Where is Elisabeth? Husband baffled as desperate search for woman continues
Friday, 6 June 2025
The desperate search for an elderly Christchurch woman who has been missing for two nights in freezing cold temperatures continues - as does a husband’s wait for news.
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 continue to appeal to residents to check their backyards and sheds.
Husband Michael Nicholls, who is known as Gary, told Stuff on Friday morning the search had “looked at all avenues” and he couldn’t think of anywhere else his wife might be.
As Christchurch experienced it’s coldest night of the year (temperatures plunged to -3C) the Nicholls family continued to hope for a positive outcome.
At the time she went missing, Elisabeth, who suffers from dementia, was staying at Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village for respite care.
A spokesperson for the Ryman owned facility said the pensioner had been admitted to the village on Wednesday morning and was free to come and go.
The alarm was raised at 6.20pm that night when team members became aware Elisabeth had left. After a search of the premises police were contacted at 7.41pm.
On Thursday, Gary said 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.
“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 when she left the rest home.
Senior Sergeant Todd Webley told Stuff on Thursday that 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.
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In an earlier statement, Webley said there were a large number of staff on the ground, including from LandSearch and Rescue.
“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,” he said.
Elisabeth’s disappearance comes almost four years on from when Shirley Warrington, 85, disappeared in the Ferrymead area in 2021.
Warrington’s body was found eight weeks later nearby. A coroner ruled the Alzheimer’s sufferer had died from hypothermia.