Joanne (Joe) Chatfield, 17, Uni student disappeared from gig, Auckland, New Zealand, 19 Nov 1988

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rbbm. Very lengthy article..
Chilling details revealed in suspected cold case murder of Joanne Chatfield
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POLICE
Joe Chatfield.
''Joanne Chatfield had been gone eight weeks by the time her University Entrance results arrived at her Mangere Bridge home in south Auckland.

The envelope sat unopened on her bed in a room that her mother Claire left untouched until she moved house a decade ago.

In many ways, the room was Joe, with its line of stuffed toys sitting on a pretty floral bedspread a jarring contrast to the black walls above that were crowded with posters: anarchy, Amnesty and anti-vivisection.

Here lived the kind little girl, the feisty and independent punk rocker, the talented but conflicted young woman who wanted to change the world.

Perhaps she would have, but Joe Chatfield never got the chance. She's been gone 30 years now, and that envelope is unopened still. "If I opened it," says Claire, "I'd be admitting she is dead."


''Now, in response to North & South's inquiries, police have renewed their offer of a $50,000 reward in the case, and revealed disturbing new information about what happened at the concert she attended at the Auckland University Students' Association building on the night that she was last seen, 19 November 1988.

Police have discovered a woman was kidnapped at knifepoint from the gig, taken 200-300m away into bush, and raped.

The information has not been made public before now because of the woman's fragile mental health.

It was the most significant new lead uncovered during a reinvestigation of the case that began in late 2005 and ran for more than two years.''
 
Can Cold Case help solve the mystery of Joe Chatfield who went missing at an Auckland uni gig in the 80s?
Melenie Parkes Oct 22 2020

''While its primary purpose is to advance unsolved investigations, sometimes Cold Case inadvertently becomes a kind of time capsule, capturing a moment in our culture.

A historic case in the third season of the local series takes viewers back to Auckland in the late 80s.''

“It’s an interesting look,” says producer Carolyn Harper. “It’s a slice in time of what people’s opinions and attitudes were.”

The episode follows the disappearance of Joanne ‘Joe’ Chatfield, a 17-year-old who went missing after a gig at Auckland University. Harper says that Chatfield mixed in the punk scene and wore her hair spiked and dyed.''
READ MORE:
* Cold Case season 2: Unsolved crimes investigated with the help of the public
* Fresh tips in suspected cold case murder of Auckland teen Joanne Chatfield
* Chilling details revealed in suspected cold case murder of Joanne Chatfield


“I think that time back in the late 80s, that didn’t engender a lot of public sympathy for her. And all the appeals for her were made from the point of view of, ‘Joe, can you please call us?’.

“So it really set up the narrative back in 1988 that she was just a runaway teenager. But, of course, something far more sinister happened to her.”

Harper says the Auckland University area and its surrounds was “quite different than it is now” and there were serial offenders and predators in the
vicinity.

“And to talk about that we get on board retired Detective Inspector Graham Bell from Police Ten 7 because that was when he first came to Auckland and was operating at that time. So he has a very good knowledge of what was happening in Auckland.”

''Harper and her team are hopeful that the passage of time could work to the advantage of police in helping to solve the mystery of Chatfield’s
disappearance.''

“She was at an experimental music gig, I think there were only about 100 people at this particular gig. A lot of those people were young, they possibly were drinking at this gig or possibly taking drugs, but they were actually under age. So they didn’t really want to engage with police. I think there was probably a bit of reticence to talk to them. Whereas now those people are probably in their 40s, they could well be parents themselves.

“And so, in this case, time passing might be, or hopefully will be, a friend for police.”
 
From link, thanks.. rbbm.

''More concerning is the presence of an armed sexual predator. Police reveal another young woman was threatened by this man, who frog-marched her away from the gig and sexually assaulted her before returning to the concert.

It's possible he was hunting for another victim, and Joe was a vulnerable target.

She was last seen at around midnight as the gig wound down. Stone and Mison offered her a lift home, but she declined it and was last seen by the pair walking down Princes St towards Wellesley St.

Nobody knows where she planned to head next, which has proved a major hindrance for the police investigation.''


''They are keen to hear from anyone who attended the gigs at Connexions or Knox Hall, and to see any photos that might have been taken at the gigs.

Some members of the punk movement were reluctant to assist police in 1988.

Vickers says those same punks will be in their late 40s now, and hopes they might reconsider coming forward.

One of those former punks might have the vital piece of information that solves this cold case.''
 
Cold Case, Episode 24th November 2020 rbbm
Joe Chatfield

''Joanne ‘Joe’ Chatfield disappeared in 1988 when she was 17
Joanne Chatfield - or ‘Joe’ - as she was known, was last seen by friends in central Auckland just before midnight on Saturday, 19 November 1988.
She was leaving the Auckland University Student Union area after attending a concert where bands ‘Tinnitus’ and ‘Ministry of Compulsory Joy’ had performed
. Joe headed off on Princes Street walking towards Wellesley Street. Neither Joe nor any of the 17-year-old young woman’s possessions have ever been found.

The area in Wellesley Street, Auckland, where Joe was last seen

The area in Wellesley Street, Auckland, where Joe was last seen

''Joe was reported missing the following day by her mother; but unfortunately the case was treated as a runaway teenager and the overwhelming sentiment was that she would turn up in a few days.

The teenager identified with the punk rock scene and would often be seen sporting a mohawk which frequently changed colour, fish net stockings and a leather studded collar.''
Joe Chatfield

Police have established that Joe was likely to have had further plans for the evening after she left the University gig. Do you remember seeing her at another gig that night? Joe was also known to follow the ‘Warners’, a band that were playing at Connexions on the corner of Albert and Wolfe Streets the night she disappeared.

Posters for Tinnitus and Warners gigs

Posters for Tinnitus and Warners gigs

''Could Joe have gone on foot to another punk gig at Knox Hall in Parnell and taken a short cut through the Auckland Domain? Or perhaps been given a ride to another venue entirely?

Police are now prepared to reveal that another young woman who attended the same Uni gig as Joe was threatened, grabbed from behind and forcibly removed from that gig and taken in the direction of the Auckland Domain where she was sexually assaulted. Does this type of offending from the late 1980’s sound familiar to you? If so police need to hear from you.

Police are casting their net wide.

Detectives would like to hear from anyone they haven’t spoken to who attended the Auckland Uni gig. They would also like to hear from anyone who may have gone to other punk rock gigs the night Joe went missing. And finally they would like to hear from anyone who has any information about sexual assaults at Auckland music gigs in the late 80’s.''
 
''Leleni now believes that if the rape victim's attacker can be found, the mystery of Chatfield's disappearance may be solved as well.

"If we find one, there is a good chance we will find the other. For something like that to happen on that night, at that time, what are the chances? And it's the most obvious connection. We have to be careful not to say they are one and the same. But you could say with a reasonable degree of confidence that there could be a connection between them."
 

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