmerston and Oamaru. It covers some kilometres. A recreational area, heavily wooded. There's limestone caves, and there's actually warnings in there. So whilst people might picnic there, they don't go off the beaten track too much. - In January 1995, Sandy was part of the aerial cannabis recovery crew searching the area. - Around the time that Tim was last seen would have been the beginning of the cannabis growing season. So that's probably a time when you're doing a bit more work. It would have been quite noticeable, whoever was operating in Trotters Gorge area. We did a fairly extensive flyover of the area. We were looking out for signs of recent activity. We were winching into cannabis plots, and we were very aware of keeping an eye out for any ground disturbances that might indicate that people could have been there. So, a number of cannabis plants were recovered during their search, but nothing out of the ordinary with regard to Timothy. - In addition to the extensive aerial search, ground crews went into the gorge, but, unfortunately, there was no sign of Timothy. But it was only one of a number of sites searched in 1995. - Bayview Rd obviously became an actress of interest for us. We dug and prodded the section just to make sure that we were confident that he had left that address. One of the pieces of information we got was that his remains were in the old cement works, which were, at that stage, decommissioned but hadn't been demolished. That is an area that is often raised by people as an area that might either hide contraband or firearms or people. We undertook a search and around that area. There were places that were inaccessible, but we were confident that Timothy hadn't been placed there. Information arrived that Timothy was buried at Lake Mahinerangi at the root mass of a tree that had fallen over, so we undertook to go and check Lake Mahinerangi. We certainly didn't find anything of the nature of disturbed ground. - So by the end of 1995, after extensive searching, no activity on Tim's bank accounts, there's simply no information to confirm where he is. - Hadn't returned for his dog. There hadn't been any legitimate sightings. Simply nothing. - By the end of 1995, the trail was cold, but police are now revealing for the first time that from early on, they knew key people were actively feeding them lies. - There was all this misinformation going on. That sort of material just really makes you scratch your head and think who's telling the truth and who isn't? - Cold case detectives are investigating the disappearance of Dunedin man Timothy Pridding. He vanished without a trace on November the 8th 1994. - Absolutely determined to find Tim. It's been 25-plus years, and I know that we can get there. - The public are crucial ` they hear things, they see things, they know some of these people better than we do. And to keep a secret after all these years is pretty difficult. - There's some strong rumours around what happened to Tim. Let's explore those, starting with the car debt. - Well, there's more than one in relation to the car debt. One of Tim's friends took out some money and gave it to Tim in relation to fixing his car, and that was a sum of $2000. That individual actually approached his parents and said, 'Hey, Tim's promised me to do this job. He's been given some money. Nothing's happened.' We found at least four of those where he had incurred debt for not delivering on his mechanic's duties. So he did a bit of work for some of the gangs. There were rumours around that as well that he hadn't done a good job in relation to a gang member's vehicle. - PAUL: I think he could have easily crossed people. His mechanic skills were probably running pretty thin at the time. Had a lot of engines on the floor. May have caused a fair bit of animosity amongst some bad people. - Tracing those down didn't even give us a feeling that anyone was hiding anything about that. Not a matter that we believed was directly tied up with his disappearance. - But one southern motorcycle gang in particular was repeatedly mentioned in anonymous tip-offs. And word was that Tim had gotten into debt with them and had been murdered. - Our understanding was that the situation was pretty fleeting, but their premises are really close to the cement works. So that puts that in context as to why those searches took place. We thought it might be one of those rumours that abound that drug scene that, you know, you got to pay your debts especially to the motorcycle club. We spoke to a member of that club. He was very noncommittal. He said that the motorcycle club had nothing to do with Timothy. - So, with regard to the theories around the car debt and the southern motorcycle gang, are you reasonably satisfied that it's unlikely that's the cause for his disappearance? - You always keep an open mind for these things, but pretty satisfied that those particular matters are not significant in terms of his disappearance. But if we turn to cannabis and the hashish, that's a different story. - There's multiple people commenting that Tim had ripped off a dealer for numerous blocks of hashish to the tune of about $30,000. That's a lot in 1994. - Absolutely. Certainly for the Oamaru district. It would be something that local police would have heard a wee bit of talk about, information feeding through. But certainly back in those years, unheard of. - He never had that amount at any time. I think the best we could put in Tim's possession was six or seven of these matchbox-sized blocks. A young man in Oamaru was making blocks of hash. They appeared to retail for about $300. What Timothy was doing was getting those on tick and chopping them up so that he could make a profit. We had some discussion with the dealer in Oamaru. He's come clean in every aspect because he recognises the far more important role here is to tell us the truth about what might have happened to Timothy. I'm confident that Timothy probably got in a little bit over his head in terms of debt with the maker of the hashish. He came looking for him with a view to try and