The family of homicide victim Jessica Boyce are pleading for anyone that has information about the case to come forward.
This week marks four years since Jessica went missing and the heartbroken family are begging police to put up a reward.
The 27-year-old was last seen at her mother's home before getting in a red Holden Rodeo ute in the Marlborough town of Renwick on March 19, 2019.
The vehicle was discovered three days later parked at the Lake Chalice car park in the Richmond Ranges.
Police initially thought Boyce was a missing person but then upgraded her case to a homicide in October 2020.
Police believe the car was left in the carpark to make it look like she disappeared.
The uncle of Jessica Boyce, Brent Boyce, told AM on Thursday the road to Lake Chalice is difficult to navigate.
He told AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green that Jessica wasn't "physically and mentally" herself leading up to the day she went missing.
"At this stage, Jess was not in a physical and mental state of well-being. Her mother tried to have her admitted twice in the previous month and we knew straight away that she couldn't have driven it up there," he told AM.
"From there, we don't know what's happened. Some of the stories we've had back I wouldn't repeat, but something happened from there."
Brent told AM the most "galling" thing about the case is that since Jessica wasn't "physically and mentally" herself someone would've taken advantage of her.
"She was physically and mentally under pressure. She wasn't coping with life and she was very vulnerable at the time and whoever took her, took advantage of that vulnerability," Brent said.
"Jess wouldn't have been able to fight back or defend herself and that we find quite horrific."
Brent told AM the family is going through a range of emotions with some coping better than others.
He said they're no closer to finding out why Jessica's car was parked in the carpark and they haven't heard from police for almost two years.
"I think the police have been reasonably busy over the last year or so with COVID, etc., and we haven't heard anything basically for two years now," he said.
"There was a situation about May 2021 where it looked like there was going to be an arrest and it was very, very hot and we had an expectation basically in the afternoon we were going to hear some news and then it stopped and we've basically heard nothing since."
From what they understand officers are still working on the case but it's not fresh in people's minds.
Jessica's cousin and close friend Aaron O'Neill told NZ Herald a reward, which he says has been offered in other cases, will help spark new leads.
"While I'm happy police are stepping up for other missing people, it's hard to see rewards up to $100,000 being offered for information in those cases but not for Jess," O'Neill said.
Brent agreed with O'Neill saying a reward by police would put the case back in people's minds.
"I think it's time, we do need a refresh and opportunity to find out. We've got absolutely no closure of how she disappeared, why it happened," he said.
"It's time, people do know what's happened and this may be the incentive, a monetary incentive, for that information to come forward."
Watch the full interview with Brent Boyce in the video above.
