What happens when people disappear?

Friday, 5 April 2019

A missing person's poster of Renwick woman Jessica Boyce at Watery Mouth Cafe, in Blenheim. Boyce was last seen on March 19.

When loved ones go missing, there's more to it than 'spread out and search'. Chloe Ranford reports.

Someone has gone on a bush walk. They told friends they'd be back on Friday. It's Saturday afternoon.

LandSAR members Shaun Crabb, left, and Peter Hamill are team leaders on missing person searches.

After police get a call, the first thing they do is try to pinpoint where the person was last seen. Land Search and Rescue are called in, and a full-blown search and rescue mission kicks off.

It's the same process that got underway when Renwick woman Jessica Boyce went missing last month.

Marlborough LandSAR chairman Peter Hamill helped search for the 27-year-old after her vehicle was found near Lake Chalice, in Mount Richmond Forest Park, west of Blenheim.

Land Search and Rescue members search for missing Marlborough woman Jessica Boyce in bush around Lake Chalice, west of Blenheim, last month.

* 'Waste of time': Psychic tip-offs sent to missing woman Jessica Boyce's family

Coastguard drops off LandSAR volunteers for an early morning search in the Marlborough Sounds in April 2017.

* Missing Marlborough woman Jessica Boyce's family take search to Nelson region**

Police were lucky her car was found, so they had a last known point, and LandSAR could be called in, he said.

All available volunteers are brought in and team leaders appoint them roles, while police share information with search crews.

In Boyce's case, search teams centred their efforts on the vehicle and completed a 300-metre 'intensive search' around it, Hamill said.

But a public swing against littering had made searches more difficult, he said, as people left less waste - or clues - behind these days.

A woman who was reported missing at the Taylor River was later found by search and rescue teams 40 kilometers away.

'We get the tracking team in, looking for footprints, subtle changes in colour of the soil, or a footprint splat in the mud. We usually don't see that, but instead a stick that's been broken,' he said.

Teams then looked beyond the 300m stretch at ridges and roads, as people often followed them to find a direction of travel.

'Some people, if they get lost, they stay put. Others, like hunters and bush people, they mostly won't call for help and will opt to find their own way out, and it's not until really later on they realise they're lost.'

Waihopai Valley man Colin Ross, 53, has been missing since October 2017.

Radio operators ensured teams could report back to office personnel a least once an hour, Hamill said.

Police and LandSAR teams tried to 'work out' a person's thinking to determine possible scenarios.

'For example, if they [the missing person] have left a hut and walked to the next track, but gone missing, we'll try to find them at the next one,' he said.

'Or we'll look at points along the track, like if there's a draw point, such as a nice view, then we make sure they haven't fallen off the edge of that viewpoint.'

Missing Renwick woman Jessica Boyce was last seen on March 19.

Marlborough man Colin Ross went missing in late 2017, his car was found on the West Coast.

Ross was still considered a missing person, police confirmed last week, and his file had been referred to the coroner.

Hamill said while missing person searches were a 'reasonably regular' occurrence, Boyce was his second multiple-day search mission.

Behavioural data was also used to help search and rescue operators predict where a missing person could be, he said.

For example, Hamill said, authorities knew how far a 5-year-old could travel over a certain period of time.

'This would be different to the information we have from a person in car crash who wanders away from a scene. There's a science behind it,' he said.

Jessica Boyce's cousin Aaron Goodwin, left, and Boyce's friend Sharmaine Aberhart-Thompson with a poster of the missing Renwick woman.

Although, Hamill recalled when 71-year-old woman Emine Aslankilinc disappeared after leaving her home in Blenheim, and was later spotted at Burleigh Bridge, in south-west Blenheim.

'We ended up finding her the next day, in the afternoon. She'd walked way up into the hills, about 40 kilometres from where she was reported missing,' he said.

Search and rescue crews were put on hold when all possible scenarios and resources had been exhausted, Hamill said.

Boyce's cousin Aaron Goodwin said he couldn't fault the investigation process, which was suspended on March 26.

'Obviously there's a feeling, when someone is missing, that the investigation could never happen fast enough for the people close to the person,' Goodwin said.

'We've just been humbled as a family by the efforts of police, LandSAR and the public.'

German tourist Christian Prehn went missing in Nelson Lakes National Park in 2014.

He hoped thermal imaging was added to Marlborough LandSAR's list of available tools in future, he said.

April also marked 14 months since Kaitaia woman Theresa Urlich left her cousin's house in Kaeo, three hours north of Auckland.

Colin Ross' family friend Erin Kenyon said she was not qualified to talk about the investigation process, and said his wife had declined to comment.

'My only comment would be that friends and family are looking for closure. It's a horrible situation to be in and an incredibly lengthy process,' she said.

A police spokeswoman said police never made the decision to suspend active inquiries around missing people lightly.

'However, we would not consider a file 'closed', and would always welcome new information and assess that accordingly,' she said.

Hamill recalled the case of German tourist Christian Ulf Erik Prehn, who disappeared in 2014 while tramping the Travers Saddle alpine area of Nelson Lakes National Park.

The search was suspended in March 2015, but LandSAR had looked at setting up a training exercise in the area, so that volunteers could have another look, he said.

Prehn's family was approached for comment.

Anyone with information on these people are asked to contact Blenheim police on 03 578 5279.

Alternatively, anonymous tips can be passed on to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.