Fiona Wills, pictured in the cafe she ran at Trelinnoe Garden Park, which she and husband John established, near Te Pohue. On December 9, 2014, suffering dementia and the recent passing of her husband, she disappeared while going to feed her chickens. She hasn't been seen since. Photo / NZME
Fiona Wills, pictured in the cafe she ran at Trelinnoe Garden Park, which she and husband John established, near Te Pohue. On December 9, 2014, suffering dementia and the recent passing of her husband, she disappeared while going to feed her chickens. She hasn't been seen since. Photo / NZME
A decade has passed since Hawke’s Bay farmer, gardener, cafe operator, mother and grandmother Fiona Wills vanished from her internationally known family station Trelinnoe Garden Park.
But her son, national farming and environment identity Bruce Wills, who in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours was recognised with the ONZMfor services to conservation, remembers much every day.
After the search of the property near Te Pohue, came the search through his mind as to what else could have been done.
Then came the search into what might have been the thoughts of his mother as she struggled with Alzheimer’s, and the loss of husband John. The couple had grown Trelinnoe Garden Park into a popular attraction during their 55 years of marriage.
Those aspects became a focal point of the mystery after she disappeared while feeding her chickens down a short track from the homestead on the afternoon of December 9, 2014.
Over the following weeks, friends rallied to search tracks, every plot of trees, every bit of bracken, the ponds, gardens, gorges and ravines.
The hunt even had the Wills family trawling the streets of Havelock North, 40km away, in case she had gone looking for something of her past.
Bruce Wills, now living on a hilltop near Roy's Hill, points in the direction of Trelinnoe, the family's former Te Pohue farm and gardens, from where mother Fiona Wills disappeared on December 9, 2014. Photo / Doug Laing
Now living near Roy’s Hill, with a sweeping view of most of Hawke’s Bay, including Ravensdown, which he oversees as board chairman, Bruce Wills can point to Trelinnoe from his garden.
He can’t quite see it, but the view of it occasionally sparks questions in his mind.
The Wills family has, he says, long since come to terms with the reality his mum probably died somewhere in the environment she loved, and is at peace.
At the age of 75, and despite advanced Alzheimers — which had the family accepting she would have to go into care — she was physically fit.
Wills says Fiona could have walked “10 kilometres quite easily”.
On the farm it was a full-blown search and rescue: helicopters, planes, maps, the best search and rescue experts. There was theorising on what a person suffering from Alzheimers might do.
“We had to be strategic,” he recalls. “But we never found a thing.”
His own searching included into what could be done to help those had searched. It led to the family donating a bank of GPS units to search and rescue services.
He said while the search of the property and neighbouring environs was methodical, searchers would return to base with only descriptions of where they had been, such as “up that track”.
Bruce Wills during new searches at Trelinnoe Garden Park in February 2015, two months after his mother disappeared on December 9, 2014. Despite searches at the time of the disappearance and afterwards no sign of Mrs Wills' whereabouts has ever been found. Photo / NZME
There were a lot of tracks and a lot of territory, but he realised that despite the grid-by-grid nature of what must rank as one of the biggest family-driven searches of its kind, there was still some question about whether every square millimetre had been covered.
Wills is sure everyone did their best to make sure it was. He and the family remain overwhelmed by everyone’s efforts.
“It was a real challenge for everybody,” he said.
“I’m sure if she was in the garden someone would have come across her,” he said, still wondering whether she had ever wandered further than the property itself.
He guesses he may never know, but there have been times when people have made contact, with information of interest, including clothing found.
Unfortunately, none of that information has ever matched what they do know.
Inspector Dean Clifford of Eastern District police headquarters, said the GPS units donated by the Wills family were still in use.
“They are still an important part of Land Search and Rescue, where they are used to map and confirm search patterns. They will continue to be used until end-of-life [they can no longer be used],” he said.
Searchers in the dense bush and gardens of Trelinnoe looking, unsuccessfully, for Fiona Wills early in 2015, in a new search, using experts, police and family friends. Photo / NZME
