Woman ‘vanishes’ from bus
Adele Townsend’s husband yesterday said he had no idea what happened to her after she failed to meet him at the Hamilton bus stop.
The 53-year-old waved goodbye to her brother Michael from the Wellington central bus station just after 9am on Saturday but did not appear to be on the bus when it drove into the Hamilton Transport Centre at 6.15pm.
Graeme Townsend said he did not see his wife get off the InterCity bus and now had no idea where she was.
Adele is 150cm tall, has long brown hair, carried a blue-andwhite fabric bag and black hand bag and usually wears a black outer vest.
Graeme Townsend waited for 30 minutes hoping she may have just nipped into the nearby toilets. He also scoured the bus for her. He didn’t walk its entire length and said his wife of eight years was “quite short” so he may not have seen her over the seats.
The bus driver told him a headcount in Wellington and Taupo had matched up with the number of passengers he was meant to have on board.
It wasn’t until Townsend found no sign of his wife back home that he started to worry. He called friends and family, but no one knew where the “quiet” woman was.
At 8pm on Saturday he called police and then went into the police station on Sunday morning to file a missing person’s report.
Adele Townsend had previously worked at Vardon School as a supervisor for the after school programme, but it was only when her husband rang the school last week to say she would not be in that he discovered she had not been working all year. “I didn’t know she wasn’t working. For about nine months. She’s been telling me Tuesdays.”
His wife had been on medication for some time, but in the past four weeks, he had concerns it wasn’t working. It was the first time he had known her to disappear. “She still seemed to be fine.” Anyone with information is asked to contact Hamilton police on 07 858 6200.