Mona Elizabeth Blades was an 18-year-old

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

woman who disappeared in 1975 while

hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Nomads hav ...

. Her body and belongings have never been found and no one has been charged in connection with her disappearance and presumed

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

Disappearance

Blades was hitchhiking from

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

on Saturday 31 May 1975, the first day of the

Queen's Birthday The King's Official Birthday (alternatively the Queen's Official Birthday when the monarch is female) is the selected day in the United Kingdom and most Commonwealth realms on which the birthday of the monarch is officially celebrated in those ...

long weekend, and was allegedly last seen on the Napier–Taupo Road in an orange

Datsun 120Y The is an automobile built by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1966 to 2006. In the early 1980s, the brand changed from Datsun to Nissan in line with other models by the company. Although production of the Sunny in Japan ended in 2006, the na ...

station wagon A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...

. A truck driver saw Blades getting into the Datsun and witnesses reported seeing a matching vehicle veering off the highway and stopping on rural Matea Road.

Investigation

There have been about five suspects in the case.

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

police investigated John Freeman who had rented an orange Datsun the weekend that Blades disappeared. On the day two weeks later that police announced they were searching for an orange Datsun, Freeman shot and wounded a student at St Cuthbert's College in Auckland before killing himself. An elderly New Zealand man and Charlie Hughes, a

man now living in Australia, have remained "persons of interest" for police. Hughes has gone public in newspapers and on television about his frustrations at being on the suspects list and has denied he had anything to do with the alleged murder. In 2003, police investigated a report that Blades' name had been found etched on a garage floor in a

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlemen ...

house, which the house's occupants feared might be a makeshift grave. It was discovered that the name had been inscribed on concrete as a joke six years earlier, and the former owner of the property apologised to her family. In 2005, Blades' brother, Tony Blades, told the ''Daily Post'' his family had not talked to the media during the previous 30 years about their feelings because it was too hard on them, especially their mother, who was then in her 80s, and her father had died not knowing his daughter's whereabouts. In January 2012 police dug up the concrete laundry floor of a house in Kawerau looking for her body, but found nothing of interest.

Aftermath

The Mona Blades case featured on TVNZ's ''Cold Case'' programme in July 2018. The programme revisited the case with expert detectives and re-examined the original files hoping to find new leads. The experts concluded that the original investigation focused too heavily on the hunt for the orange Datsun and may have misled potential witnesses by using photographs which did not resemble Blades' hairstyle at the time of her disappearance. A detective said that gang members or their associates may have been involved in the disappearance. Blades had gang affiliations, and gang members may have been travelling on the road to a gathering in Wellington that weekend.

References

External links

New Zealand Police
page on the case {{DEFAULTSORT:Blades, Mona 1970s missing person cases 1975 murders in New Zealand Hitchhiking Missing person cases in New Zealand New Zealand murder victims

Disappearance

Investigation

Aftermath

See also

References

External links