Waitemata Police are announcing this morning that the investigation into the cold-case murder of a 13 year-old girl in Henderson has been resumed full-time, with Detectives working on new leads.
(Link to video on Dropbox with interviews, archive footage and pictures is below)
Tomorrow marks forty years to the day that Tracey Ann Patient disappeared whilst walking home from a friend's house.
On the night of Thursday January 29 1976, Tracey went to a friend's house in Chilcott Road, Henderson. Tracey was due to be back home at her parent's house in Dellwood Avenue at 9.30pm.
Tracey's friend walked her halfway home and they parted at the intersection of Great North Road and Edmonton Road at around 9.30pm.
She set off up Great North Road. The last known sighting of Tracey Patient was outside number 295 Great North Road, Henderson. She was only 5 minutes walk from her home.
The following morning, a man walking his dog found Tracey's body in a bush area on Scenic Drive. 13 year-old Tracey had been strangled with a stocking and her body discarded just metres into the bush area.
A large-scale investigation was launched and over the following months Police looked at hundreds of persons of interest and exhausted numerous lines of enquiry.
Twenty-two months after Tracey’s murder (November 1978), Police received a phone call from an anonymous person, who told Police that a signet ring Tracey owned was in a rubbish bin outside a chemist in Avondale. The caller gave the calltaker the number “126040” and said he would call back later.
Officers went to the rubbish bin and found a ring inside, which is believed to have been the ring Tracey was wearing when she went missing and had been given to her by a boyfriend.
Despite more than 850 persons of interest being profiled over the 40 years since Tracey’s murder, no-one has been identified and charged.
To this very day, Police have continued to receive hundreds of pieces of information about the case, including theories around the “126040” number and nominations for persons of interest. Despite thousands of hours of investigative work, Tracey’s killer remains unidentified.
Police can now reveal that since November, a team of 8 investigators based at the Waitakere Police Station have been working fulltime on the Tracey Patient case. Detectives are following new leads and are now appealing for anyone with information on the case to call the dedicated 0800 number – 0800 000 111.
Detective Sergeant Murray Free has been on the case for the past twelve years, he is leading the investigation team, with oversight from Detective Inspector John Sutton.
In the past 3 months, Detectives have made enquiries with a number of people, as far away as Australia.
“Despite forty years having passed, someone out there knows who did this. To this day we still have people who ring us with information, and I’m pleased to say we are following new leads. ” says Detective Inspector John Sutton, Waitemata Police.
“For forty years, the Patient family have lived with the absolute trauma of what happened to their daughter and sister, they have never known who took Tracey from them or why. It is still incredibly fresh to them, as if she was stolen from them only yesterday” says Det Insp Sutton .
“The West Auckland community remember this well. It was horrific; a 13 year-old girl with her whole life ahead of her, just minutes away from home and brutally murdered. Someone out there knows who did this, and we are as determined to solve it now as we were back then” he says.
“Speaking on camera for the first time ever, Tracey’s older sister Debbie has filmed an interview with Police to help with our public appeal. The 8 minute-video, which is available on the Waitemata Police Facebook page, will give those who are not familiar with this case some idea of Tracey’s story and the catastrophic effect this crime had on an entire family” he says.
The 0800 number for Operation Tracey is 0800 000 111.
ENDS
Beth Bates/Waitemata Police
Media – An 8 minute video, plus raw footage including interviews and video with Detective Sergeant Murray Free and Debbie Sheppard, archive footage, photographs of Tracey Patient and a scene with Det Snr Sgt Free at the place of Tracey’s last known sighting is available on Drop box on this link
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u956r3gr10rfp9m/AADr9VYakZDUXo9I07HAKZDca?dl=0
