(SEAGULLS CAW DISTANTLY) - It's as if someone has got out of bed, answered a phone call, made a cup of tea, left their slippers on the floor, and walked out the door. - What happened? What happened? I don't know. We don't know. I want to know what happened. (OMINOUS MUSIC CONTINUES) - It's every day. Every day, I tell you, without a lie, I said, I think of Richard. And, um, you know, sometimes, it's just fleeting, but it's always there. - 49-year-old Richard Hinkley seemingly vanished from his Christchurch home on Christmas Day in 2015. - Everything seems to stop at his house on the 25th of December, 2015, as if time has stood still since then. - Particularly after his mum died, that life just went downhill a bit for him. - He had nothing to be jealous of, except for the money. So money is a motive. You know, and he did have a lot of cash ` apparently, he'd amassed a bit of cash. - Six years after Richard Hinkley went missing without a trace, police believe it's never too late to solve a cold case, but your help is imperative. - Has this been some accidental cause? Has he been the subject of foul play? - We have brought together a team to review some of New Zealand's most haunting unsolved investigations. They'll use their skills and expertise to look at the case with fresh eyes. For those involved over the years, it's a torment that there are still no answers. - If Richard is no longer alive, we want to be able to bring him back and, um, put him with our ancestors. We can look after him. (TENSE COMPUTERISED BUZZING) Captions by Cameron Grigg. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2021 - His father was my brother. His name was Evan Richard Hinkley, but he was known as Bill. In 1965, he married Lesley Rachel Job from the King Country. - They have Richard ` her and Bill, and of course he turned out to be the apple; the only apple of their eye. (LAUGHS) His iwi is Maniapoto and the greater Ngapuhi. - He was a very quaint boy and pixie-like. He was enterprising. He was very young when he got a lot of pleasure out of going around the golf links and picking up all the golf balls that had gone outside the green, selling them back to the golfers. So he earned his own pocket money. He had quite a good little business going on at quite a young age. We never, ever imagined he was going to grow to 6'4". He was the tallest member of our whole family. - Mr Bean. (LAUGHS) Mr Bean. It was just the way Richard's look was at the time, and some of his mannerisms were like Mr Bean. - We always could find Richard in a crowd. We didn't ever believe we were going to lose him. - 10th of February, Police received a call from Housing New Zealand. They'd received a call from a concerned neighbour that they hadn't seen Richard for a period of time. - Frontline staff attended the address and did a welfare check. They went through the address to check for any signs of foul play or misadventure, and there was no sign of any struggle or anything like that. They found a neat and tidy property. - Of interest, there was a laptop present at the scene and it appeared as if someone had just got up and walked out of the address. - They made a number of phone calls to associates with the phone numbers that they found throughout the flat, and they advised that they hadn't seen him for a few weeks. - The biggest thing was really that time delay, because, particularly with missing persons, every, you know, 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours that you're... that you're missing, you're behind the eight ball. - A missing-person inquiry like Richard's comes with its own unique challenges for investigators. - One of the limitations of a missing person investigation is that you do not have a body. A missing person investigation is simply that. With Richard's disappearance, I see three options ` he's taken his life, he has left and simply doesn't want to be found, or he's the subject of a homicide. - With all options on the table, it's important to gain an understanding of Richard. Over the years, Richard had developed a love for Japan and all things Japanese. - I remember probably about '92, him bringing home books from the library about Japan. He decided he was going to learn Japanese, so he took himself off to polytech first, and later university, and he learnt Japanese. He learnt linguistics. His walls were lined with Japanese-themed wallpaper, and there were a lot of photographs of Japanese pop artists. - He just had created a little bit of Japan, and when you walked in, you just thought, 'Wow. I'm in Japan. I didn't even have to fly anywhere.' It just... Everything's clean and tidy, and there's a place for everything and everything in its place. - With preliminary enquiries underway, detectives return on the 26th of February to Richard's Christchurch Madras Street unit. - So I went through the address and took a number of photographs, found some old receipts that might be to help us with enquiries that` you know, could have helped find him. And... at that point, when I went through the address, there was no laptop, which I found odd because there was an area set up for a computer which include a modem and the cables and that sort of thing. It