Episode
E40 | Mona Blades
- Podcast
- The Veil
- Published
- Jun 28, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1760
- Processing state
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- https://shows.acast.com/theveil/episodes/e40-mona-blades
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Summary
On Queen's Birthday weekend, 1975, eighteen-year-old Mona Blades set out hitchhiking from Hamilton to Hastings, carrying a birthday gift of plastic cups for her baby nephew. She reached Taupō — and vanished. A truck driver's sighting of her in an orange Datsun launched one of New Zealand's largest manhunts: more than 500 cars, thousands of hours, not a single trace found. Fifty years on, her body has never surfaced and no one has been charged. But a cold-case review revealed something unsettling: the famous orange Datsun may have been a wrong turn from the very start, sending an entire country chasing a mirage. Sources used Wikipedia — "Disappearance of Mona Blades" : backbone for timeline, sightings table, the 500+ orange Datsun owners, John Freeman (rental + St Cuthbert's shooting/suicide), Hinton allegation and 2012 Kawerau dig, 2003 Huntly garage-floor false alarm, 2018 Cold Case documentary findings, gang-link theory, family detail. NZ History (nzhistory.govt.nz) — "Mona Blades vanishes" : family context (sister Lillian, brother-in-law Tom, niece Angela), the surprise trip and nephew's 1st birthday, plastic tumblers, dropped on Cambridge Rd/SH1, ~10am orange-Datsun sighting, fencing contractor on Matea Rd. NZ Herald / The Listener (Greg Bruce, "On the wrong trail" / "No DNA, no CCTV, no chance," May–June 2025) : the central reassessment — the short/spiky hair vs the long-haired bridesmaid photo; the truck driver interviewed four times with escalating certainty and the "half-pie smile"; the memory-as-fresh-snow interviewing material; the alternative sightings (blue/green wagon, red Toyota, Spa Hotel); detectives Ron Cooper, John Hope, Mark Loper and the on-camera conclusions; 145km road; "solved in a week today" (Henwood/Beard); Scott Bainbridge "deathbed confessio…