{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/68d0b2ea88c516d26e3c7b48/6a349241db494ef85c701cee?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"E40 | Mona Blades","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/68d0b2ea88c516d26e3c7b48/1781830079039-c3bf99ac-51b7-403c-b257-aabaaa729e99.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>On Queen's Birthday weekend, 1975, eighteen-year-old Mona Blades set out hitchhiking from Hamilton to Hastings, carrying a birthday gift of plastic cups for her baby nephew. She reached Taupō — and vanished. A truck driver's sighting of her in an orange Datsun launched one of New Zealand's largest manhunts: more than 500 cars, thousands of hours, not a single trace found. Fifty years on, her body has never surfaced and no one has been charged. But a cold-case review revealed something unsettling: the famous orange Datsun may have been a wrong turn from the very start, sending an entire country chasing a mirage.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><h2><strong>Sources used</strong></h2><ul><li><em>Wikipedia — \"Disappearance of Mona Blades\"</em>: backbone for timeline, sightings table, the 500+ orange Datsun owners, John Freeman (rental + St Cuthbert's shooting/suicide), Hinton allegation and 2012 Kawerau dig, 2003 Huntly garage-floor false alarm, 2018 Cold Case documentary findings, gang-link theory, family detail.</li><li><em>NZ History (nzhistory.govt.nz) — \"Mona Blades vanishes\"</em>: family context (sister Lillian, brother-in-law Tom, niece Angela), the surprise trip and nephew's 1st birthday, plastic tumblers, dropped on Cambridge Rd/SH1, ~10am orange-Datsun sighting, fencing contractor on Matea Rd.</li><li><em>NZ Herald / The Listener (Greg Bruce, \"On the wrong trail\" / \"No DNA, no CCTV, no chance,\" May–June 2025)</em>: the central reassessment — the short/spiky hair vs the long-haired bridesmaid photo; the truck driver interviewed four times with escalating certainty and the \"half-pie smile\"; the memory-as-fresh-snow interviewing material; the alternative sightings (blue/green wagon, red Toyota, Spa Hotel); detectives Ron Cooper, John Hope, Mark Loper and the on-camera conclusions; 145km road; \"solved in a week today\" (Henwood/Beard); Scott Bainbridge \"deathbed confession.\"</li><li><em>1News (May 2025, 50th anniversary)</em>: hundreds of police across a 200km Tokoroa–Napier stretch; fencing contractor detail; \"steady stream\" of tips since the 2018 doc; Det Snr Sgt Ryan Yardley; clothing/pack detail.</li><li><em>The Post (May 2025)</em>: surprise trip, items found in searches incl. discarded dresses, identikit of the man, ~360 Datsun station wagons by Oct 1975, \"suspects — the driver of the orange Datsun and four others — two of whom are dead,\" the living person of interest's public denials and DNA sample.</li><li><em>NZ Police cold-case page</em>: ~5000 hours over 6 months; webpage now lists blue/green wagon and red Toyota (the Taupō-local / gang-adjacent theory); appeal re: bike-gang associates.</li><li><em>NZ Herald (Sept 2025 / \"Cop v Cop,\" Jan 2012)</em>: Tony Moller (former Kawerau policeman) and the Hinton allegation; the family's strong rejection; the red-Toyota / rolled-carpet sighting not followed through.</li></ul><p><br></p>","author_name":"Brevity Studios"}