Accused neighbour denies involvement in man’s disappearance
A man says police have accused him of murdering his neighbour, nearly two years after Richard Hinkley went missing.
‘‘They did over my flat, kicked me out for two days, dug up my garden and went through everything, took half my stuff away,’’ Dion Louvain Lawrence said yesterday.
‘‘I said I don’t know a thing. I’m not involved.’’
Hinkley, 49, was last seen at KiwiBank in Edgeware, Christchurch, on December 12, 2015. The same day the Insolvency and Trustee Service granted him a No Asset Procedure, an alternative to bankruptcy when someone is up to
$47,000 in debt. Hinkley has not contacted family since.
Lawrence reported him missing two months later, on February 10,
2016.
Police say the case remains a missing persons inquiry, calling suggestions they were running a homicide inquiry ‘‘premature’’. Hinkley’s relative said the thought foul play could be a possibility was ‘‘deeply distressing’’.
Investigators raided Lawrence’s home, which is directly in front of Hinkley’s, shortly before Christmas last year, he said.
While searching his home, Lawrence said police took him to the police station and told him they believed he murdered his neighbour.
‘‘I’ve got no idea what happened. He could’ve left the country for all I know.’’
‘‘[Police] think I had some big falling out with him, but I didn’t really. Other people certainly did; I don’t know why they aren’t investigating them.’’
‘‘I reported him missing, I don’t know if that has something to do with it. I don’t know if people have been talking.’’
Police charged Lawrence with burglary. They accuse him of breaking into Hinkley’s home in the days after reporting him missing, stealing and then pawning Hinkley’s laptop.
Lawrence appeared in the Christchurch District Court on the burglary charge in December. It is understood he is defending the charge and will appear again next month. Lawrence confirmed he faced a charge, but declined to discuss it.
Lawrence said he ‘‘got on’’ with Hinkley.
‘‘He was a friendly guy, a bit different.’’
Lawrence did not understand why police were looking at him now, two years after Hinkley’s disappearance, but said the prospect of facing a murder charge did not worry him.
‘‘There’s no evidence. I didn’t do anything so how can they charge me? There’s a bit of anxiety that they could come up with some rubbish story, but the truth is out there. I don’t know anything about it.’’
He declined to say who he thought police should investigate.
Hinkley’s aunt, Jill Martin, said the family were struggling to understand what happened to him.
‘‘That’s the worst of it. You start to think now that he could have taken his own life, but we don’t know.’’
Despite no contact from her nephew for more than two years, Martin would not rule out the possibility he was alive.
Hinkley, an only child, lived with his parents until he was 17 when they separated. His father eventually moved to Australia and his mother died in 2011.
Canterbury district crime manager Inspector Corrie Parnell said: ‘‘At the moment it’s a missing persons inquiry. It’s an active investigation and there are a number of persons of interest. Nothing more, nothing less.
‘‘Clearly he’s been gone since 2015 so we have some concerns.’’