Family thought missing man was with friends
For four days, Christopher Bates’ family thought he was with friends – until one knocked on their door asking where he was.
The 22-year-old accounting graduate has been missing for 12 days and extensive land and water searches in Central Otago have failed to find him.
His brother, Jonathan Bates, and sister-in-law, Sidonee Gibson, said they were worn out with worry trying to find their brother, son and friend.
They last saw Christopher Bates, who they describe as ‘‘quiet’’ and ‘‘intelligent’’, in Alexandra on February 11. Friends had dropped him off at his father’s home, where Jonathan Bates and Gibson live, and he spent the morning in his room.
About lunchtime, he told the family he was going to a nearby river to meet a friend.
The last confirmed sighting of Christopher Bates was at the Z petrol station on Tarbert St.
He was on foot and bought a packet of cigarettes.
‘‘He said he was going to meet up with a friend of his. They usually go down to Dunedin for a few days and it was quite common not to hear from him for two or three days,’’ Gibson said.
‘‘He is 22 and shocking at keeping in contact, so we didn’t think anything of it until one of his friends arrived and asked if we had seen Chris because they hadn’t seen him.
‘‘My first thought was panic and something is wrong. My first thing was to go to his room and look around and found his wallet.’’
Senior Sergeant John Fookes said the ‘‘unsettled’’ weather this week had made it challenging for the searchers.
Several areas had already been covered by searchers including police, Land Search and Rescue volunteers and Bates’ family and friends.
Bates was last seen wearing a grey/green hoodie, a white T-shirt, dark shorts and sneaker-style shoes.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to ring police.