Marathon investigation still running hot

Motivation has never been an issue for Detective Inspector Sue Schwalger and the team working on the Scott Guy murder investigation Photo: Rob Kitchin, Manawatu Standard

Eight months after Feilding farmer Scott Guy was gunned down in his driveway, the investigation is a long way from winding down.

“To me, the mission is the same whatever number day we’re on,” says Officer in Charge of the case, Detective Inspector Sue Schwalger.

Her endgame is to identify the offender and successfully prosecute, which requires investigating all information and covering off the negative lines of inquiry.

“We’ve had to square off all the local burglars so we can say, no it wasn’t that person. There’s been a lot of that and a lot of the information coming in is drug-related, so that has to be investigated,” says Sue.

She estimates more than 2500 people have been interviewed and 4700 documents created, all needing to be entered into a database and analysed.

The number of staff on the case has been reduced from more than 40 in July to 14. Work has become extremely focused.

“At the start, information flowed in from anywhere about anyone. We’re now directing the flow of information more specifically around particular lines of inquiry,” she says.

A flurry of recent media activity showed one such line – offensive graffiti painted on the home of Scott and Kylee Guy when it was being built in January 2009. The release of that information generated more than a dozen phone calls to the team, plus others to Crimestoppers.

Investigators released information about offensive graffiti on Scott Guy’s home this month, prompting a flurry of calls from the public.

It’s a marathon investigation but at no time has the team felt discouraged, says Sue.

“In most homicides we have our sights on someone by day 10, through either forensics, witnesses or someone in the family. When we reached day 10 without a significant development, we knew the case was tracking to be a whodunnit.

“It happened in a remote location in the very early hours of the morning, so there were a limited number of possible witnesses.”

A couple of promising leads didn’t pan out, which can be disappointing for staff but motivation has never been an issue. “They are all here because they want to be,” says Sue.