Father’s 24 hours of hell

In 24 hours Alan Hamilton went to hell and back. After telling her father she was going to a friend’s house his 11-year-old daughter Mary simply didn’t return to her Ashburton home.

By 5pm Hamilton started to worry. He scoured nearby streets, made phone calls. Three hours later Mary was still missing and he called police.

“I knew that she was at a friend’s place but it seems she went off walking, but in the opposite way to home,” Hamilton said. Mary was last seen at about 5pm on Saturday in the Oxford St and Beach Rd area.

His call to police kicked off a search that ran through the night. It was the longest night of Hamilton’s life.

While they searched he waited at home for a police phone call.

By yesterday morning he feared the worst, but at 9.30am came the news he’d desperately waited for.

He was told Mary had been found, but it would be some time before they could be reunited.

Late yesterday Hamilton said he was “pretty upset” about the delay.

“I can’t believe it really, but it’s in the hands of the police, they’ve told me the inquiry is ongoing; I’m just relieved she’s been found,” he said.

Until he speaks to Mary, the reasons for her disappearance are still a mystery to her father. He knows she was found in a street not far from her home and that she was with someone he did not know.

Hamilton said he lived alone with his daughter; he’s looked after her since she was a baby.

Police would only say CCTV footage from a “local shop” helped identify a vehicle that had given the girl a lift and she was found at a safe location.