Cold case tip to police ignored
THE 50-YEAR SECRET Informant relayed rumours of suspect’s identity, writes
Anew suspect in the 50-year-old unsolved murder of Welsh tourist Jennifer Beard was reported to police a year before he died — but was never investigated.
Documents released to the Herald on Sunday under the Official Information Act show a member of the public contacted police about rumours Otematata man Reginald Wildbore had committed the murder, and that his own wife had said as much.
But the tip was never investigated by police, who simply said he was “not considered a suspect” after being interviewed in 1970, a few months after Beard’s death.
In that interview, Wildbore describes seeing a young woman, presumably Beard, outside the post shop in Fox Glacier the day she disappeared.
Another statement provided to the Herald on Sunday contains an interview with an unnamed person, who says they saw Wildbore at the pub in Fox Glacier some time after 3pm that day.
The murder is believed to have happened about 1pm in Haast.
Beard was hitchhiking on the West Coast on New Year’s Eve 1969 when she disappeared. Her body was found badly decomposed under the Haast River Bridge on January 19, 1970.
Nobody has ever been charged with her murder, but a recent Herald investigation has uncovered evidence of Wildbore’s confession.
Ian Molloy said he had been friends with Wildbore for about 10 years when the secret came out.
“He just looked at me and then he just broke down crying his eyes out. And he said, ‘I’ve done something really, really bad’. He said, ‘I killed Jennifer Beard’.”
Molloy said he was “gobsmacked”. “He couldn’t control himself for crying. He hung around for a bit then he took control of himself and he just went away. I never saw him again.”
The next he heard of Wildbore was the news he’d committed suicide.
The day Wildbore died, he was supposed to go to the Oamaru police station, where he was to be arrested and charged with historical sex crimes against a child.
Now the Herald on Sunday can from the person, whose name has been redacted.
“[The informant] was working in Otematata not long before the murder,” the officer writes.
“About three years ago he shifted back to Oamaru and has bumped into people he knew from his time in Otematata. Around 25/10/01 he was told by one of these people of a rumour that Reginald Wildbore [redacted] had committed the murder. [The informant] was told that this was a rumour that was active in Otematata at the time of the murder, and that Wildbore’s wife at the time, [redacted], has stated that he had committed it.
“I would suggest that if this information has not been investigated, or if it cannot be determined whether it has been investigated, then [redacted] needs to be spoken to.”
The file was forwarded to Detective Mark Lodge, the officer in charge of the Jennifer Beard file. But in March 2002, Lodge responded, dismissing the information.
“I have checked the Beard homicide file for references to Wildbore. He was in fact interviewed on 8th February 1970 and not considered a suspect after that. You may wish to relay that fact to your informant.”
HListen to a special episode of The 50-Year Secret podcast at nzherald.co.nz and all major podcast apps reveal an informant went to police about Wildbore in early 2002, a year before he died. In a police report form, dated February 2002, the detective constable notes information received