looked out of place not to have something there. - That was like another heart to Richard. That was his, um,... I suppose his other way into the world. - That second scene examination was a more detailed one in relation to finding out` just digging deeper. For example, the items in the fridge, the expiry dates, the milks, which one of them was 28th of December, so we needed to narrow down timeframes to when, um, Richard was present, when he was not present. You could sense he had a` Like, that was potentially his peaceful place ` sitting out on the patio and doing some gardening. You could tell at the significant overgrowth from two months of being left there. - Further inquiries revealed a very capable individual. - Richard did a number of roles. He went to Australia, worked over there. He was involved in some construction work. He worked as a taxi driver. For a period, worked on the trawlers, and he actually had a very good reputation. They all loved working with him on the boats. He was living an independent life. He had a good work ethic, enjoying himself, and he would manage his money well. - Richard had a car accident ` I think it was around about 2004. From what I understand, he was going too fast for the conditions and, um, crashed. He ended up in hospital. - And he received very serious spinal and head injuries. - One of the legacies of that accident ` Richard, he did suffer with depression. From what I understand, after that, I don't know whether it was a coping mechanism or not, but he started to drink quite heavily. - In November of 2011, Lesley Rachel, Richard's mother, suddenly died. With Richard already estranged from his father, this loss hit him hard. - When my sister died, I found it very unusual that Richard did not accompany his mother back to our, um, turangawaewae where, you know, we have our family urupa, we have our marae. He` Yeah, he didn't` He didn't come back. I said, 'It's not a problem getting you back, Rich.' I said, 'You can come back with us.' And he said, 'No, I'll` It's all right, Auntie. I'll stay here.' - He did his best, but he'd probably, emotionally, took a dive with all that grief. - By 2015, Jill realised things had got even worse for her nephew. - He just told me how he'd... he'd been so deeply in debt, and, uh,... but he was not wanting me to worry, so he told me, 'It's going to be all right, Auntie Jill.' I guess he was embarrassed because it wasn't his thing to get in debt. - By the end of 2015, Richard had accumulated about $40,000 or so ` just a little bit more than that ` in debt. - What had changed for Richard in recent years? Did he have a secret life his family didn't know about? (TENSE SYNTH MUSIC) - On the 10th of February, 2016, Housing New Zealand called the police after one of Richard's neighbours reported that he hadn't seen or heard from Richard for some weeks. Initial searches of Richard's Japanese-themed home showed no signs of a struggle. We have brought together a group of Canterbury detectives to review this inquiry. We will also be looking to you, the viewer, to help find Richard. Leading our review will be Detective Inspector Michael Ford. - Locating Richard is the key to this mystery. When we locate Richard, we'll be able to establish how he's got there, why he is there, and who else is involved. - The 2IC is Detective Sergeant Michael Freeman. He spearheads the investigation and has been with Richard's file from the get-go. - It stays with you, some of these people that you don't find, because we've all got families. You know, I'm a parent myself, and I've got two daughters. You know, and no parent should have to wonder where his child is, either missing or dead. - Detective Sean Greenall is the OC of Richard's case since it landed on his desk in late February, 2016. - It's an unusual disappearance. Normally, people would, you know, make the odd EFTPOS transaction, or something like that. There'd be some sort of electronic footprint. But in this case, there hasn't been anything that we've been able to find. - Joining the team for this cold case review is Detective Sergeant Lisa Harrington, who runs the missing person unit out of Police National Headquarters. - It's in the unexplained category because we don't know what has happened to him. We don't know if he's the victim of a homicide. We don't know whether he has voluntarily disappeared. - Four detectives, one cold case. It's time for the Richard Hinkley investigation to begin. - Just as important as finding out what has happened to Richard, it's so important to find out where he is. A lot of people, their lives are just frozen in time. They want answers, but they can't get them, and until that person is located, there's no closure. - It's actually a good reminder today, coming in, reflecting on these photographs around the wall, and just saying again, it's important for these families to get some answers. - Absolutely. He's someone's child, someone's nephew, and for that family, they can have no closure. - Was there anything that you found that gave an indication of when he was last there? - A family member called him at 7:30 on Christmas morning, 2015, to wish him a merry Christmas. - The last person who, in our family