Baffling fate of a shining star

Missing woman: Emma Campbell. Photo / Supplied

Her teachers paint a picture of a stellar student and leader.

From the classroom to the netball court to the choir, Emma Campbell excelled in everything she did while at Southland Girls' High School in Invercargill.

And when the outgoing 29-year-old, who brother David Campbell said "definitely knew how to have a laugh", left the century-old Tweed St college in 1998, she had the world at her feet.

"Staff predicted she had a bright future ahead of her," principal Yvonne Browning told the Weekend Herald. "They said she had so much to offer society, and her contribution to the school would always be valued."

That is why family and friends are baffled by her disappearance.

For seven frustrating days they have helped police officers and dogs scour Canterbury's Port Hills, after her 1994 blue Toyota Corona was found 15m down a bank.

That stretch of Dyers Pass Rd, between Victoria Park and the Sign of the Kiwi restaurant, is a notorious site for racing but no other vehicles or tyre marks were found.

At that time of morning - about 7.30 - traffic would have mainly consisted of Governors Bay commuters and parents driving children to sport, locals said.

When police arrived, the Corona was empty and Ms Campbell's red sneakers were several metres down in the bracken. Her wallet lay on the passenger seat.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Rae said that as the shoes were found between the car and a nearby track, Ms Campbell might have gone for a walk. A robbery was highly unlikely.

A police appeal through the media for information produced some information, including from an ambulance officer who drove past at 7.15am.

"He saw the car there and saw the boot open and a door open," Mr Rae told the Weekend Herald.

This shaved 15 minutes off the time-frame police were working with from the initial 7.30am report.

Officers want to speak to a "well-dressed man" seen standing beside a white Nissan Bluebird or Toyota Corona talking on his cellphone about 5.30am in the Sign of the Kiwi carpark.

A round-faced man wearing dishwashing gloves while driving a vehicle similar to a Honda Odyssey or Toyota Estima with a European female passenger with long, dark hair was seen between 7.30am and 7.40am.

It was about 5.20am that Ms Campbell was heard driving away from her Bryndwr flat. She often went away on trips, but never without her toothbrush and floss. They were left in the bathroom.

Ten minutes later and about 4km away, Ms Campbell stopped and bought petrol from the Shell station in Riccarton Rd. Images on security cameras show her smiling, but with shaky hands, as she paid the $30 bill.

For now the police search of the Port Hills area has been suspended, Mr Rae describing it as "exhausted".

But volunteers and family were yesterday checking the roadsides heading down to Governors Bay.