Forest Park car park examined

Detectives will tomorrow closely examine the area around the Catchpool Road end carpark in the Rimutaka Forest Park to see if it will help shed any light on the disappearance of a Wellington woman.

Sixty-two-year-old Mrs Kaye Stewart intended only a short walk in the park on Monday morning, 13 June. When she failed to meet family as arranged in Wainuiomata at 12.30pm they went looking for her and found her locked car parked near a ford on the access road.

Police were advised and, for the next four days an intensive police and civilian search and rescue operation took place without finding any sign of Mrs Stewart.

"Tomorrow's search is not the result of any new information, it's simply one area that Mrs Stewart was seen in," Detective Senior Sergeant Soni Malaulau, head of Lower Hutt CIB, says.

"There's nothing to suggest something sinister has happened to Kaye. Police want to emphasize that this is still a missing persons enquiry but her disappearance and lack of reason for it remains a mystery to both police and her family.

"We know there has been lots of search activity and other visitors in the carpark area since Mrs Stewart's disappearance.

"We've had no sightings of Kaye despite public appeals and talking with most of the people who live along the Wainuiomata Coast Road," Detective Senior Sergeant Malaulau says.

Investigators are also following up on vehicle sightings - cars, bikes and trucks - as well as people who were in the Coast Road, Catchpool access road and Rimutaka Forest Park area on that Monday.

People who can help with information are asked to contact the Operation Stewart inquiry team, Lower Hutt Police Station, telephone: 04 560 2600.

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