Foul play not ruled out as search continues
Police have an ‘‘open mind’’ and remain hopeful missing jogger Kim Bambus will be found alive, but say they do not know what happened to her.
Detective Inspector Hayden Mander said police had not ruled anything out, including foul play.
Bambus has been missing since Friday morning after saying she was going for a run at Piha beach in West Auckland.
Mander said there were ‘‘an endless number of possibilities because at this stage we don’t know what happened to Kim’’.
About 40 police and LandSAR staff made up the search party yesterday. The police Eagle helicopter and surf lifesaving rescue inflat- able boats were part of the search, Mander said.
‘‘If Kim is not found [yesterday], the searches will continue [today],’’ he said.
‘‘As I understand it, people have survived longer but the longer that time goes on [the more] we have concern for her.’’
Bambus’ car was found at Piha, at 1am on Saturday, with her mobile phone still inside. It was believed she headed down the Ahuahu Track (Mercer Bay loop track).
Locals say the track is very steep at the beach end, and nearly impossible to lose your way on because there’s only one way to go.
Police extended their search yesterday, as rain set in, scouring Piha’s shoreline, with LandSAR continuing to search Ahuahu and nearby tracks.
Additional staff were canvassing where Bambus’ car was found, a police spokeswoman said.
The missing woman’s sister, Storm Bambus, said on Saturday that she drove down from the Bay of Islands on Friday night to join the search, and that her parents had sailed back from Great Barrier Island.
‘‘Kim is very independent and it isn’t unusual for her to go running alone, though Piha wasn’t her usual destination’’, she said.
She described her sister as ‘‘a tiny little thing’’, and ‘‘the life of the party’’.
LandSAR and dogs began the search on Friday night.
Bambus was seen in Ponsonby on Friday morning, before she headed out to Piha.
When she didn’t come home on Friday night, her flatmates drove to the beach to look for her, before calling police about 8pm.