Kirsty Bentley was your typical 15-year-old girl.
Spending time with her friends and new boyfriend were high on her agenda.
On December 31, 1998, she and school pal Lee-Anne went into their local town, Ashburton, and were due to go to the races the following day.
Lee-Anne, now 42, described how she and Kirsty became fast friends when they first met back in 1996.
Kirsty was the kind of personality that she could be friends with almost anyone – she was warm, friendly, approachable and fiercely loyal to those she loved.
[On the day she vanished] we spent the morning in town, we went to the library, shopping and had lunch
We went and saw a friend at her work for a while and then my sister picked us up and dropped her home.
As well as her friends and family, a huge place in Kirsty’s heart was held by her treasured black labrador-cross Abby, who she was often seen walking.
But as she clipped on Abby’s lead and went along their usual route on that blistering New Year’s Eve, nobody knew she would be walking to her death.
After being dropped back at her red-bricked home, her brother John told her she’d missed a call from her boyfriend before retreating to his room to watch TV.
Kirsty returned her boyfriend Graeme’s call at 2.38pm and spoke to his brother before heading out to walk Abby, pictured with Kirsty below, at around 3pm.
But when Graeme phoned back at 4.20pm, John noticed Kirsty had been gone for a while.
When their mum Jill arrived home shortly after 5pm, she rushed out along Kirsty’s usual dog walking path to try and find her.
But when Sid – their dad and Jill’s husband – got back after 6pm, they decided to phone the police.
Panicked Sid and John continued to hunt for Kirsty until the early hours.
As the hours ticked by, her anxious family and friends prayed she would walk back through the door with Abby.
Their worst fears started to feel more like reality when her loyal pet was found tied to a tree close to the path they often used, pictured below, the next morning.
In a sinister turn, Kirsty’s underwear and boxer shorts were found nearby.
Finding Abby remains one of the most troubling aspects of the case to date.
As frantic volunteers and police searched in the hours after Kirsty disappeared, there was no sign of her.
But when the hunt resumed the following morning, she was found very quickly – raising suspicions that the scene had been staged.
How the hell someone has got away with this for so long?
Lee-Anne
More than two weeks of round-the-clock, tireless searching followed for Kirsty.
Police and volunteers combed the area relentlessly but repeatedly came up blanks.
On January 17 – a day before what would have been Kirsty’s 16th birthday – two cannabis growers called the police.
They had uncovered a badly decomposed body in a patch of overgrown scrubland – around 30 miles from where Kirsty vanished.
Police, pictured below, rushed to the scene in an area known to be used by illegal cannabis growers and recovered Kirsty’s body.
She had been placed in the fetal position and covered in a thin layer of branches and leaves in the Rakaia gorge.
For her loved ones, their hopes of Kirsty being found alive had been shattered.
Lee-Anne said her heart broke when she heard the dreaded news.
She said: “I was at my after school job, and our police liaison officer walked in – I could tell from her face that it wasn’t good news.
“She drove me to the Bentley’s house where we learnt they’d found her.
“The only way I can really describe my reaction is of pure shock.
“At 16 years old you don’t think that the outcome would be what it was – I was so hopeful that we would find her alive.”
Kirsty was the kind of personality that she could be friends with almost anyone – she was warm, friendly, approachable and fiercely loyal to those she loved
A post-mortem revealed Kirsty was callously killed with a blow to the back of her head between 3.30pm and 7pm on the day she went missing.
Her sarong was unpinned, but the level of decomposition made it impossible to tell if she had been sexually assaulted.
No evidence of a struggle was clear, and her clothes, and her underwear previously found, were not damaged.
Police believed elements may have been staged as an attempt to deceive them.
What complicated the case even more was the lack of clarity over Kirsty’s movement, hindered more by conflicting sightings.
Kirsty’s devastated family and friends – including Lee-Anne, pictured far left below – gathered at her funeral days later on January 25. But their heartache has continued for decades since with police unable to solve the case.
Early on in the probe, Kirsty’s brother John and father Sid – pictured above at her funeral with mum Jill – fell under the police’s radar and became suspects in the case.
Both denied any involvement.
A change in Sid’s story months after Kirsty’s murder also raised eyebrows with detectives.
Sid, who died in 2015 at the age of 64, originally told investigators he had driven to Christchurch, an hour away, before spending a couple of hours in Lyttelton.
He said he then drove straight home from there.
But potential sightings placed him on the edge of town at around 4pm.