collect what he was owed. That visit actually post-dated the last known sighting on the 8th of November of Timothy. - Certainly, after reviewing those other rumours, we still have to go back to the fact that Tim is last seen on the 8th of November at Bayview Rd, leaving with the driver of a Nissan. - As we focused in on that individual, this is when we started to get variants in terms of where he might have dropped Timothy off. - Police called the Nissan driver on December the 23rd, where he claimed friends had seen Timothy in Invercargill only days ago. He then gave a statement confirming he'd been with Timothy on November the 8th. - He said that they had travelled through Dunedin to the Northern Motorway, where Timothy wished to be dropped off because he wanted to travel further north. He introduced a number of things. One of them being that people were seeking Tim for debt and for drug-related activity. - What explanation did he give for his own whereabouts after dropping Tim off? - The driver said that he had a coffee with a female friend at about 10.30 on the 8th. At the beginning, that person said, 'Oh, yes, that might have been the case,' but upon reflection decided that the truth was far more important. She came back to us and said that she could not have been at that time and could not have had a cup of coffee with him. - And it was soon established that what the Nissan driver was telling police was very different to what he was telling his friends. - It became clear that the associate had spoken to some friends and said that he'd taken Timothy through to Palmerston. - One of the things that you're always looking at when you're scrutinising what people say is inconsistencies, particularly when their story changes at key times. - He came back to us on the 28th and said he wanted to clear some things up. He believed that some people were saying things that were untrue to the police around that journey. - There's an element of panic to that. It shows that he was worried. He is aware that his story won't add up. What time did Tim leave Bayview Rd? - Well, we can never be perfect around timings ` no cell phones in those days ` but we think somewhere between 10 and 11 o'clock. And so we don't have a definitive sighting of the associate coming back without Tim that satisfies us until 3 or 4 o'clock. - We can't be confident on the movements of the driver of the Nissan that day. - No, we can't. Other than leaving Bayview Rd, we have this gaping hole. - Police are now revealing that a number of the sightings they received of Timothy could in fact be linked back to the friends of the Nissan driver, and they believe he was encouraging associates to lie. - There not only was the statement from the driver proving to be incorrect, but we also hit the issue of other sightings and individuals that had been asked to provide misinformation to the police. Those people that originally provided misinformation came back to us really quickly and said that they had been encouraged by the driver of the Nissan to provide false evidence to the police. There had to be a really good reason why the driver of the Nissan was getting people to provide false information to the police. - Police are now also prepared to reveal what they know about the relationship between Timothy and the driver of the Nissan. - It was clear to us that there had been a friendship or business arrangement between the driver of the Nissan and Tim. I believe that the driver of the Nissan had received a number of those blocks of hashish for the purposes of on-supplying a again on tick, so that debt was being transmitted. - It also became clear to the investigation that the multiple statements relating to Tim allegedly ripping off a dealer in Oamaru could be traced back to one source. - We dig down a bit deeper, we see the majority of those people are associates of the driver of the Nissan. - Yes. When you look objectively at what material we had from both him and those associates, we recognise that there's some themes coming through. One of the themes was the drug rip-off or that he had been the subject of foul play. It was really interesting to see that that all emanated from the same little group. - Just because something's repeated doesn't make it more true. - Absolutely. - We're always asking the question how do you know what you know? Often it can become rather apparent that what appears vital information has actually originated from a single source. I can also see in the reports that a number of people saying that the driver of the Nissan had hashish after Tim's disappearance. - Yeah, well, that's really concerning as well. And when we talk about motive, several $300 blocks of hashish could, in fact, constitute motive. - Both the Nissan and Tim's car was seized in 1995. But after examination, there was no forensic evidence to link the Nissan driver to Tim's disappearance. But his behaviour seemed suspicious. - We take that as he's got something to hide. He wasn't telling us the truth, and he was encouraging other people to do the same. - In 2003, nine years after his disappearance, Timothy Pridding was declared dead by the coroner. But not being able to lay him to rest meant the pain continued through his parents' lives. - George and Betty really suffered. The enormity of the grief that must have been present on their lives, we can only imagine. George used to ring me often. He was pretty relentless about making sure that we were doing all that we could. I said that we wouldn't stop looking. Hope's a very interesting beast, and Betty operated on that basis that one day Timothy might walk in that front door. Alas, that was never gonna be the case. - Both George and Betty passed away with the knowledge their beloved son hadn't been found. - I think it would be a terrible burden for any parent to not have the final closure, and that must be a terrible cross to bear. - And for the rest of Timothy's family and friends, the desire to bring him home remains constant. - It affects us all, yeah. We just want to know where he is. - The team are more