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

Sunday, 31 March 2019

Efforts to find missing Marlborough woman Jessica Boyce have brought her family across the Whangamoa Saddle to Nelson.

Nearly two weeks days after her last sighting, the search for missing Marlborough woman Jessica Boyce has shifted to Nelson.

Cousin Aaron Goodwin said the family intended to spend Sunday and Monday in the Nelson region putting up flyers and exploring possible locations where Jessica had frequented or had friends and acquaintances.

Takaka would be an area of particular focus, as well as Richmond, he said.

Family spent Friday putting up flyers around the Wakamarina, Rai Valley, Havelock and the Queen Charlotte Track, just letting people know she was missing and to keep an eye out for her.

The family of Renwick woman Jessica Boyce, 27 who has been missing for 12 days have expanded the search to Nelson.

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Efforts to get around as many locations as possible had meant a planned arrival in Nelson was delayed until Saturday afternoon.

Boyce, who is about 160 centimetres tall, was last seen on March 19, but was reported missing on Friday of last week.

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

Her red Holden ute was found near Lake Chalice, in the Mount Richmond Forest Park.

Goodwin wanted to let the public know that the family was going to be around and welcomed any new information that could lead to discovering the 27-year-old's whereabouts.

'This will be day 12 now, so even if they think it's something trivial or silly – we're willing to hear anything at this stage – we're getting desperate.

'It's at the point where we're on autopilot and I don't think even we are comprehending what's going on – it's just a feeling of numbness.'

Goodwin also urged people to be on the look out around the Maitai and Dun Mountain area as there were a number of walking tracks that linked Lake Chalice and Nelson.

LandSAR and police had engaged in a wide-scale search of the forest park area in recent days. However, this yielded no sign of the Renwick woman and further action was suspended earlier in the week.

A helicopter flyover offered by a local business was also conducted on Thursday, to no avail.

Marlborough LandSAR chair Peter Hamill said personnel remained on stand-by to resume the search pending any new information. However, he reiterated that any new search operation was subject to police instruction and could not occur under their own steam.

A DOC spokesman acknowledged the difficulties faced by search teams in canvassing Mount Richmond Forest Park, which was essentially 166,000 hectares of thick bush and rocky peaks that divided the Nelson and Marlborough regions.

He said while police would lead with Search and Rescue teams, DOC would always step in with advice when they could.

'It's rugged terrain up there. It's fairly heavy bush, and quite remote. There are huts scattered in the Mount Richmond Range, and a number of tracks, so if someone doesn't know the area, it could be quite easy to get lost up there.'