Black Coast Vanishings: Piha women set up walking groups to stay safe after true crime documentary sparks fears

A true crime series into people missing from the west Auckland community of Piha has seen the start-up of several “walking groups” so women can explore the bush area and tracks safely.

After the airing of the documentary Black Coast Vanishings dozens of women in Piha have joined a newly created Facebook group to arrange times and places to meet so they can walk in groups.

The show investigates any possible link between six mysterious disappearances from Piha over the past 30 years - including three young women.

It also revealed at least four other women had been chased and “stalked like prey” by groups of men close to where the women went missing.

Piha local Petti Clouth set up the group after watching Black Coast Vanishings stating: “I feel a bit shaken by the doco.”

Within hours 25 women had joined the private group echoing concerns about walking alone on isolated roads and tracks.

Missing nurse Kim Bambus was a regular visitor to Piha, often running the Mercer Bay loop. Photo / Supplied by family

The group aimed to allow women to walk bush tracks safely in the Piha, Karekare and Anawhata areas.

New members praised Clouth who said the group would cater to all fitness levels and length of walks.

The documentary, which aired last night, had a particular focus on the three missing women including Iraena Asher who disappeared in 2004, Cherie Vousden, who went missing in 2012 and Kim Bambus, who went missing in 2017.

Asher was last seen at 2am under a street light after earlier calling police to say she felt unsafe.

Bambus and Vousden disappeared years apart but both went missing after parking their cars in the same carpark and setting out on walks on the Mercer Bay loop track near Piha Beach.

The coroner ruled Bambus most likely died after taking her own life and suggested Vousden, who was seen walking along the track holding a bottle of wine and looking “visibly impaired” had accidentally fallen.

But documentary makers have urged police to re-investigate after accounts of women referred to as Kim, Tia, Lisa and Desislava reveal they were harassed, chased and intimidated by men and groups of men on tracks and in the bush at Piha.

Cherie Vousden was last seen walking along Mercer Bay Loop Track in 2012. Photo / Supplied

One woman called Lisa said a group of men chased her through the bush for hours yelling and taunting her with sexual remarks.

The incident in 2007 had Lisa, a long-distance runner, running to evade the men for hours.

“I just ran into the trees. There were a couple of points where I hid and I could hear them yelling out, ‘Just come back, I want to know what you taste like’.”

“I had been running track for school but I was knackered. I kept thinking that so many people weren’t going to see me again.”

A woman named Sarah told documentary makers that she went to Piha in 2009 to attend a bonfire on the beach and was chased by a man when walking to the toilets.

She said a man in a very “loud car” stopped and chased her through the sand dunes in the dark.

“I remember running through the sand dunes and falling over. It was dark and I couldn’t see where I was going. He didn’t say a word the whole time and I just ran for my life. I remember him being quite stocky around roughly 30 or 35. He had scruffy hair. The only reason I think he left was because another car was coming down the road.

“I was covered in my own urine from being so scared. It terrified the living s*** out of me - it still does to this day.”

In 2017, Desislava Stefanova was on her usual run around the Ahuahu/Mercer Bay Loop track. She ran the route every Thursday but on one occasion spotted a man staring at her from the side of the path.

The man kept walking past her and then turning and coming back toward her.

Desislava brushed it off as “a scary encounter” but a few weeks later Kim Bambus disappeared from the same spot.

Cherie Vousden also went missing from the same track in 2012.

“It just hit me that it could have been me and that was when I called the police. Nobody called back for any information. Nobody has contacted me ever since,” she told documentary makers.

A woman called Tia had a similar experience on Mercer Bay Loop Track when she and a friend walked up the track one evening.

The friends heard a car screeching up the hill and had an overwhelming urge to hide. The girls heard the car slam on its brakes and heard three doors slam.

“One of them said, ‘Where the f*** are they?’ And they went looking for us. They had a stick and they were going through the bush. Prey basically, that’s how I felt... We were prey. It was just so scary.”

Tia and her friend lay hidden in the grass for more than half an hour. At one stage she caught a glimpse of one of the men describing him as having a “surfer’s build and a mullet.”

Later Tia heard about the disappearances of Cherie and Kim.

“That’s when a shiver came over me, that could have been us.”

Police said they were aware of the comments made in the documentary and that some might not have been reported.

“Anyone can report a matter to police at any time, by calling 105 or going online,” police said.

To report an incident go to https://www.police.govt.nz/use-105.

Kirsty Wynn is an Auckland-based journalist with more than 20 years experience in New Zealand newsrooms. She has covered everything from crime and social issues to the property market and consumer affairs.