determined than ever to find Timothy. Joining them is Dr Nathan Brooks, a forensic psychologist who's been analysing the file and the personalities of those involved. - When we try and break down Tim's disappearance or potentially his death, there are three things that we wanna consider. So, first of all, we want to look at who had the motive. There are a number of individuals that had issues or grievances with Tim, and they ranged from different severities. It could have been that someone was aggrieved or wronged. There could have been some form of contract put in place if there were substantial debts. - The reality is you can't get a debt repaid from someone who's no longer around. - It's whether the debts had built over time and people got to the point where they felt Tim was never going to be able to repay those. Then we need to think about who had the means to carry that out. Now, we have potentially some affiliations with gangs. We've also got other criminal individuals that he's been involved with. Then we narrowed down around the opportunity ` who had the access to Tim that could have carried that out? That really puts the driver back in the spotlight. He was the last individual to be seen with Tim, and he's the last individual to see Tim alive. - The police can now reveal to the public that the driver of the Nissan was well known to them and had a long history of offending. - We're really talking about an individual that's very criminally diverse and not afraid to engage in quite lethal and aggressive forms of violence. A theme that emerges is this tendency towards being interpersonally dominant, a general tendency to be suspicious and distrusting of others, and an identity that's based around criminal status. We're talking about an individual that's not easily upset or distressed by the suffering of others, and they may even gain enjoyment in inflicting suffering. - The team believe Timothy and the driver of the Nissan were involved in some capacity together dealing drugs. - One thing that we need to think about is what may have happened if issues had arisen in this relationship. - We know that Timothy's personality ` he's a pretty diminutive guy not born to violence, more likely to be a victim. So what would you feel that the balance would look like? - One thing when we look at this individual's history, they've had friendships where they've developed grievances and they've gone on to carry out violence. So it's quite possible that Tim has believed that there's been a positive relationship. Yet this other individual may have had a different perception of that relationship. - The team are interested in Nathan's perspective on the false sightings and alibi that the Nissan driver encouraged his associates to make. - When we look at the behaviour of the driver of the Nissan asking this associate to say that he was at her address... - Really brings the question of why do you need that alibi? There's really three possible scenarios. One is that this individual was concerned about looking like a suspect and has attempted to try and reduce the spotlight. Then we also have the possibility that they actually know information and tried to prevent police from finding out about that. Then, of course, our last scenario is that in some way, they've been involved in Tim's disappearance or ultimately his death. - Police are also revealing to the public that the Nissan driver claimed Timothy placed a note in his letterbox only hours after he said he'd dropped him off. - That note was allegedly found on the 9th of November and stated that Timothy was going to go and lie low for a period of time and let some things wash over. - The driver of the Nissan claimed the note was thrown in the fire, so there was no way police could check its veracity. - We've looked at the weather reports, and it was unseasonably cold, so it is possible that the fire was going. Just because the fire's going doesn't mean a note exists. That would be a vital piece of information to have given to the police, particularly if you're a person of interest to the inquiry. - In addition, police are now prepared to share what appears to be increasingly suspicious behaviour from the Nissan driver in the weeks after Timothy's disappearance. - On the 15th of December 1994, the driver of the Nissan went round to Bayview Rd and indicated that he was taking Timothy's car away. The resident didn't find favour with that, and the driver of the Nissan was arrested. - But when the driver later placed pressure on the resident, she withdrew the charges. - It certainly says that he either may have knowledge of where Tim is and know that he's not coming back for the car, or it says he simply doesn't care whether Tim's coming back, and he's going to take the car regardless. - In 1995, police were unable to forensically link the Nissan driver to Timothy's disappearance, but they're now revealing that when he went to prison the following year on unrelated matters, a new phase of investigation was launched. - So it was clear in '96 that some of the people that we approached had been motivated to tell us a little more because of the absence of the Nissan driver from the Dunedin area. So we could firm up on some times. We can put the driver away for three- to four-hour window based on those people that re-engaged with us. - And a number of associates offered up yet more information. A potential burial site in Mt Cargill was searched. But Trotters Gorge was again raised as a key area of interest. - We can't exclude other areas. We could never do that. But there are a number of factors that points towards Trotters Gorge being of significance in the investigation. - Last November, Dunedin police opened a file on a man who'd gone missing. Now they're scaling up that investigation. - Information filtered through that when the driver had watched a 1995 Crimewatch appeal, he made some telling comments. - ...where police believe he was involved in growing cannabis. It's known that Tim had many contacts in Oamaru, and around the time of his disappearance... - That