80 days missing and counting
A wicked winter storm howled when Breanna Muriwai was last seen and now, as spring heads towards summer, her missing person posters are showing the wear and tear of the seasons.
Muriwai, 22, was last seen at Te Horo Beach, Kāpiti Coast, about an hour north of Wellington on August 28 but how she got there and what has happened to her since have remained a mystery for, now, 80 days.
She had been reported missing after family members dropped her off at Paraparaumu Railway Station, north of Wellington, on August 26 – two days earlier.
At the seaside settlement on Tuesday, a couple of missing-person posters remain with two photos and a description: She is 22 and 1.57m tall, with a small build, brown shoulder-length hair and brown skin. One poster is peeling off the road sign it was put on, and another has folded in on itself in a plastic sleeve.
On Rodney Ave, in a house tucked behind the sand dunes, Pat O’Brien on Tuesday recalled the storm the night Muriwai was last seen was so loud that he couldn’t hear anything outside except for the crashing surf.
‘‘It was rainy, it was windy, it was a wicked night,’’ he said.
What appeared to be her family came to Te Horo Beach in the days after her disappearance and days before police arrived.
‘‘She wasn’t answering her phone – they knew something had gone wrong,’’ he said.
Then came the police and searchers enmasse. They moved in a line, searching the dunes, beach and lagoon, prodding with poles but left not knowing where Muriwai was.
They would return occasionally for smaller searches.
‘‘They knew something untoward had happened. They were pretty cagey,’’ O’Brien said.
Muriwai’s family have refused to talk to the media but her mother, Jasmin Gray, has appealed for help via Facebook.
‘‘See this baby?,’’ she posted last week along with baby photos.
‘‘Look at her, she is ours and our hearts are aching for her! Enough of the b.s now, we want her home where she belongs! Do the right thing and tell us where she is?’’
In an October post – this time with more-recent photographs – she addressed the ‘‘two people that were last with my daughter when she went missing’’. It appeared she knew who these people were.
‘‘Just let us know where Breanna is so we can come out of this nightmare and get on with life.’’
Police in a statement on Tuesday said there had not been any updates on the case.