Missing man focus of training exercise
A pair of shoes found stuck in the mud kilometres away from a damaged car are the only traces left behind by missing man Karl Roberts.
The 31-year-old has not been seen since August 1, 2017 after he lost control of his green Subaru Impreza while driving along Uruti Rd in northern Taranaki.
The vehicle went down a bank before coming to rest near a stream.
That was where police found it, but there was no further trace of Roberts himself.
This remained the case despite extensive ground searches carried out in the days after he went missing, along with aerial scope of the area by helicopter, which was privately funded by the Uruti community.
However, it is hoped this weekend’s training exercise in the same area where Roberts went missing more than 15 months ago might turn up some new evidence.
Constable Andrew Wong Too, officer in charge of Taranaki Search and Rescue, is helping coordinate the exercise in collaboration with Taranaki LandSAR.
Members from Whanganui, Taihape and Ruapehu LandSAR teams will also be part of the effort.
He said preparations for the exercise will get under way on Friday night, with Saturday and most of Sunday dedicated to the ground search.
Wong Too said up to 70 people will be involved in the ‘‘multifaceted’’ training exercise, which has a duel purpose of potentially getting to the bottom of what happened to Roberts.
He said a search strategy had been developed after reexamining information gleaned from previous searches.
This has led to a set of scenarios being created regarding what might have happened.
The location of Roberts’ sandshoes, which were found three kilometres away from his car, is one of the key starting points for this weekend’s operation, Wong Too said.
He said the best case scenario would be to find new evidence in the case.
‘‘From my point of view, it’s definitely some motivation. For anyone who joins any search and rescue outfit, the aim is to resolve a situation,’’ Wong Too said.
He added Roberts’ family and the wider Uruti community would be involved in the exercise where possible.
Alan Doy, member of the management team for Taranaki LandSAR, was part of last year’s search effort for Roberts and will turn out again this weekend.
He said each year the service ran a training exercise and he felt the Roberts case was an opportunity to test out their systems.
Doy said the obvious added incentive for the 12 teams of four sent out to search will be to find new clues in the case.
‘‘Hopefully we will come up with a bit of closure for the family,’’ he said.