‘We love him and we just want him home’
Family anxious for news after disappearance of father of four
The partner of missing Tokoroa man Shane Edwards says she and their four sons “love him and just want him home”.
The 42-year-old father vanished from his Tokoroa home on May 14 and has not been seen or heard from since.
His partner, Alvina Smith, was one of the last people to see him at their home before he disappeared.
Police were following two potential sightings of Edwards in Whakata¯ne and Rotorua but nothing was yet firm, Detective Sergeant David Whitecliffe-davies said this week.
Smith and Edwards have been together for 18 years and have four sons aged 4, 6, 7 and 16. Smith, 43, described him as “the best dad in the world”.
“He’s the love of my life.” Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post, Smith recalled the afternoon Edwards went missing.
“Around 4.30pm at home in Tokoroa, it starts to get a bit chilly. And that gives us the feeling that we better start the fire and cook dinner.
“He wasn’t there at that specific time because he usually would start the fire.”
Smith said she and the kids were in another room while Edwards was in the kitchen.
“We couldn’t really see or hear him from the room that we were in.
When she came back out, Smith said the dishes had been moved from the table to the bench but were not washed.
“One minute he’s there, one minute he’s not.”
She did not hear a car go up the driveway, nor did she hear the back door close, which would usually be open.
“We live down a long driveway, which sort of veers off on to our own driveway [then] you come to a huge gate.”
Smith was looking after a dog at the time which would “bark at anything that comes up our drive”.
“The dog will let us know of any kind of people coming through the gate.”
After two hours had passed that night, Smith said she got “a little bit worried” because it was “out of character” for him not to say anything.
“If he was just going down to the shop, which is maybe a few
minutes bike ride . . . I wouldn’t have worried.
“But when we got to three hours, I panicked.”
She started contacting friends to see if they had seen him. Edwards has “three good friends who he’ll go out of his way for”.
“But none of them had seen or heard from him.
“Then I really started to panic. Tokoroa is such a small town . . . I’ve lived there most of my life and Tokoroa people love to talk about
each other or anything.
“And there was just no bicker — there was nothing. Everywhere we went to or everywhere I thought he may be, there [was] no sign.”
In the week leading up to his disappearance, Smith said there was “nothing different” about her partner. He had helped out with the children and caught up with some friends.
Smith said his disappearance would not be gang- or drug-related.
At the time he went missing,
Edwards was not working, because he was looking for a job that worked around the kids’ schedules.
Smith described Edwards as kind and generous and she said he “didn’t like to be away from the kids” for too long.
“He just wanted to be there to do the lunches and get them ready for school and walk them and pick them up.”
“He doesn’t veer too far from home . . . He would rather just stay with the boys at home.”
Smith said every day since he disappeared was “a hard day” and she would not leave the house.
“I don’t like them [the kids] to see me cry lots because they know I’m just crying for their dad and then they cry and then it’s hard to stop.”
When Smith and Edwards initially met through mutual connections, Smith said they could “talk about anything”.
“As the weeks went on we just kept talking and then we just got together one night and we haven’t left each other since.”
Her message to Edwards was: “We love him and we just want him home. We miss him.”
Edwards was wearing a brown Swanndri jersey with a tinge of green, light blue jeans, black Converse Chuck Taylor shoes and a black beanie.
He has been described as lean and between 1.80m and 1.85m tall, with dark, short, spiky hair, brown eyes, olive to white-coloured skin and no piercings or tattoos.
■ Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Dave Whitecliffe-davies on 021 191 0875 or police on 105 and reference police file number 220518/6338. Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or through their website.