The man who led the investigation into Tracey Patient's murder 40 years ago says despite the lack of success in finding her killer, police invested huge amounts of resource into the case.
Nobody has ever been connected to the 1976 murder, in which Tracey's body was found strangled with pantyhose in West Auckland bush.
Former Detective Inspector Bruce Scott says when the case was fresh, 30-to-40 officers were tasked with finding out who was responsible.
"We probably put more resources into the case then than you'd put into a similar case today, because unfortunately there seems to be more and more of those sort of crimes taking police time now," he said.
Last year, the investigation was reopened full-time after a number of tip-offs, but police announced on Tuesday that they're winding back.
The case remains open, but will not be actively investigated unless new information comes in.
Det Insp Scott says the case was a particularly challenging one to crack because unlike most murders, there were countless suspects and nothing left at the scene besides the body.
"All you could do at the time was ask them where they were on the evening, and obviously over time that became more difficult," he said.
Despite the scale-back, Det Insp Scott says there remains a real chance that justice will eventually be served.
"I've said previously it's never too late for new information to come to the fore, and we've followed up and verified [that] - obviously with some difficulty, after all these years."
Tracey's sister Debbie Shepphard told Newshub the family is disappointed police were not able to arrest anyone.
"We would love the investigation to continue - obviously we would. We would love this person brought to justice, but we fully understand the police can't continue to commit the resources to Tracey's case after all this time."
Ms Sheppard says her family believe there is a good chance that whoever killed Tracey may have since passed away.
Newshub.