up here, that spoke to him was my brother, Anton, and that was a normal thing that Anton did, was always ringing Richard on Christmas Day. He had a short conversation with him ` Christmas Day 2015, and it wasn't the usual long conversation they have. He said he just felt that it was a bit terse. - Yeah, the person that was speaking to him just said, well, he'll call him back when he was a bit more awake, and that was the last time that that person had spoken to Richard. - In the years leading up to his disappearance, Richard's life had become increasingly fraught. His mother's death in 2011 appears to have had a huge impact on him. - So, prior to his mother's death or in his formative years, he appeared to manage his money reasonably well, and he had a student loan, he funded trips to Japan. So, post his mother's death, there were some challenges. - Yeah, I think the thing that really tripped him up was the access to a credit card facility with a significant available balance. So he started using that credit card facility in 2011, and it just seemed to snowball over time. - So, from the mum's funeral, that's when he started, um,... there was a change of behaviour in relation to the use of that credit card? - Yeah, the funeral expense was paid for on the credit card, and the credit card had a starting balance of $2000 from credit. His mother actually died on the 6th of November, 2011, and then the following year in March is when cash withdrawals have started from that account. So these cash withdrawals were made at ATMs on the credit card ` so they were cash advances ` and over time, that debt has accumulated to the point where, in December of 2014, the credit card debt was $12,000, and... between that time and the 16th of December, 2015 ` so over the course of one year ` that debt has ballooned out to $29,000. - Richard, who had previously managed well on his sickness benefit, was now withdrawing cash at an alarmingly frequent rate. - In February of 2015, he took a total of $770 out. March, that went up to $900. In April, $1320. And then May, there was $2500. In that month, he also bought a computer ` $1500 on that credit card. In June, $2650 in addition to his other purchases, so that was his highest cash withdrawal month. - Do we know whereabouts he's been getting that money out? - Unfortunately, in the documents and statements that we've got, they don't show the location of the ATMs where the cash withdrawals are being made. - How about July? What's the usage in relation to his card for that month? - Yeah, so it dropped off a little bit, down to $1500 worth of cash withdrawals in July, the largest being $700 on the 11th, and his final withdrawal of cash on the 16th of July, 2015. So it looks like from there, his card has been maxed out. - Now, he's carrying a lot of cash, and especially these days, you know, it tend to` it's a fairly cashless society, and here's Richard frequently making cash withdrawals and carrying that amount of cash, and I just wonder what he is actually spending that money on. - Mm. - And why would he do that rather than just pay for the goods with his credit card? - That's right. So what is he actually using their cash for? - Yeah. We need to know what he was spending that money on, don't we? - Yeah, we do. That's a real key question. - Richard's use of his credit card did not go unnoticed by his family. - You know, on the face of it, he was a happy chappy. You know, I'd made arrangements to stay with him, and he put out the welcome mat for us. He said, 'Yep, there's the bed, Auntie, and look, I've baked you a nice bread.' I said, 'Ooh. That looks nice, Rich.' It had stout in it, anyway, and it was so tasty. 'Oh, thanks, Rich.' I thought, 'Oh, well, I'll go and get some kai, you know, for us to share.' Of course then, you know, I'd spent a few days there and realised, you know, Richard's circumstances. And I got the groceries, and he comes running back, arms full of booze. 'Richard, what are you doing?' I was like, 'How can you afford that, Richard?' And he's laughing away, and he's saying, 'Well, the banks keep giving me credit cards.' - The analysis of Richard's financials, especially the cash from withdrawals, is a mystery. You know, we questioned, 'Why is he taking out that money? What is he using it for? 'What sort of lifestyle was Richard living that required him to have that amount of cash?' - Yeah, where's that money gone? Or who has the money gone to? - I mean, what other services did he use... - ...that required cash instead of just a normal transaction? - ...that required cash? - Just looking around the CBD here, you know, there's a lot of licenced premises with pokie machines in them. Is there any suggestion that Richard may have had a gambling problem? - No one has come forward with any information to suggest that he was gambling, but you couldn't rule it out. He could have been involved in the use of pokie machines and gambling. That would account for a lot of the money that was disappearing. - Taking out that kind of money, you know, one wonders, 'Well, what was it for? Why was he doing it? 