Thursday, 17 December 2009 - 7:08am |
National News

Update on Audrey Gibson search

2 min read

As the search for a missing Hamilton pensioner heads into its second week Police are reiterating requests for City residents to search their properties.

Audrey Gibson, 81, was last seen near her Comries Rd home on 2 December and was reported missing on 6 December.

Sergeant Neil Fenwick of the East Hamilton Community Policing Centre said since then family members, Police and Search and Rescue volunteers had carried out various searches looking for her.

"These searches have included Audrey's home, surrounding areas including properties, parks and reserves and of the Waikato River.

"Over the weekend 30 Police and SAR volunteers were involved in a detailed search to no avail, since then the Police rescue boat has been launched daily to search the river."

On Monday Police requested Hamilton residents to search areas of their property not accessed often such as overgrown gardens, outbuildings or gullies.

"We're asking people to do this again because additional resources are arriving on Tuesday to assist in the search, including two specialists search dogs," said Mr Fenwick.

"These dogs have been trained to a higher degree than general duties Police dogs and we hope they will be able to assist in clearing sites of interested highlighted by the public."

Described as a female Caucasian, Audrey is about 160cm tall with grey hair and glasses. She was last seen wearing a white sleeveless shirt a brown jersey and brown trousers carrying a green canvas shopping bag and a black handbag.

Mr Fenwick said the search for Audrey was still being treated as a missing person's file and there was nothing to indicate any foul play in her disappearance.

Police were keeping an open mind on what had happened to Audrey and had considered a variety of possibilities surrounding her disappearance.

"Over the period Audrey has been missing a lot of people have offered assistance in the search. At this point the best help people can give us is to do that check of your property, if you notice something untoward contact Police and don't disturb it," said Mr Fenwick.

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