Twenty-two months after Tracey’s murder (November 1978), Police received a phone call from an anonymous person, who told Police that a signet ring Tracey owned was in a rubbish bin outside a chemist in Avondale. The caller gave the call taker the number “126040” and said he would call back later. Officers went to the rubbish bin and found a ring inside, which is believed to have been the ring Tracey was wearing when she went missing and had been given to her by a boyfriend.
Is the specific chemist that the rubbish bin was placed in front of known? I wonder if it was a place that the anonymous caller would frequent, or otherwise had a connection to.
Also with the map, I notice that a property on Mihini road is used. Is this based on known details about a particular suspect? From what I can see on google maps, at least, Mihini road is now quite industrialised. with few (if any) houses.
There is a chemist in Great North Road Avondale it's been there for at least the last 20 years.
The Mihini road property jumped out at me when I read this link in the forum. It's where the Body was dumped for that 2001 murder.
"The police case focused on his DNA being found on Ms Jamieson's clothing and the fact her body was found dumped behind a factory where he worked more than 15 years ago."
I have been to the place in Scenic Drive where Tracey was found, but I wouldn't know how to describe the exact location to you. The Police took me there two years ago; It was a very emotional time for me and I didn't really take in the surroundings, if that makes sense. I just know that it was a long drive from Henderson. Sorry I can't help.
Wesley
My family was told that the ring was found in November 1977. Hope that helps.
Thank you all for keeping this thread going. My family and I really do appreciate hearing about new ideas, suggestions and theories. If anyone would be happy to contact the Police about your theories, they are always keen to listen and investigate possible new leads. The person to contact is DS Murray Free. He is based at Henderson Police Station. His email address is Murray.Free@police.govt.nz. His phone numbers are +64 9 213 7733 and +64 21 191 5510. Thanks again.
Hi Debiarbi thanks for your answer. It's frustrating when crucial facts are inaccurately stated.
I assume your family were told about the ring before November 1978 which would definately make it November 1977.
It would be good to know the exact date and time the Police were notified. What day of the week it was, the day of the week the waste bin is emptied etc.
The waste bin is directly outside the Avondale chemist. I've been familiar with the area for the last 25 years and nothing has really changed in the street, probably been the same for 15 years before then as well.
The chemist is across the road from a rough pub (Spiders bar) & near to the main roundabout where the cinema is, the area is busy in the evenings with a lot of takeaways. Also the Avondale Police Station is about a 5 minute walk from there.
I think a number like that can mean almost anything without a context to put it in. It could even be just a random number to verify that the caller was the same person when he resumed contact.
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I think it would be a number personal to the caller. Or a number personal to the murderer to be used for black mailing purposes by the caller. It could be anything from 6 digits of a personal tax file number to an ID number given to someone when they're in jail.
The police have looked at loads and loads of suggestions about the number, but I think this is the first time one about it being a colour has come up. I'll send a link to this page to them, in case it's something they might want to follow up on.
If anyone would like to contact the police, please go ahead. The contact details are in one of my replies above.
Thank you all for your suggestions; sometimes the things that seem least likely to make sense /mean anything are the things that actually do.
This week is the 44th anniversary of Tracey Ann Patient’s death, one of the most intriguing cold cases in New Zealand history.
On Thursday 29th of January 1976, the 13-year old went missing while walking home after spending the evening with a girlfriend. She was last seen alive around 295 Great North Road, Henderson, Auckland, running towards Dellwood Avenue and late for her 9:30pm curfew. Her body was found early the next morning, 15 kilometres away in bush close to the Waitakere Dam car-park on Scenic Drive. She had been strangled with a stocking tightened by a stick. Her signet ring (given to her by her boyfriend) and items of clothing were removed. There was no evidence of a sexual attack or defence wounds.
On 22 November 1977 a man (likely the killer) phoned the Henderson Police Station. He said, "Listen, I am not going to give you my name or anything like that. I'll give you information about the PATIENT murder once and once only". He then described the ring being outside in the rubbish bin of the Urgent Dispensary wrapped in purple tissue paper. He further said, "Take this number down : 126040. I will ring back on the 30th".
The caller never rang back. Police spent a significant amount of effort trying to solve the 126040 clue. The case was reopened in 2016 and the public responded with around 30 theories for the code. Over the last 44 years, the Police have investigated 850 suspects, but the case remains unsolved.
There are a number of great suggestions for the 126040 in previous posts:
The digits add up to 13 – Tracey’s age
Backwards it reads as 4 June 1921. There were approximately 40 New Zealand males born on this date, many who would have served in the war and would have been 54 at the time of Tracey’s disappearance.Assuming the police investigation was thorough, these have been treated as suspects and eliminated on opportunity and means.
It is in the same format as a NZ military service number 12/6040.However this serviceman died in action in World War 2.
In terms of an alphabetical clue 1=A and 2=B, but the remaining numbers do not correspond to the 26-letter English alphabet.
BUT the alphabet connection becomes more interesting if the code is read as 1-2-60-40.
In Hebrew, letters are assigned numeric values. 1-2-60-40 corresponds to aleph-bet-samehk-mem (A-B-S-M) or אבסם (Hebrew is written right to left). This translates to "I was lost" – possibly a biblical reference to the parable of the prodigal son. “He was lost and now is found” (Luke 15:24).
The AB literally means "father" and "alphabet". The S (samekh) refers to the never-ending circle of life - symbolised by the exchange of RINGs - hence the importance of the Signet Ring. SaM i.e סם refers to "drug, potion, medicine" - "to heal".
In Arabic, one translation is the name “Bassam”. This is the name of a famous Lebanese Druze military hero. It means “one who smiles profusely”. This could be a deliberate taunt to the Police to catch the killer, if they can.
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