'Was it for, you know, something completely different that we don't know?' - That credit card ` it got up to about $30,000 in debt. And he also had a student loan of about $14,000, and a $25000 overdraft as well in another account. So, on the 9th of November, a gentleman from the budgeting services was given the job. Obviously, Richard had reached out about getting himself on track. And they went through the insolvency process and, you know, basically worked out all of his debts and went through that proceeding, and his debts were about $45,000 to $47,000, which is, you know, a substantial amount of debt for someone who's not in active employment. - Was Richard quite motivated to getting his finances back on track? - Initially, there would seem to be a bit of reluctance on his part to get on board with the process, but the guy from the budgeting services really got him on track and went through it with him. - So when was the last time Richard had contact with budget servicing? - So, on the 23rd of December, 2015, Richard called the budgeting service. Richard was on track with his budgeting, and he'd set up his automatic payments. - So that's not really the characteristics of someone who wants to go missing voluntarily, is it? - Yeah. - If he's making plans for his future. - Following the money trail has raised more unanswered questions. Has the shame of insolvency overwhelmed Richard, or has he used the money to leave his former life? - I like to think that taking the COVID injection will keep you around (OMINOUS MUSIC) - The cold case team reviewing the disappearance of Richard Hinkley on Christmas Day, 2015, have discovered he had debts of nearly $50,000 made up of thousands of dollars of cash withdrawals on his credit card. - What's he done with all that cash? Where is that money now? - So it was known that he had access to money. - From what I understand, he was quite showy in relation to, um` not afraid to actually flash the cash around. - Yeah. It seems that all of his associates knew that he had cash. I think some of them thought he had an inheritance and others just thought he had lots of cash and was quite well off, so... Others have said that he'd pull out cash and play with it and count it in front of them and stuff like that, and it was in 100s and 50s ` so large denominations. - Yeah, I'm just wondering whether or not people have taken advantage of him because, you know, he has access to cash and they're just going along with the ride, using him for that money. Was there any cash located in the house? - No. No cash was located in the house at any of the scene examinations. - That's really interesting. Points to, 'Where has that money gone?' - It'd be fair to say Richard was a unique individual and slightly quirky, but, um, he made friends who were probably of a similar ilk, and associates would come over to his house, they would listen to music. Richard sometimes would espouse some conspiracy theories about certain things. - And just, you know, slowly form a relationship with them by being kind and, you know, friendly towards them ` like he would make them smoothie drinks and things like that with fruits and vegetables and, um, just entertain them, really, and have music playing and that sort of thing, and smoked cannabis as well, so, bit of an entertainer. - Were these relationships sustainable? Or did he fall in and out of friendships with people easily or maintain friendships? - Yeah, it appears that he didn't maintain these friendships, and they'd fallen apart quite quickly. - From time to time, Richard just had a streak in him that's he'd` If something didn't go quite right, he'd get a bit angry with them and there'd be some altercation or disagreement. - Most of the time, I would say Richard was placid. But he could` Uh, he'd rise to the occasion if, you know, somebody pressed the wrong button. Yeah, he'd stick up for himself, and he would stick up for other people, too, if he felt there was a wrong being done. - We've talked to a number of these associates, and it's fair to say there has been a number of altercations, from minor building upwards. - Mr Hinkley got into a bit of a scuffle, bit of a fight with someone in relation to some alcohol. Some... There's been some mention that he took a bottle of vodka to an address, and, um, yeah, one of the people at the address wasn't happy with that and wanted beer, so Richard assaulted him over that. So one of the people that was supplying cannabis gave it to the wrong person, and, yeah, Richard wasn't happy about that, and that caused a lot of tension, and there was an assault involved with that as well. - So Richard was prone to get angry when things weren't going his way? - A lot of people have said that he did have a bit of a temper. So one other of his close associates has told us that he had a bit of an argument over some music that was being played. And, um, according to this person, Mr Hinkley didn't like the music and got a bit angry, and there was some property thrown around. Yeah, so according to that associate, he can be a bit volatile. - Look, the reality is some of these things in life go wrong. It could seem like an innocuous altercation, assault, whatever you like to call it, but they can go wrong quickly, and someone can end up being, um,... die as a result of these things. With, you know, obviously, his accumulation of his car accident, his mother's death, the spiralling debt, where he was probably heading in his life, what he wanted to do ` he didn't have a lot of friends and the drug use and the spending of the money. - I just had sort of seen something was a bit off, because decided that his garage was a bit untidy. 