gives me some confidence that Trotters Gorge is a particularly significant area in respect to the investigation. - It's not uncommon for people to embellish or say to associates they've have done things that they haven't. - The individual we're talking about certainly was able to build a big reputation as having quite notable criminal status, so there would be a benefit to potentially boasting about that. But then when we look at the fact that this person's tried to manipulate witnesses, alter time periods, it does start to make you query whether it would be as simple as boasting or actually whether it's a number of behaviours that keep bringing this individual back to being involved with Tim's disappearance. - Well, it's interesting. It's one of two things, isn't it? It's either boasting or... it's the truth. - Almost 30 years after Timothy Pridding disappeared without a trace, police believe they're closer than ever to finding him. - This case is very solvable. We know that a lot of people know what's happened to Tim. It's a real burden for people to hold on to a secret, particularly people who aren't involved directly. - The team have been able to narrow down the Nissan driver's absence from Dunedin on November the 8th to three to four hours, and Trotters Gorge has been repeatedly mentioned as a key area of interest. - Sandy, what is the drive time between Dunedin and Trotters Gorge? - Probably be looking at around 45 minutes to get to Palmerston. Given the size of the gorge, you could add probably another 10 to 15 minutes on to that. - We've spoken before about there being a number of places within there, quite an unsafe safe environment, so the effort required to potentially conceal someone would be minimal. - It's a challenging area, but if you knew it, then that would make things simpler. - With the three- to four-hour window and local knowledge, makes it easily doable to do a return trip from Dunedin on that day. - In my view, and we have driven it and tested it, it is entirely conceivable that a period of three to four hours would be ample time to travel between Dunedin and Trotters Gorge and commit a serious act of violence. - If you saw or heard of any suspicious activity in the Trotters Gorge area in 1994, it's vital the team hear from you. More than 25 years on, and still people are coming forward with new information that puts the Nissan driver front and centre of this investigation, including a revelation that the driver may even have confessed about committing the murder. - The driver boasted about Tim having to dig his own grave and had killed him. Associates talked about a shovel and disposing of the shovel with the driver of the Nissan. - Do we treat this as boasting for reputation purposes or are they gaining some satisfaction from boasting it because they've been involved in his disappearance? We're also potentially talking about an individual that's quite distrusting and suspicious. That doesn't mean that over time, information doesn't leak out. - And taking a life is a big secret to hold. - Then when it comes to cold cases, there's two big factors. One is the advancement in technology, and then the other one is changes in relationships and alliances. - The driver of the Nissan has been absent from the Dunedin community for very many years now. His influence, I know, is negligible. It's clear to me that he's not seen in anywhere near the same light or fear that he once was. - It's quite likely that alliances have shifted over time and also the fear that may have been there has receded. These people may also now feel as though they are safe and secure enough to provide additional information. - The people who are strong today maybe weak tomorrow, and there are people who may not have done what they know they should have back then, but the time is right for them now. - Police are appealing to anyone who's heard boasting or talk over the years, because your information could crack the case wide open. - From our discussion already today, I can see real benefits and even a renewed focus, because it's clear there's a lot of detail in here to work with. We've spoken a lot about the driver of the Nissan, but it's really important we keep an open mind. People out there will know what's happened to Tim, and that's the time for us to find out the truth. - I think it's important now that people take some responsibility in relation to Timothy's disappearance. - Often people think the breakthrough will be forensics, but the reality is that people are at the heart of these investigations. Invariably, they're always solved because of what people come forward and do. - It's not going to take much. It doesn't matter how small that detail is; it just could be that last wee piece that we need. It's about doing the right thing. - We're very close to solving this matter and bringing Tim back to his family, to his loved ones and to the memory of George and Betty. What we really want is to just tease out those final bits of information that may be a nugget that we can really use in making someone accountable for what's tragically happened to Timothy. - I believe this case will be solved by someone coming forward to us, someone who was Tim's life at the time and knows what happened. - They need to make a choice about whether they now wish to engage with the police. I give them assurances that their information will be treated as carefully as it could be in the terms of an active homicide investigation. But that's a matter for their conscience. - For Tim's family and friends, finding him and laying him to rest will give them the closure they need. - PAUL: It's too late for his parents, but for the people remaining, it would be nice to have somewhere to see Tim and to... to go and talk to him. Mm. It would be good. - Sometimes people will have a regret that they didn't act in a way that they know was right back then. Can't change the past; just have to move forward and do the right thing. It's never too late. (OMINOUS MUSIC) Captions by Julie Taylor. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.