GUILT

S3 Finding Heidi Update

Ryan is currently still working on the final two episodes of Finding Heidi Endgame. There are a couple important loose ends that need to be tied up to conclude the season. So this week we're re-introducing The Veil with the Subscriber only special episode - Where is Sara Neithe?

On Sunday 30 March 2003, Sara Niethe drove out of Kerepehi in her mother's light green Honda Civic, stopped at a dairy in Ngatea where a security camera recorded her, and carried on to a house at Kaihere. She was never seen again. Her daughter turned ten the next day, with a table booked at a café. Ten years later Mark Pakenham pleaded guilty to her manslaughter — he had injected her with methamphetamine, a drug she had never used, and watched her die. He was paroled in 2016. Sara has never been found. Neither has the car.

IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING

The car is the most useful thing anyone can help with: a light green 1987 Honda Civic hatchback, registration NH4050, which vanished from the Kaihere / Ngatea / Thames area around 30–31 March 2003 and has never surfaced at a wrecker, been re-registered, or turned up in a drain or a paddock. Investigators believe that wherever the car is, Sara is with it.

Anything else helps too — ground turned over on a farm that autumn, a paddock people were told to keep out of. You do not have to have done anything wrong to know about it.

Bruce Currie, private investigator and former Waikato CIB senior detective, who has worked this case pro bono with Sara's family — 027 844 1349, bruce@mrtracer.co.nz. In confidence.

NZ Police non-emergency: 105.

Crime Stoppers: 0800 555 111 — anonymous.

A NOTE ON SOURCING

Mark Pakenham pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2013 and was sentenced in the High Court at Hamilton on 16 August 2013 to six years seven months. He was also convicted of two counts of injuring with intent to injure, relating to two women in Auckland between 1990 and 1992; those appear only because the sentencing judge relied on them in open court. He was paroled on 22 June 2016. This episode does not report on his life since. He later denied the account he pleaded guilty to; the Parole Board said this suggested "a person who is dishonest".

No other person has ever been charged over Sara's death. The episode refers to one man, unnamed, recorded as having been in contact with Pakenham that day, who died in 2018. He was never charged, no court has made any finding about him, and no allegation is made against him.

There was no trial, so no tested evidence and no judgment of fact — only an agreed summary and a sentencing. There is no forensic record: no remains, no post-mortem, no toxicology, no scene examination, no vehicle. Sara's age is reported variously as 30, 31 and 32; we used 31. The view that Pakenham had help disposing of Sara and the car is Bruce Currie's, and is not a finding of any court; police say there is no evidence of it. In October 2024, after an 18-month review, police found no reason to reopen the file.

SOURCES

New Zealand Parole Board, Mark Edward Pakenham, 9 June 2016 — paroleboard.govt.nz

RNZ, "Police appeal for killer to reveal where body is" (2013); "Body still missing as killer released" (2016) — rnz.co.nz

Otago Daily Times (2011, 2013 court reporting) — odt.co.nz

The Valley Profile, Hauraki — the local reporting that carried the 2022–23 searches — valleyprofile.co.nz

Anna Leask, NZME (NZ Herald / Newstalk ZB), 2023–24 case reporting

Mr Tracer (Bruce Currie) case files — mrtracer.co.nz

Waikato Times (2008); NZ Woman's Weekly family interview (2011)

SUPPORT

This episode deals with the killing of a woman, methamphetamine and long-term grief.

NZ: 1737 (call or text) · Alcohol Drug Helpline 0800 787 797 · Family violence 0800 456 450 · Women's Refuge 0800 REFUGE · Victim Support 0800 842 846

AU: Lifeline 13 11 14 · Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732

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