'Well, we'll just, you know, move furniture around,' cos it was actually a lot of furniture that belonged to his mum, and he had it stashed in front of the roller door. And I said, 'You shouldn't have these things in a doorway, Richard.' Cos by that time, I had already started shifting things to the side. And he got really agitated, and he says, 'Don't do that, Auntie. Just leave it, just leave it.' And I said, 'Why?' And he says, 'That's in case somebody comes in here. I've got to have something to` 'like a barrier ` you know, prevent them from getting in too quickly.' And I thought, 'Oh, that's a bit strange,' you know? - I think things were increasing for him, and so, um, that could have also resulted in, maybe, some of these behaviours and how he would have these outbursts and get angry with some of his close friends and associates. - Yeah. I can just see the look on his face now. I think he was a bit fearful. I think he was. - The drug world is a very fickle and underhand world at times. That's just what it was. Richard was a large man. Yeah, so I think if he has been the victim of foul play, then more than one person would know. Let's face it ` people get killed over an ounce, pound, more than that, in case something goes wrong, whatever. That could be a possibility, but we just don't know. - Detectives now return to the second scene examination and what could be a vital clue. - My first sort of observations that day when we were together ` it looked like it was just sort of a flat frozen in time or someone had just left recently. - I mean, as you can see from the photos, that's the bathroom. It's very tidy. This is his bedroom wardrobe. - Did he still have personal items such as clothing at the address as well? - Yeah, he did. The cupboards were full of clothing and they were all neatly hung, with the shoes all neatly placed on the bottom. It was a very neat, very tidy address ` very particular about cleanliness. - So, going back to that bedroom, it was noticeable that it was a double bed, but it had only been slept on one side, as the blankets and things were folded back. So it's as if someone just got out and got up and got changed and left. So... Yeah, that struck me as unusual, given his cleanliness and, you know, how clean and tidy he was throughout the rest of the house. That bed wasn't as tidy, in my opinion, as the rest of the house, so... - There's quite a bit of food in the fridge too, isn't there? Which would indicate that he thought` he didn't` he wasn't planning to go anywhere... - That's right. He's gonna stay. - ...on that day and not come back. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, nothing untoward, but the obvious thing was that missing laptop. - So, when our frontline staff went there, there was a laptop, and then when we arrived, that laptop, for some reason, is no longer there. - Yeah, that's right. That laptop was there when police went through on the 10th of February, and then it wasn't clear when we went through. So that laptop, once it had left the scene address, it went to a pawnshop, and then it was collected from the pawnshop and sold on Trade Me to a person in Dunedin, and that happened on around the 17th of March, 2016. - So that's well and truly after he is reported missing, that laptop was removed. - That's right. Yeah. So the laptop was at the address on the 10th of February, and it was at the pawnshop at the 15th of February. - So was there anything on the laptop? - Uh, it was sent to the digital forensic unit, and they could show that it had been reformatted, basically, after it was subsequently sold on Trade Me. - Quite simply, all the information contained on it had been wiped. - It's a shame that you couldn't get anything from the computer. It's quite common in missing person cases to have a history on there of looking up certain sites on Google. It's a real commonality. Yeah. - And that was key information that we just didn't have. - That's a shame. - So, that person that's obtained that laptop ` you know, are they also involved in Richard's disappearance, or was it simply that they've obtained the laptop and sold it? - Yeah, we can't say one way or the other, really, and we just don't know. - Although police established who had pawned the laptop and later sold it, there was insufficient evidence to obtain a conviction. - I just think if anyone's got concerns that someone is missing, that they report them as soon as possible, because the clock's ticking. It's just such a huge challenge for your investigation when you've had that time elapse. - Mm. - So many crucial inquiries couldn't be done that would have been done if you'd known about it. - And I suppose too, you know, a missing person, in a lot of our investigations, we require evidence of a crime. After going to his address and not really finding anything out