This boys disappearance was big news in NZ.
Searches were done a number of times in the area.
Finally his body was found.
This article has just appeared with some rather unusual details surrounding his disappearance.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1159345a11,FF.html
You might have to key in the full address to open the article, but I've pasted it as well.
Teen went missing after prank
07 April 2002
By BARRY CLARKE
Police have seized photographs and re-interviewed Jehovah's Witnesses who attended a camp where a teenager disappeared late last year.
Youths were allegedly photographed urinating in the hours leading up to the disappearance of 14-year-old Christchurch boy Elon Oved from the camp at Lake Daniells, near Lewis Pass in the Southern Alps.
One boy was also photographed with women's underwear in what has been claimed to be a practical joke.
Police are also investigating claims that an adult on the trip passed wind into the face of Oved - the youngest boy on the trip - just before he left a cabin to change his clothes.
Police only became aware of the behaviour in February soon after Oved's remains were found - nearly three months after he went missing.
Senior sergeant John Torrance said the five adults and five other young men, including Oved's brother, Ray, 17, on the trip did not mention the incidents when the alarm was raised on December 2 that Elon was missing.
Ray Oved said yesterday he was in shock and worried about finding his brother and had forgotten to tell the police or his father, Rami Oved.
Rami Oved believes the activities would have frightened Elon, who was a shy boy, particularly regarding his own body and sexual matters. He would have been fearful of being photographed urinating.
A Jehovah's Witness elder on the trip, Trevor Mehrtens, said no one had disclosed the detail to the police initially because they did not think it important and had no bearing on Elon's disappearance.
Taking the underwear on the trip was simply a practical joke played on the trip leader, Dennis O'Brien, also a Jehovah's elder.
"Dennis is the one good keen man type. He loves the outdoors and travels light, just takes porridge, that sort of thing," said Mehrtens.
"Someone put women's underwear in his pack without him knowing, just to see what his reaction would be."
Mehrtens said Elon was in on the joke and he "thought it was hugely funny".
Photographs were taken with a laughing O'Brien holding a woman's bra and panties. Mehrtens' son, Phillip, 15, was later photographed wearing the bra. That photo has now been emailed to several people which has angered Trevor Mehrtens.
He confirmed some on the trip had been photographed while urinating but there was nothing sinister in it.
Torrance said there was no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing and details of the behaviour would be included in the police file being forwarded for a coroner's inquest into Elon's death.
But Jehovah's Witness headquarters spokesman minister Monty Gower said yesterday the issue of the underwear and pranks was still under investigation by the church.
The conduct of church members was not appropriate, he said. Gower said there could be ramifications but stressed the trip was not a church-organised one.
Rami Oved said he was appalled at the pranks on the trip. "I'm very, very upset because I trusted these people too much. It is hypocrisy. They teach high standards from the platform but they've dropped to a very low standard," he said.
Rami Oved said the elders on the trip knew Elon was shy.
"They should have known what effect this sort of activity would have had on Elon. I'm convinced Elon's decision to go further into the bush was made because of his fear he might be photographed."
Said Ray Oved: "We saw the guy with the bra. I wasn't comfortable with it and Elon would have been far worse. He didn't say anything but that's Elon. He wouldn't have said anything anyway."
But he said he knew something was wrong when Elon left the cabin and said he was going to get changed. "It was the way he said it, the way he was acting."
Elon walked towards an outside toilet block with a set of dry clothes and when he did not return after several minutes, Ray and another youth went looking for him.
There was no sign of him.