Dead woman was Czech tourist
The woman found dead at a remote South Canterbury forestry block in a suspected homicide is believed to be a Czech tourist, police say.
She was named as 31-year-old Dagmar Pytlickova, also known as Dasha.
"Formal identification has yet to be completed but we are confident it is Dasha,'' Detective Inspector Greg Williams said yesterday.
She had been in New Zealand since January and was recently working at a Cromwell vine- yard.
"We believe Dasha left Cromwell on Saturday and was hitch-hiking to the Timaru area. It is likely that she was picked up by more than one person before she encountered Waimate man Jason Frandi, whose body was positively identified earlier today.
"We believe the encounter with Frandi could have been somewhere between Omarama and Kurow,'' he said.
"Dasha's family in the Czech Republic have been informed and say they are shocked and devastated about what has happened. They are still coming to terms with the news and have requested privacy,'' Mr Williams said.
Yesterday, police also found Frandi's silver BMW car in trees off Kaiwarua Rd, around 3km from where the bodies were found.
The area had been cordoned off and a detailed forensic examination of the vehicle would be done.
Mr Williams also confirmed that Frandi was known to police and was given a three-and-a-half year prison sentence in 2000 for abduction for sex of a 19-year-old woman.
"We were in contact yesterday with this victim and her family to advise them of developments,'' Detective Inspector Williams said.
"While we have made positive progress today there is still much work to be done. We need to piece together the movements of Dasha and Jason Frandi on Saturday afternoon and establish how they came into contact.''
Police still sought sightings of both of them, as well as Mr Frandi's BMW, from Saturday morning.
"Work at the scene indicates to me that is less likely that any other person has been involved in the death of these two individuals. We will be in a better position to comment further about this tomorrow (today) once the results of the post-mortem examinations are known and the search of the vehicle is completed,'' Mr Williams said.
A close friend of Frandi, who agreed to be interviewed by APNZ on the condition that his name was not used, said the Waimate local came from a troubled background.
"He had a number of issues, he didn't talk too much about his family other than that there were problems there. He kept things to himself.
"He was loner, basically. Somebody else has said exactly the same thing, and he was.''
His father, Arthur Frandi, a barman at the local town and country club, died of cancer a few years ago.
"Jason took it reasonably hard but I don't think that's the only problem. He comes from a troubled background.''
The two met when working in the forest when Frandi was a teenager.
