‘They can’t just disappear’
Pair’s vanishing on same track years apart baffles many
Two disappearances five years apart from the same track near Piha have baffled police and left families asking, “What happened?” “It was heartbreaking, it was absolutely heartbreaking not knowing, and still not knowing,” said Darren Roberts, the brother of Cherie Vousden, who vanished in 2012.
She was last seen walking the Mercer Bay loop track, the same track rescuers continue to search for any sign of Kim Bambus.
Roberts said it was tragic no clues to what happened had been found.
“We were fortunate enough to have an eyewitness account that [Cherie] was in the area that evening, and that certainly helped us.”
The 42-year-old North Shore mother frequented the track often, her brother said. “She loved the sunsets out there, she would come back home with the daisies she had picked from Log Race Rd.”
Vousden, who left behind a now 13-year-old daughter, was last seen by tourists walking along the track carrying a bottle of wine on December 22, 2012.
Her car was found unlocked in the same carpark Bambus’ vehicle was found. Both cars were parked near the entrance to the track (also known as the Ahu Ahu Track).
Bambus, a Middlemore Hospital nurse, hasn’t been seen or heard from since Friday morning. She had told friends she planned to run on the trail.
The 21-year-old’s friends also said she was familiar with the area, after moving to Auckland about four years ago from the Bay of Islands.
“I have a lot of empathy for what they’re going through at the moment,” Roberts said of Bambus’ family and friends. “It is certainly on our minds a lot and it has of course come flooding back . . . we spent many weeks up there searching.”
Waitemata Detective Inspector Hayden Mander said searchers looking for Bambus would scour the Mercer Bay cliff area based on information about her activities in the days before her disappearance.
Before Bambus drove to the track, she was also seen buying snacks from a Countdown in Ponsonby. Vousden’s sister-in-law, Rachel Vousden, said there was “just something not right” about the disappearances. “These girls are just going about their daily activities . . . they can’t just disappear without a trace,” she told the Herald. “It’s very hard to go off the track, it’s very dense bush.” A coroner’s report concluded Vousden likely drowned in the sea, but Roberts said “there is always that thought of other scenarios”. It was feared she may have fallen from the near 300m-high cliffs. Australian woman Fiona Hamilton fell 60m to her death there in 2006. Rachel added: “If they are falling into the ocean, why is nothing floating up, why is nothing showing up?” Iraena Asher also disappeared from the Piha area in 2004. She was last seen walking towards the beach by a couple walking their dog about 2am on October 11 of that year. Although her body was never found, a 2012 coroner’s inquest ruled she had likely drowned.