of the ordinary, you know, that's probably been a bit of a stumbling block for us to actually establish a criminal offence, and if we have those quite clear offences, you know, then we can obviously obtain search warrants and orders to get information from our telecommunication partners and that sort of thing. - For those investigating the 2015 disappearance of Christchurch man Richard Hinkley, it's been frustrating. The delay in reporting him missing, Richard's questionable state of mind, lack of consistent friends and the dead end with the laptop mean the team are left with more questions than answers. However, detectives are convinced that someone must know what happened to Richard. (TENSE MUSIC) - With no obvious signs of a crime at Madras Street and the once-missing laptop not revealing anything, can the team work out what Richard did after he spoke to his uncle on Christmas Day? The detectives enlist the help of Catherine Mace, an expert in analysing energy consumption. She has worked on numerous complex investigations. - Richard has what we're calling an advanced meter. An advanced meter is, um, a big data collection and we can break down that data into half-hourly blocks. - Was Richard a high power usage customer? - He looks like he's very frugal with his power. I've got some data here that shows that on the 23rd of December 2015, you can see that there's a lot of activity between 4am and 9am, where you see that there's a big peak. Now, that could be Richard getting up, putting on his laundry, having a shower, cooking breakfast, and such like. Then we see that there are lulls in our consumption, and that's what we call our standby supply, which is, like, our fridges, freezers, that type of thing ` things that we don't turn off. - So, on the 25th was a telephone call made to Richard early in the morning by an uncle, and from our review of the investigation, it's been established that this was the last known communication with Richard. What can you tell me about the power consumption for Christmas Day? - I would say that Richard's up and around about 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock, and, again, he's doing his normal daily usage stuff there. But going forward, there doesn't seem to be` It just seems to be his standby appliances. - What would you feel comfortable saying about... - Christmas Day? - ...Christmas Day, just looking at that? - Well, I would say that Richard... has gone missing after the phone call. - OK. So you could say for argument's sake that there's no one at the address after 9am? - Yeah, after 9am. Only standby appliances are running. - And from that day onwards, it would appear that Richard hasn't been present at his house. - Can Richard's uncle tell us anything about his nephew's state of mind? - That person's told us that Richard wasn't very talkative during the call, and... Yeah, the family member said that they would call back when he was a bit more awake. - So, that Christmas morning after the telephone call with his uncle, what could have happened then? - Well, I guess Christmas Day is, you know, that one day where a lot of people want to be close to their families, and he may have been feeling really particularly down that day. - You know, has he had an acute episode where he might have had a breakdown and he's considered, um,... you know, suicide? - Except if he was going to commit suicide, though, after six years, would we have expected to have found him by now, given that he's got no transportation? - Yeah. I mean, with all the red-zoned houses at the time, you know, it was a consideration that he might have popped into one of those. - Because we've done a search around the area, haven't we? Just in relation to those red-zoned houses. - Yeah. So, there were a couple of houses that were red-zoned, so we've had a search through those and there was nothing found. - A lot of the time, missing people who have committed suicide have gone to a place where they've enjoyed going in the past, but Richard didn't move far from home, so you would expect to have found him by now if that had happened. - Members of Richard's whanau believe Richard had the ability to disappear and begin a life off the grid elsewhere. - Did he, you know, someway or another get out of the country? You know, like, get help to stow away on a ship? You know, he could speak, like, Japanese and, you know, that's another possibility. - Did he have the capability and the motivation to actually start a new life afresh in a different country? - I think we need to consider whether Richard has, you know, gone further afield. He has had access to money, although it was drying up, but had he saved enough to keep aside` to keep some aside? He had an affinity with Japanese culture and Japanese language. Has he got, um,... other means and left the country, for example, leaving via port, using other means to potentially obtain another passport or any other means to get out of the country? And he has those skills, and particularly the language, to actually maybe get on a boat or some other option that could get him out of the country that potentially the authorities don't know about. - Well, he had talked about wanting to go back to