New leads in homicide investigation

Two more properties have been searched by police as they investigate several new tip-offs about the disappearance of Marlborough woman Jessica Boyce.

The 27-year-old had been missing for seven months when police said last week the case had become a homicide investigation, and they were closing in on those responsible, believed to be her acquaintances.

As police searched two rural Marlborough properties last week, area investigations manager Detective Senior Sergeant Ciaran Sloan called on ‘‘those struggling with what they know about Jessica’s disappearance’’ to ‘‘come forward and ease that struggle’’.

Since that message, another eight people had come forward with information, Sloan said yesterday.

A property in the Wairau Valley township, about 40 kilometres west of Blenheim, was searched on Wednesday, and a property in Kekerengu, halfway between Blenheim and Kaiko¯ura, was searched yesterday morning.

One person was interviewed at the Wairau Valley property but nobody had been arrested or charged yet, Sloan said.

A team of six Blenheim detectives and one detective sergeant had spent the last seven months sifting through more than 120 tip-offs to eliminate false leads, before the case became a homicide investigation on October 22.

Police believed the red Holden ute that Boyce was last seen in, abandoned at the Lake Chalice car park in the Mount Richmond Forest Park, was deliberately left there to mislead police.

Extra staff from Tasman and Canterbury were brought in to search a property in coastal township Wharanui, 10km north of Kekerengu, and a rural property in Canvastown, halfway between Blenheim and Nelson, last week.

More than 40 investigators, dog handlers, scene-of-crime officers and specialist search crews trawled through the properties, taking the armed offenders squad to the Wharanui property.

No body had been found, but investigations were ongoing, Sloan confirmed yesterday.