On June 20, 1991. Terence Charles Hendry (32) left his parents’ home in Woolston, Christchurch about 4:30pm. He was driving a dilapidated orange Datsun 120Y, registration HS359. It was hand-painted and had no front passenger seat.
He told his parents that he was just going to the post office about 2km from his parents’ home. A polar blast was hammering Canterbury at the time, keeping most Cantabrians at home keeping warm.
Terence never made it to his destination and he and his car were never seen again.
Hendry suffered from mental illness. He left behind his medication and all of his possessions, including a passport. He was known to holiday on the West Coast and in Kaikoura.
At the time of his disappearance, Hendry’s parents believed he had been murdered.
However, police suspected suicide.
There was no movement on the case until July 2013, when police announced that they were reopening the case.
Police said they were taking a fresh look at the case and appealed for any information. They were hoping to bring some closure to Hendry’s brother and three sisters.
His parents, John and Anne Hendry, have died since his disappearance.
Detective Inspector Tom Fitzgerald said police believed that Terence was dead, and “clearly can’t rule out foul play”.”After reviewing the file, there are a number of lines of inquiry that will be vigorously followed up over the coming weeks,” he said.
Police appealed for people to come forward including a group related to a New Brighton tattoo parlour with whom Hendry associated.
Hendry received several tattoos at the parlour, including a large one on his back featuring a boy and girl praying.
Fitzgerald said he hoped publicising the case again might encourage someone who “wasn’t telling us the full truth” to reconsider information they gave in 1991.
“We’re hoping that if we shake the tree hard enough, some information will fall out of it,” Detective Sergeant Al Lester said. No evidence was found that helped the investigation.
In March 2014, police say they have no idea what happened to Terence. Detective Sergeant Al Lester said that police had reached a dead-end with their inquiries and the case had been referred to the coroner to make a ruling.
Recent publicity about the case yielded new information and police spoke to a number of people, including some in Kaikoura, but no significant developments emerged.”At this stage, police have exhausted all lines of inquiry. We don’t know what’s happened to him,” Lester said.
A coroner’s inquest was scheduled for April.
May 2014, The coroner’s Inquest
Grieving family and friends of Terence believed he was murdered by his ex-girlfriend’s father and his car disposed of at a wrecking yard, a coroner’s inquest has heard. The coroner’s inquest heard that family and friends believed Hendry had been annoying his ex-girlfriend and her father had killed him
Giving evidence, Detective Sergeant Al Lester said a family member had phoned the ex-girlfriend’s father to question him about Hendry’s disappearance and received an abusive response.
Hendry’s late father, John, also visited a wrecking yard where the man worked because he “was concerned this may be how the car was disposed of”.He was refused entry to look for parts of his son’s car.
The family had little evidence to support their claims, Lester said.
One of those reasons was based on an alleged statement by [the man] on 30 April 1992 to John Hendry that Terence had been bothering his daughter, that Terence’s behaviour had gotten out of hand and something had to be done.”
After publicity about the case last year, the man walked into the Kaikoura Police Station “in a very excited state . . . and repeated over and over again that the police shouldn’t be opening this case – it wasn’t a murder, it was a suicide – and that was the end of it”, Lester told the inquest.
At the time, police had never spoken to the man.
A week later, a team of investigators traveled to Kaikoura and the man and other member’s of his family were formally interviewed.
The man said he had been at his daughter’s home when Hendry turned up unannounced the weekend before he disappeared. Hendry walked through the house and said “I should be here” before he was asked to leave.
“Before leaving [the man] stated Terence said to him ‘I’m going, you’ll never see me again – nobody will’.”
The man’s story conflicted with a statement provided to police by his daughter, who said her father was not there when Hendry turned up.
Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean said it was “blindingly obvious” that Hendry was dead.
“He certainly believed or wanted me to believe that what he said was true.
“He was quite emphatic on a number of occasions throughout the interview that he was the last person to see Terence alive which, given he went missing a week later, has always stuck in my mind . . . as being an unusual comment to make.”
The man denied having any involvement in Hendry’s disappearance, Lester said.
“Although these matters caused suspicion they are hearsay and a lot of it isn’t admissible evidence” in a criminal court.
After the hearing, Lester said: “There are people who know what’s happened to Terence Hendry and it would be very appropriate for those people to come forward and take all that uncertainty away from the family.””If anybody has been involved in foul play that person or people need to to be brought to justice in the interest of fairness to society,” he said.
In a later interview, the man says that the suggestion he killed Hendry and then disposed of his car at a wrecking yard was “absolutely bloody ridiculous”.
“The Hendry thing never happened so I’ve got nothing to worry about. I don’t have to tell lies because there are no lies to tell.”The man also said he had never been contacted or approached by Hendry’s family in relation to his disappearance. They may have spoken to other members of his family thinking it was him.
There was every possibility his father came to the wrecking yard but the man aid it wasn’t him who spoke to him.
“The sister was apparently supposed to have rung me – no such thing. Who did she ring? Did she ring the yard or did she ring my home?”
He also disputed Lester’s version of events that unfolded at Kaikoura police station last year. He said he had wanted to provide evidence to the inquest but his lawyer advised against it.
Lester, 55, retired in 2016.
One of the cases that stuck with Lester most was the disappearance of Terence Charles Hendry in 1991.
His whereabouts remained a mystery. Twenty-five years had passed and no-one had been able to determine what happened to Hendry.
Anyone with information on this case is urged to ring their local police station or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9788842/Police-stumped-on-mans-vanishing
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10156855/Mystery-Hendry-murder-suspect-talks
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8955196/Hendry-case-reopened-22-years-on
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/9996124/Missing-man-may-have-been-killed
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9994995/Family-believe-man-murdered
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8959964/Old-friend-fears-foul-play
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/police-revisit-1991-missing-person-enquiry
New Zealand Mysteries 