Ashburton Guardian, Monday, April 6, 2020

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Monday, April 6, 2020

Since Sept 27, 1879

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New murder probe By Matt Markham

matt.m@theguardian.co.nz

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A new investigation into the unsolved murder of Ashburton teenager Kirsty Bentley in 1998 has revealed new details and information around one of New Zealand’s most prolific cold case murders. Released on news website Stuff at the weekend, the investigation, dubbed Killer Blow, was undertaken by Fairfax investigative journalists Blair Ensor and Martin van Beynen and was the result of months of interviews, research and in depth analysis of a case which has perplexed a district, and in so many ways a country for more than two decades. Beginning late last year, the pair set to work scouring over every piece of in-

formation available to them and going that step further as well to ensure they gained as bigger picture as possible for the investigation. “The problem with the Kirsty Bentley case is that it’s been pretty well raked over, so finding that point of difference was always going to be the key for us,” Ensor told the Guardian yesterday. “We spent a fair amount of time initially just going over all the Fairfax news stories on the case and from that we felt like we had enough information for a really strong story, but we wanted more.” The pair conducted multiple trips to Ashburton and spent many hours walking the streets and talking to locals on properties around South Street and Chalmers Ave, near the house which

Kirsty grew up in. Also, along with Detective Inspector, Greg Murton, who was handed the Bentley file in 2014, they walked the same track Bentley had near the Ashburton River and visited the site in the Rakaia Gorge where her body was discovered two weeks after she went missing. “That was really important for us, to be down in Ashburton and seeing such significant areas in the case in real life and not trying to do it all from the comfort of the office in Christchurch. “We needed to be there to get a better picture of these places.”

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