‘I’m worried’: Husband’s fears for woman missing in icy temps

Thursday, 5 June 2025

Police are searching for 79-year-old Elizabeth, missing since Wednesday evening near Bartlett St in Riccarton. Residents are urged to check their yards as freezing temperatures raise concern for her safety.

The husband of a Christchurch woman missing for almost 24 hours is desperate to bring her home as a freezing cold night draws near.

Elisabeth Nicholls, 79, was last seen leaving a rest home on Bartlett St in Riccarton about 6pm on Wednesday night.

Despite extensive searches, police have no confirmed sightings of the pensioner and are now appealing to residents in the area to check their backyards and sheds.

Elisabeth’s husband Michael told Stuff his wife was at the rest home for respite care because she had dementia.

Christchurch woman Elizabeth Nicholls has been missing for nearly 24 hours.

He had searched all the haunts the couple liked walking around and a former property they lived in, but was now staying at home on police advice.

Nicholls said Elisabeth was mobile, but said her dementia had got “considerably worse” in the past year.

He was concerned she may have been exposed to the rainy cold conditions on Wednesday night and said he wasn’t sure that she would know how to take cover against the elements.

There is a “significant search” under way for the missing woman.

“I’m worried,” he said. “It’s a big danger. If she was really out in that rain she’d have been in trouble I think because it was really cold and she didn’t have a raincoat.”

According to police Elisabeth was wearing blue pants, a dark coloured long-sleeve top, black shoes and has distinctive long blond/white hair.

A major search is underway for Elisabeth Nicholls, 79, who's been missing for nearly 24 hours in Christchurch

Senior Sergeant Todd Webley told Stuff there was no suggestion Elisabeth had been the victim of foul play as she left the rest home “of her own free will”.

Webley said there had been an unconfirmed sighting at Mona Vale at 10am on Thursday, which they had not been able to rule out.

“There’s been absolutely no confirmed sighting and no direction to go to…Our search is almost exhausted,” he said 23 hours on from when police started searching. “She could be on the other side of the city by now.”

Webley said police were “at a bit of a crossroads” in terms of where to search.

Elisabeth’s disappearance has come at a time when wild weather has been lashing the country. The temperature in Christchurch as of 3.45pm was 10C, and could plunge below OC overnight.

Police continue the search for Elisabeth Nicholls.

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In an earlier statement, Webley said there were a large number of staff on the ground, including from Land Search and Rescue.

Hagley Park has been extensively searched.

“But we really need people in the Riccarton and surrounding areas to check home security cameras, and also around their properties, in sheds and garages, in case Elisabeth is there,” he urged.

“This is a significant search, but we need the public’s help to locate Elisabeth as soon as possible. We know people are finishing work for the day, and the best way they can assist us is to check their properties and call 111 if they find her.”

Webley said search teams would remain on the ground into the evening “if it comes to it”, and that Elisabeth’s family were being kept up to date on on the search.

“It is getting cold, and everyone on the ground is focused on bringing Elisabeth home as soon as possible,” Webley said

Anyone who sees Elisabeth is asked to ring 111 immediately.

In 2021, Shirley Warrington, 85, went missing in the Ferrymead area. Her body was found eight weeks later nearby. A coroner ruled the Altzherimer’s sufferer had died from hypothermia.

Her husband died two days before she was found.