Desperately seeking Emma
Hunt continues in searing heat and rough riverbed terrain for woman missing from her family home
An array of posters are plastered on a Rangiora store window. “Save the Animals” reads one. “Community Choir Xmas Concert” reads another. Among them: “Missing Person, Have you seen Emma Beattie?”
The young woman’s smiling face beams out of every second shop window at everyone walking down the main street.
Posters are stapled to nearly every tree, grasping the bark fighting hard against the wind.
Why would a 20-year-old woman venture out into the rough rural landscape alone in the dead of night?
It’s what police are trying to answer in the gruelling search for missing North Canterbury woman Emma Beattie.
On the sixth day of Beattie’s disappearance, helicopters circle overhead while Land Search and Rescue volunteers, police and dog teams scour thick native bush on the ground.
Within the rural farmland is the Ashley River. A five to six-kilometre stretch along its bank has become the central focus of the missing person’s investigation.
Five teams and a total of 32 LandSAR volunteers are meticulously exploring the open area — something Senior Sergeant Paul Reeves, who is in charge of the operation, says has been difficult. “The terrain is pretty scrubby and difficult to penetrate some of it, so it takes time to do a methodical search,” he said. On Friday, December 1, Beattie left her family home in Fernside about 11pm on foot with nothing but a brown drawstring rucksack. What she took with her nobody knows.
She was wearing orange and black Nike shoes and possibly carrying a pair of red Beats headphones. Police believe she could have been in the Ashley River area the following day.
They are refusing to confirm whether her bank accounts or cellphone has been used since.
Volunteers have battled with the first signs of a dry, hot summer, with temperatures reaching 30C in the days since her disappearance.
They have swapped out in shifts, gripping water bottles as they seek shelter in a frosty air-conditioned car.
Search efforts have focused around the Hillcrest Rd area of Ashley River, a stone’s throw away from Beattie’s family home.
Wind whistles through the leaves of trees, mimicking the sound of the water nearby. Trees tower over native bush — a special breeding place for some of the country’s most rare and endangered river birds like the wrybill or ngutupare.
Searchers struggle through waisthigh shrubbery, every second plant has prickles. GPS tracking means they won’t cover the same area twice — it’s the only thing that will distinguish where they’ve been and where they’re going to look next, as everything looks the same for miles.
Senior Sergeant Reeves said there was a possibility Beattie had left Fern- side but searchers would remain in the remote area unless new information came to light.
“There have been a few items of interest, but we’ve cleared those. There’s been a set of car keys and a shoe — but neither belonged to Emma.”
While police have confirmed there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding Beattie’s disappearance, there are deep concerns for her safety.
There’s no word yet on whether her disappearance is out of character or whether it has happened before.
Police say there are no significant events in the days before her disappearance to their knowledge. They won’t comment on her mental state at the time of her disappearance.
Beattie’s social media accounts are filled with happy snaps of her among beautiful and picturesque backdrops. In one she’s jumping in the air in front of Diamond Lake, Wanaka with arms wide open wearing a big cheesy grin.
In another, she walks along a Dunedin beach with a friend, heading towards an orange and pink sunset.
Friends have described her as “the kindest and brightest soul I have ever met”.
Good wishes, thoughts and prayers are common among comments by friends and family online.
A close relative of Beattie’s said the family was not ready to speak.