In January 1976, 13-year-old west Auckland girl Tracey Ann Patient was found dead in the Waitakere Ranges. She had been strangled with stockings.
Her murderer has never been found but Police say they're still contacted about the cold case almost every month.
Today, Tracey's sister is making a fresh appeal for the killer to give themselves up.
The sound of a Kiwi accent used to stop Debbie Sheppard in her tracks.
"It would make the hairs on the back of my neck rise," she tells Newshub from her home in Essex in the UK.
For almost 50 years, New Zealand has been associated with huge loss, trauma and unanswered questions about the murder of her sister Tracey Ann Patient.
"We have a family member missing who can never be replaced. They murdered a young girl and sentenced her family to a life sentence of grief," said Debbie.
In the 1970s, Debbie lived in west Auckland with her parents and two younger sisters Tracey and Denise.
The family had emigrated from the UK in 1973 for a fresh start downunder.
"We liked going to the cinema and would often have friends over to our house. There wasn't really anything to do in Henderson back then," said Debbie.
The family also attended a local church where teenage sisters Debbie and Tracey were part of the youth group.
Debbie and Tracey were not only sisters but friends even though they were quite different.
"We got on well but also had our fair share of arguments like most siblings."
While the family quickly adjusted to living in New Zealand, it wasn't going to be the idyllic, quiet life they imagined.
Instead, New Zealand is where they would suffer the ultimate heartbreak.
The night was January 29, 1976. A 'pleasant' Thursday evening in the summer school holidays, according to Police. American rock band The Doobie Brothers was playing at Western Springs and people were out and about.
Debbie, who was 15 at the time, said she nagged her mother to go to the concert and her mother said yes.
Her 13-year-old sister Tracey was given permission to go to a friend's house.
"That's the last time I saw her. We were walking up the road and that was it," said Debbie when she recounted the night in a police video appeal for information in 2016.
"When she said 'bye' I never turned around, I just went 'Oh, okay bye, see you later' and went off. I just so regret not turning around.
"Looking back how are you supposed to know that's the last time you are going to see somebody?"
Tracey went to her friend's house on Chilcott Road in Henderson. She was told to be home by 9:30pm.
It was about a 20-minute walk to their home on Dellwood Avenue. The friend walked Tracey some of the way, but the pair parted company about halfway - at the intersection of Great North Rd and Edmonton Rd.
Tracey Ann Patient never made it home.
Debbie still remembers her sister not arriving home on that fateful night. She and her dad hopped into the car and drove around the Henderson township looking for Tracey.
There was no sign of her that night.
The next day the Patient family was about to be told the worst possible news.
As dawn broke, a man walking his dog found Tracey's body in bush on Scenic Drive in the Waitakere Ranges. The young girl had been strangled with stockings.
Debbie was in the lounge with her mother and her sister Denise sitting on her lap, when their father came home.
"You could see he was really upset and Denise asked 'when's Tracey coming home?' My dad said 'she's not. Someone killed her'," said Debbie in the 2016 police video appeal.
Debbie burst into tears and remembers Denise, aged eight, screaming "no" over, and over.
"I don't really remember much after that to be honest," said Debbie.
That day a doctor came and prescribed medication to Debbie and her mother. She thinks it was a sedative.
The Patient family moved back to the UK a few months after Tracey's death.
"The early days, just after she was murdered, were dreadful. I would see a girl who looked like her and my heart would leap, then come back to earth and I would cry," Debbie told Newshub.
"If something good or funny happened I would think 'I must tell Tracey that, she'll love it,' then realise I couldn't.
"If my friends argued with their brothers and sisters I would get so angry and tell them they were lucky to have them. Birthdays and Christmas were obviously never the same again."
Debbie said she would also often dream of her younger sister Tracey.
"I would be so happy in the first few minutes of waking up then realise it was just a dream and feel devastated."
The investigation
Back in New Zealand police carried out an extensive inquiry.
They looked at hundreds of persons of interest but no arrests were made.
Almost two years after Tracey's murder police received an anonymous phone call saying a signet ring Tracey owned was sitting in a rubbish bin outside a chemist in the west Auckland suburb of Avondale.
The caller had given the number '126040' and said he would call back later.
Police recovered the ring from the rubbish bin.
They say it's believed to have been the ring Tracey was wearing when she vanished and that it had been given to her by a boyfriend.
Police say they've received theories around the relevance of the '126040' number but haven't revealed what they are.
Tracey's killer has never been identified. They could either be living free or have since died.
New leads
In 2016, 40 years after Tracey's murder, police announced they were following new leads in the investigation and a team of officers would be working on the case full-time.
Debbie flew from the UK to New Zealand as part of the renewed appeal.
"Going back to New Zealand was very hard for me. I had a panic attack on the plane when the pilot announced that we would be landing in Auckland in an hour," Debbie told Newshub.
At the time she also read a letter from their younger sister Denise who said the saddest thing for her was that she couldn't remember her sister Tracey.
"I feel so guilty that I can't remember. I do have memories of the night she went missing and my dad coming in crying telling us what had happened. Over the years I've had terrible nightmares of someone trying to get me and always waking up just as they catch me," wrote Denise.
"Everyone assumed that, as she (Denise) was so young, she wouldn't understand what had happened, and that it wouldn't affect her. I will tell you that she did understand and it has affected her," Debbie explained to Newshub.
Debbie's parents asked her to lay flowers at the site where Tracey's body was found while she was in New Zealand. She had never been to the location before.
"Visiting the site where Tracey was found was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. The drive up to Scenic Drive from Henderson was almost unbearable. I hadn't realised what a long way it was," said Debbie.
"I kept thinking about whether Tracey was still alive when she was taken up there and if she was, what was going through her mind? She must have been absolutely terrified. Can you imagine being 13 years old and realising that you were probably going to die?"
Debbie's father passed away four years ago. Her mother, 84, is still alive.
"Neither one of them ever got over losing Tracey. My dad passed away without knowing who took his child's life or why. My parents were robbed of their daughter, my sister Denise and I were robbed of our sister, and our own children have been deprived of an auntie. I'm sure Tracey would have been a fun auntie and mum. But she was robbed of that opportunity."
Almost five decades on, police say the investigation is still active and ongoing.
"Police received a number of calls with information following our renewed appeal in 2016 and we still receive information almost every month in relation to this investigation," said Detective Inspector Callum McNeill from Waitemata CIB.
"We know there are people in the community who know the truth and we continue to ask the public to get in touch if they know anything which could help us bring a resolution to Tracey's family."
After all this time, they're still desperate for answers.
"I am sure that somebody knows who murdered Tracey," said Debbie.
"Most likely one of their family, or a close friend. Perhaps they were suspicious at the time but were too afraid to contact the police in case the person hurt them. Or they stayed quiet out of loyalty to the person."
She is still regularly contacted by people who believe they know who the murderer could be. She always tells them to contact Waitakere Police.
"I would love for them to give themselves up."
But she will never forgive her sister's killer.
"If the person is still alive, I hope they have had a horrible life," said Debbie.
The 63-year-old said the grief of losing her younger sister never goes away.
"It only takes a song or something else that reminds us of Tracey to take us back to 1976 and the pain we felt then. It was a full moon the night Tracey was murdered and my mum still cannot sleep when there's a full moon."
Tracey's birthday is in a few weeks. She would have turned 62.
If you have a story to share please contact our journalist at dianna.vezich@wbd.com