Two years after Kirsty’s death, Sid changed his story – saying he had remembered new information after banging his head.
He told police he came back from Christchurch at around 2.30pm and moments before getting home decided to go to Wakanui Beach.
Shortly before his death 15 years later, he retracted the change, however.
With no firm suspect and details around her final hours sketchy, several theories remain on the table.
KILLED BY SOMEONE KNOWN TO HER?
Retired British police inspector Chuck Burton – who was called in to examine the case at the request of New Zealand detectives – believes Kirsty was killed by someone who knew her.
Burton, a top international criminal profiler, believes the murderer had an “emotional connection” to the teen.
He told in 2010 how he believed the crime scene had been staged to throw police off.
Burton said: “It’s an offender protecting his own identity by changing and altering the crime scene.”
His views were backed by retired Detective Senior Sergeant Lance Corcoran, who headed the original inquiry.
KILLED BY DAD OR BROTHER?
As with most murder probes, her family members were initially suspected.
Kirsty’s dad Sid and brother John were considered suspects by police soon after Kirsty went missing.
Both strongly denied any involvement – and have since been cleared of any involvement.
The family’s home was examined early on in the probe, but no clues were uncovered.
Sid’s change in alibi also made police question his involvement.
His family members believe, however, Sid was perhaps just too embarrassed to admit where he really was that day.
Neither John or Sid were ever charged in connection with Kirsty’s death, and police no longer consider them suspects.
KILLED BY KNOWN MURDERER?
Years after Kirsty’s death, it was reported police were investigating whether known killer Russell John Tully was behind her death.
Tully – who denied any involvement in Kirsty’s killing – had murdered two staff members at Ashburton Work and Income Office in 2014.
He had been known to camp in the area where Kirsty vanished.
But in 2018, police revealed Tully had been eliminated from their probe.
Cops said he had given a detailed account of where he had been living and working when Kirsty disappeared.
KILLED BY STRANGER?
Detective Inspector Greg Murton, now in charge of the probe, previously told how he believes Kirsty was killed by a stranger.
The officer said in 2022 he thinks Kirsty’s murderer was either a long male who either smoked or grew cannabis, and was living alone at the time.
Murton said it is possible Kiristy was grabbed by a stranger and taken to a nearby home.
He believes the killer may have taken Abby down to the river and tied her up after dark, and disposed of Kirsty’s underwear at the same time.
Murton said: “I think [the killer] is someone on the walking route – that would be my most likely scenario … and there are some good suspects there.”
He also said he believed it was more likely to have been a stranger than her brother or dad.
Murton added: “I am not saying 100 per cent they were not involved, but I am saying they are less likely to have been involved than a stranger-type abduction.”
Lee-Anne and those close to Kirsty are still mystified by what could have happened.
She said: “I honestly have no idea what could have happened.
“I did think for a while her father was responsible, but that was misguided blame.
“How the hell someone has got away with this for so long though absolutely blows my mind.
“Either they’re the luckiest son of a b**ch for not being caught or the police have done a rough job investigating.”
Police offered a $100,000 reward in 2022 for information that led to a conviction, but that has now expired.
Detective Inspector Greg Murton, pictured below, told The Sun: “Active inquiries are not underway into the Kirsty Bentley murder, other than when new information comes in.
“Some collation work and analysis is underway but no particular suspects are under investigation.
“The reward period offered in 2022 has lapsed.
“Police remain interested in receiving information that could present new lines of inquiry for this and any historic cold cases.”
Lee-Anne has pleaded for anyone who has yet to contact police with vital information to do so.
She said: “Please just tell us, tell us if you think you have information that may help find her murderer.
“Put yourselves in our shoes, if it was your daughter or friend that had been taken at such a young age you would want any information out there told to the police.
“Please give her mother and brother the closure they deserve after decades of heartache.”
Lee-Anne said she has never lost hope that Kirsty’s killer will be found and finally bring a sense of closure for her loved ones.
She added: “Her mum and brother, and Kirsty deserve justice, to know who the b**tard is that took her from them, and us her friends.
“She was just a kid, she had her whole life ahead of her that she never got to have.
“We all remember her in our own way, in our own time.
“I still have the Pooh Bear stuffed toy I bought while she was missing, that will stay with me forever.
“My son had photos in her christening blanket when he was born.
“Earlier this year, we had a memorial plaque placed at the Ashburton Botanic Gardens, as a place for people to go and pay their respects.”
