Body may be missing man: police
Police believe they have found the body of missing Southland man Dale Watene five weeks after he was last seen alive.
The body was found in the Longwood Forestry block, about 40 kilometres west of Invercargill, yesterday.
Watene, 40, went missing from Otautau on April 16. His truck was found two days later.
A formal identification process was under way and a post-mortem would take place today, Detective Sergeant Chris Lucy said.
‘‘We will have a clearer understanding of the circumstances once the postmortem has been completed,’’ Lucy said.
Watene’s mother, who asked not to be named, said she had been preparing for the worst, but ‘‘hoping it wasn’t going to happen’’.
‘‘I’m relieved he’s been found. At least we know where he is and we can bring him home,’’ she said.
A police officer contacted her on Wednesday night and told her they had found her son’s body.
She asked what had happened to him, but they were unable to say. A detective told her yesterday they would update her further in a couple of days.
She thanked the police for ‘‘everything they are doing’’ and urged anyone with information about what happened to her son to come forward.
Police previously said areas of interest were identified in the Longwood Forestry block on Saturday when 30 LandSAR volunteers from Southland and Otago completed an extensive search of the area.
Watene went missing the day after his 40th birthday in the middle of Covid-19 lockdown.
His truck, a blue 1995 Isuzu SUV, registration CGE638, was found two days later at Holt Park in Otautau. The battery had been removed and diesel was pooling on the ground underneath.
The last call made using his cell phone was about 9.30pm on April 16, but the recipient didn’t answer, and his bank card has not been used since he visited a supermarket on his birthday.
Watene grew up in Huntly, in Waikato.
He moved to Otautau after a stint in Perth about 15 years ago and secured a job on a dairy farm where his younger brother worked. At the time of his disappearance, Watene was working for the same farmer driving trucks and operating heavy machinery.