Missing man’s quad bike never moved

An expert tracker says missing man Brett Hall’s quad bike never moved from the top of a ridge where he supposedly disappeared on a hunting trip seven years ago.

Hall’s son, Damian Hall, testified in the High Court at Palmerston North on Tuesday that he saw his father’s bike near the bushline on May 28, 2011.

Meanwhile, Hall’s friend of 20 years, David Lyttle, says the bike was parked near Hall’s caravan the next day.

Warrant officer Clive Douglas, who led a tracking team in the search for Hall, told the court yesterday it was ‘‘near impossible’’ for the quad bike to have moved once it was parked at the ridge it was found on.

Douglas said there was no indication, based on grass placement and tyre tracks, of any movement by Hall’s quad, or any other vehicle, in the 10 days before search and rescue teams found it. ‘‘To go down [the ridge] and come back up, there would have been indications. There would have been signs there.’’

Damian Hall and his mate Joshua Freemantle told the court they searched for Hall on May 28 after noticing his quad missing and that he had, uncharacteristically, left four chairs outside.

Initially they were unable to find him and Damian Hall began to worry his father had crashed down one of the farm’s several steep cliffs.

As their search drew to a close, near the farm’s highest point, the duo noticed Hall’s quad parked near the bushline.

‘‘It was parked on a track I didn’t know existed,’’ Damian Hall said. ‘‘Once I saw that I felt absolutely fine. I thought: ‘OK, Dad’s gone for a walk. The bike has been parked there. He hadn’t fallen off’.’’

They left for a work meeting in Whanganui soon after.

But Lyttle told police in an interview he was with Hall days after he went missing and that he was alive and well. He said he’d had a cup of tea and beers with Hall at his Pitangi property and taken him some meat on the Sunday May 29, 2011, following his disappearance.

That’s when he saw the quad near Hall’s campsite, he told police.

The Crown argues Lyttle parked the quad on Friday after killing Hall to frame it as if he had gone missing during a hunting expedition.

Defence lawyer Elizabeth Hall questioned whether signs in the grass had deteriorated over the week it took Douglas’ tracking team to get to the site.

She also suggested the site had been ‘‘contaminated’’ by other search and rescue operators, different species of grass and weather conditions, which could have affected the visibility of different sets of tyre marks.

The trial continues.