Japan, hadn't he? If Richard has done that, then he's... He's allowed to do that. It's not an offence to go missing. But if that is the case, then we need to know that information as well. - I think it certainly is a bit of a dream, you know, to be able to accumulate a lot of cash and utilise that to create some new identity and move on. But I think that he is still in New Zealand. - The question remains ` where? At 6'4", Richard Hinkley, who went missing on Christmas Day in 2015, would have been a striking figure. Police believe the public are key to solving this cryptic case. - You know, there's three possible things that could have happened to Richard. You know,... one ` he's just taken` gone walkabout. I think he would have been quite capable of getting himself lost, you know, in the wilderness areas. Did he, you know, somehow or another get out of the country? And the other thing is, um,... which, you know, you hate to think of, he's dead because of somebody else's hand or by his own hand. And, um, they're all possibilities, you know? - I've lost other family members in the last few years, but we know what happened to them and we were able to say our goodbyes. But in the case of Richard, we don't know what happened. - His dad, unfortunately, passed two, three years ago. - So, yes, it was really, really... hard for him. Hard for any parent who doesn't know what's happened to their child. - It's sad to look at things and, um, think that this is what's happened to him. But we've got no other hope at present. - We just have a moment in time. We can, evidentially, put him at his address on Christmas Day. I'm comfortable with that ` on the 25th of December, 2015, but almost from 10 o'clock on that day, Richard ceased to exist. - We really need to know what he's been up to on Christmas Day. - Yeah, Richard's really distinctive. Really, information from the community is vital to actually solving this. You know, we need information of sightings ` accurate sightings ` from ATMs, because we know that was his method of choice. Any sightings of him near Madras Street really, really are important to us, and especially around that Christmas Day. What was he doing later that morning? Where did he go? - In the past year, Richard had made use of charity organisations offering food. The City Mission hosted their annual Christmas lunch at Christchurch East School in Gloucester Street. - What's the possibility that he's gone there for the afternoon? - About 850 people went that day, so it's quite possible that someone remembers something. You know, being a Christmas, people tend to remember that a bit better. - And it's been, what, six? - Six years. - Six years, you know? Bring his family closure, and especially the uncle who he spoke to on Christmas Day must just think every day about what happened to him after he hung up the phone that day. - So what were his plans for Christmas Day? Has he gone somewhere else? - Or has he gone to someone's house that you don't know who they are? - Some friend that we don't know of. - Mm. - Because obviously Christmas Day has a special meaning to all of us, but most people would probably know where they were on the Christmas Day. So maybe there's someone out there that Richard's gone to that hasn't come forward yet and can tell us if they were there at Christmas Day. - Surely someone saw him out and about on that day, so I guess if people think back to what they were doing on Christmas Day, were they working somewhere around where Richard lived or visiting family or friends in that area? - Were they at a function or a family function that Richard may have been at? We need to know. - Christmas Day is` That's our lot at the moment with Richard going missing. When you even look around the room, you can see there's family memories there, lots of photographs and happy times, and he's someone's son, someone's uncle, relative, and if they knew something, that could provide us with some more information, because his family wants some closure. - This is really important, though. This is very solvable. It's just finding that piece of evidence or that information that actually leads us down the right path. - Yeah, I think someone out there does have information for us that hasn't come forward yet. - And it's just so important that, actually, if the community have information, that they do contact us. We want to know where he is, because if we actually find him, everything else will fall into place. - Yeah. - The evidence will take us, actually, where it needs to take us. - Well, when he was tiny, he would say 'Tup tea, Nana? Tup tea, Auntie Jill?' You know? (CHUCKLES) When I put the jug on to make a cup of tea, I think of Richard. Almost every time, I think of Richard. It's just something about... He loved having` making a pot of tea, you know? Or everybody getting round the teapot and enjoying talking, and that's when I think of him. Pretty much every day. - (SIGHS) When I think of Richard now, I'm just wondering. Wondering, 'Where are you, Richard?' I'm wondering every time I think of him ` that's what I think. 'Where are you?' (TENSE SYNTH MUSIC) Captions by Cameron Grigg. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.