Recheck of number clue in Patient case

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 4

Recheck of number clue in Patient case

PA Auckland The police are checking new leads on the 1976 murder of a Henderson schoolgirl, Tracey Ann Patient. Several persons have called with new information on the case since publicity was given to her death during the last week of January marking the tenth anniversary. Tracey Patient, aged 13, disappeared: from‘ outside the Henderson police station on January 29, 1976. She was walking up Great North Road about 9.30 p.m. on her way home from a girlfriend’s house. Her body was found the next day, strangled and dumped in the bush off Scenic Drive. The "Auckland Star” published an interview with Tracey’s parents, John and June Patient, from their home in Southend, England, and a review of the case. Some of the clues related to Tracey’s signet ring, which was worn by her on the night of January 29, but was found two years later in an Avondale wastepaper bin. The anonymous telephone caller who tipped the police off about the ring also gave then a sixdigit number and said it related to the girl’s death. The number, 126040,

was thoroughly checked by the police for many months but provided no clues. Yet several calls to police stations since the publicity last month have suggested new ideas for the number. The officer handling the Patient homicide file, Detective Senior-Sergeant Maurice Cummins, said some of the ideas suggested were very different from those the police had looked at. The police had previously examined the number in relation to retail account numbers, bank account numbers, telephone and post office box numbers and even social welfare benefit numbers, but these had produced nothing. "People have read into the number certain ideas — some of which are rather interesting,” Senior-Sergeant Cummins said. “We have to check them all. We have got heaps to dig through.”

He said some of the new inquiries would check more names given by the public as possible suspects for the slaying. Mr John Patient said yesterday he was very pleased to hear of the new leads. “Let us hope something comes of it," he said. “We are just hoping that if they did catch someone, it might help us feel better.” Mr Patient said the graveside ceremony on January 29 at the east London cemetry where Tracey is buried was particularly depressing for himself, his wife and two daughters. “It passes over like any other year, but being the tenth year it made it even worse. It was just so depressing.” Mr Patient said the family were waiting on the edge of their seats — even after a decade — for the slightest breakthrough.