A Good Samaritan sought by Hamilton Police investigating last month's murder of a man in the City's CBD didn't realise he had picked up a group of people linked to the investigation and given them a ride.
Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Greene of the Hamilton CIB said investigators had wanted to track down the man to help establish how the victim's car ended up in a ditch on Collins Rd.
"During the morning of Sunday 27 June a driver stopped on Collins Rd and gave a group of people a lift after it appeared their car had crashed into a ditch.
"As it turned out the car, a white Peugeot sedan belonged to our murder victim, Wellington man Donald Stewart," said Mr Greene.
The driver came forward after extensive media coverage of the Police's desire to speak to him.
"Ironically it turns out he is a retired policeman, his workmates had been reading about the case at work during smoko and he realised he was the Good Samaritan we were seeking."
Last week Police arrested three teenage boys in connection to Mr Stewart's murder who appeared in the Hamilton Youth Court yesterday.
Details of the trio, aged 14, 15 and 17, were suppressed and they were remanded to reappear on 04 August.
Mr Greene said enquiries into the case were continuing and the success achieved so far was as a result of sound investigative work combined with a lot of support from the Waikato public.
"The responses from the people of the Waikato have been mighty to the extent extra staff and resources had to be brought in to process all the calls we received and record details accurately.
"To that end, while our work is far from completed, we'd really like to express our gratitude to everyone who assisted our enquiry enabling us to get to this point."
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