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It has been 22 years since Mark Pakenham killed his girlfriend Sara Niethe and disposed of her body.

While he admitted killing her, he has never disclosed where he hid her remains.

A private investigator working with Niethe’s family has now revealed new information from “a dying ex-crim” that could lead to her lonely grave.

And he has shared the results of a police review of the case – prompted by a formal complaint that the investigation into Niethe’s disappearance was “flawed”.

Sara Niethe was killed in 2003. Her body has never been found. Photo / Supplied

Niethe, 30, was reported missing on Monday, March 31, 2003 after she failed to arrive home from Pakenham’s house.

Initially, he told police he and Niethe spent most of the previous day drinking at his home in Kaihere, 35km northwest of Morrinsville.

He said Niethe left early on Monday morning.

She lived just 10 minutes away. She never made it home and there has been no sign of her since.

In 2011 Pakenham was charged with Niethe’s murder.

Before his case went to trial he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

He admitted injecting Niethe with a fatal dose of methamphetamine but said he was too affected by drugs and alcohol to remember where he put her body.

Pakenham was sentenced to six years and seven months in prison and refused parole repeatedly until he was finally released in 2016.

In recent years Niethe’s family have been working with private investigator Bruce Currie to run their own searches for her body.

Mark Pakenham. Photo / Alan Gibson

Currie also made a formal complaint to police about how Niethe’s case was handled and the prosecution of her killer.

He did not believe “basic homicide protocols” were followed when Niethe was reported missing and was concerned that questions from her family “could not be answered due to papers dealing with the issue being missing” from the police file.

“The original investigation into Sara’s disappearance was flawed and should be reinvestigated,” Currie said.

“We also asked police to follow up on some info we received. In 2024, an anonymous informant claimed that Pakenham had buried Sara and her vehicle on a farm property in the Thames District using a digger.

“The informant, who described themself as ‘a dying ex-crim’, was wanting to clear their conscience before they died.

“This information was passed to the police but has not led to the recovery of Sara and her vehicle.”

Sara Niethe pictured with daughters. Photo / Supplied

Currie also sought answers to questions about “how Pakenham was able to convince the authorities that Sara’s killing was an accident” – leading to his murder charge being reduced from murder to manslaughter.

He said the killer later admitted he lied during the process.

Detective Superintendent Ross McKay responded to the complaint in November and Currie shared the information with the Herald before the anniversary of Niethe’s death.

He explained the process was “problematic” because the initial missing person inquiry was “paper-based and in part deconstructed and reformed under the homicide investigation”.

McKay said “considerable time was spent manually searching and addressing” the complaint.

He had all of the files “scanned and digitised” so an analysis could be carried out to identify “missing” components.

“This took some time and cost but enabled us to largely address unexplained gaps and provide us both with a better understanding of the file holdings,” he said.

“Once digitised I assigned the files to a Detective Inspector to review the content.”

Some of the files relating to Sara Nieth's case were paper-based. Photo / 123rf

Detective Inspector John Mackie submitted a report to McKay after the review.

“There is no evidence I can identify that changes the position of the prosecution. This file has been extensively investigated to a high standard and a case has been taken to court,” he said.

“The recent admissions made by Pakenham hold no more weight than the multiple earlier accounts that are not corroborated with any other evidence.

“There is not a single strand of new evidence that is apparent … Without further credible information, there is no obvious investigative opportunities that present themselves.”

McKay said Pakenham was charged, pleaded guilty to, was convicted and has served his sentence for the manslaughter.

“The [sentencing judge] is clear in that he challenges the veracity of Pakenham, and accordingly his final sentence outcome had a substantial uplift in terms of imprisonment,” he said.

“To achieve a murder conviction the Crown must prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the killing was deliberate or reckless where death is likely.

Mark Pakenham. Photo / Alan Gibson

“This is an extremely high threshold and necessitates proving intent. This intent component leads to a high proportion of homicide charges being prosecuted or convicted as manslaughter.

“I am of the opinion that the correct charges were laid, and that the sentencing outcome was better than may have been anticipated.”

He said he did not believe any admission by Pakenham about lying “have any more merit or veracity than any previous comments”.

“And in the absence of any new evidence to corroborate them have no substantive value,” he said.

McKay said there was a lot of demand on police to solve “outstanding crimes”, including from “many families with unresolved homicides or missing persons that deserve our attention”.

He acknowledged Currie and his team had shown “passion and commitment” in their search for Nieth, which totalled at least 1500 man hours.

“It is due to that commitment that I have resourced and funded police continued work reviewing this case,” he said.

“It is only due to your work that I can even start to validate the resource and time we have committed to reviewing a case that has had a full court process with the offender convicted. An outcome many others justifiably expect.

      
Police are under pressure to solve crimes in New Zealand. Photo / ��һ�ǿ�����

“While there are no legal grounds to advance this investigation, it is on the back of the possibility of identifying something that may advance the recovery and return of Sara to her family that after receiving the D/Insp review I have revisited the file again.”

McKay had analysed Currie’s “varying hypotheses and theories against the conflicted and fraught continuum of source information and evidence available”.

“I have also spent some time researching one of the world’s leading missing persons investigators … and some of his theories and reviews of international high-profile cases to try to identify any applicable gaps or theories that may assist to locate and return Sara home.

“Regrettably I have been unable to provide any evidence-based options and it is possible now that the position has become even more complicated, with hearsay and Chinese whisperers affecting what was already unreliable and uncorroborated leads in either inquiry.”

McKay concluded that the person responsible for Niethe’s death “has been correctly identified and convicted of her manslaughter”.

“He has served his full sentence, which included uplifts for his attempting to pervert the course of justice and failing to identify where Sara’s remains are located,” he said.

“There is no new evidence identified within the file or from new information to justify further investigations.

“I am unable to identify any new evidence that will assist in locating Sara.”

McKay assured Currie any new information would be assessed and that the files were “now fully digitised and searchable should the situation change”.

Mark Edward Pakenham pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Kerepehi woman Sara Niethe. Photo / Christine Cornege

Currie was disappointed by the response and said it “did little to reduce the anguish that Sara’s family have suffered over the past 21 years”.

“The bottom line was that the investigator found no reason to reopen the file and it appeared that it was a dead duck with no new avenues of inquiry available,” he said.

“So going forward, what does this mean for the family?

“If the police have no further interest in solving the case, what chance is there of ever finding out the truth as to what happened to Sara? Both Sara and her vehicle remain missing and it would only be the finding of one or the other that would spark further interest in the case.”

Currie said the key to finding Niethe was in the community.

“The bottom line is that Pakenham needed help to dispose of both Sara’s body and vehicle. So who could possibly be this person and what would their motivation have been to help a killer?” he asked.

“It could be that this person played a part in Sara’s killing so that alone would be a reason to help with the disposal … this is possibly the most likely scenario, which in itself is disturbing.

“There are people out in the Hauraki community who have information which could lead to this case being resolved.

“The private search team call on these people to come forward, anonymously if needed, and end Sara’s family’s trauma.

“All they wish for is the opportunity to acknowledge their mother, sister, daughter etc and let Sara rest in peace.

“There was no reason to kill Sara – she was a loving mother and, although a bit of a scallywag, did not have a bad bone in her body.”

Currie said he had no intention of giving up the search.

“It is now five years since we started analysing the case and calling for answers,” he said.

“It may well be that [Pakenham] will take the answers to his maker as he clearly has no intention to tell the truth anytime soon.”

Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on