Missing woman 'not able to wander far'

Rosemary McGregor helps police to hand out flyers at the checkpoint. Photo / Alan Gibson

A Wanganui woman whose two-week disappearance has stumped police would not have been physically able to walk around the gorse-ridden hilly area her car was found in.

A brother of 45-year-old beneficiary Marice McGregor said a life-long condition that affected her heart valves and prevented oxygen from being properly pumped around meant she couldn't walk far.

Ms McGregor's red Suzuki was spotted by a bus driver parked among pine trees below Lismore Forest, 20km north of Wanganui, on April 19. When it was still there two days later, with her wallet inside, he called police.

Garth McGregor said his sister simply couldn't have ventured far.

"Walking off to Lismore Forest or walking up the road is not a possibility for her," he said. "She can walk 100m or maybe 200m but she's gasping for air."

But she wouldn't have been lured away easily, either.

"She would never have been talked into hopping into a vehicle with a person she didn't know," he said.

And while Ms McGregor was fond of collecting pine cones - some were found in her car - that was not a good spot for it, a resident said.

The woman said police had asked for help seeking out hollows or offal pits a person could be hidden in, above Old Parapara Road off State Highway 4, making some residents nervous about dangerous people being in their midst.

Police search teams, including a dive squad and a specialist cadaver dog, have found no trace of Ms McGregor.

Yesterday afternoon, several kilometres south in the township of Upokongaro, Mr McGregor, Ms McGregor's other brother, Rowan, sister-in-law Rosemary McGregor and another relative wore fluorescent vests as they helped police to hand out flyers to motorists.

"There seems to be a lot of out-of-towners, unfortunately," Mr McGregor told the Herald.

But police remained confident the random checkpoint would help. An appeal for sightings of a green Mitsubishi van had triggered an influx of calls.

"We're interested in the van because we know it's a vehicle she had contact with around the day of April 19 and she was certainly near it," said Detective Senior Sergeant Gwynne Pennell, officer in charge of Wanganui CIB. But she urged people to only phone in sightings before May 1 as police were trying to focus on that two-week period.

"Otherwise we will just be inundated with calls about green vans," said police spokeswoman Kim Perks. She said police had alerted Customs to Ms McGregor's disappearance but had not received any reports back of sightings.

Police are working with telecommunications experts after it was revealed Ms McGregor's phone was temporarily activated in Feilding the morning after she was last seen.

It was not used to make any calls or send text messages, despite Ms McGregor's preference for communication via text message or email.

The police search has since been extended to the Manawatu and involves up to 20 officers and 20 search and rescue staff.

Yesterday security staff manned Ms McGregor's grey, clapboard home with an overgrown flower garden, behind Wanganui Base Hospital.

* Anyone who saw Ms McGregor or the green Mitsubishi van in the Wanganui, Manawatu and Rangitikei areas on April 19 or 20 is asked to call Wanganui police on (06) 349-0600.