KEY POINTS:
Police investigating the sudden disappearance of deaf woman Emma Agnew want to speak to a man who warned a group her car was about to explode in a park.
Ms Agnew, a 20-year-old Christchurch woman, has not been heard from since Thursday when she sent a text message
saying she was meeting someone interested in buying her red Mazda Familia.
It was found partially burned out at Bromley Park in the city that night.
Detective Inspector Tom Fitzgerald, heading the inquiry, said the occupants of a silver Japanese car police were earlier seeking had been ruled out of any involvement in Ms Agnew's "completely uncharacteristic" disappearance. The occupants contacted police today.
Mr Fitzgerald said police were looking for a man who warned the occupants of the silver car to get out of the car park, saying "the car's going to blow".
"Obviously we'd like to speak to that person," he said.
The man was described as "fairly large" with short cropped hair and was walking a dog believed to be a pit bull terrier cross.
Mr Fitzgerald said the man might have no connection to whoever torched Ms Agnew's car.
"He simply could have been walking in the area," he said. "That's why we need him to come forward and tell us."
Mr Fitzgerald earlier said police wanted to find out more about where Ms Agnew's red Mazda was about 10.30am last Thursday.
"It was possibly in the northern suburbs, that is St Albans, Papanui, out towards Belfast," he said.
Mr Fitzgerald told the Herald last night that officers were working through "a number" of people who had contacted Emma about the car.
He would not reveal how many. No one was in custody, nor was anyone being ruled out of the inquiry.
But he said today that while residents around the park had done a good job in coming forward with information, sightings of Ms Agnew's car from 10.30am onwards on Thursday had been "relatively slow".
"There could be a number of reasons for that, depending on where it was after that time."
Police and family and friends say Emma's disappearance is out of character - a fact that has left them fearing the worst but hoping for the best.
Detective Senior Sergeant David Long said though police had no evidence directly suggesting that Emma had come to harm, they had to consider every possibility.
"You've got to look at the circumstances of the disappearance. It's completely out of character - the lack of use of her cellphone and of course the aggravating feature of the way the car's found. It all leads us to believe that something else more serious has possibly happened.
"We've got to keep a very open mind here about what may or may not have happened and there are numerous possibilities at every sort of turn, really. We haven't got a firm line of investigation as yet."
Emma had not used her bank account or cellphone, the latter of grave concern to friends and family because she relied on her phone for communicating by text as she could not hear or speak.
Deaf Association of New Zealand South Island regional manager Lachlan Keating said news of Emma's disappearance had rocked the deaf community.
Emma, her parents and her three brothers were all deaf, so the family were well known within the community.
"It is shocking ... The community is very concerned," he said. "They're doing it quite hard, actually. Two of my staff are related to Emma and obviously it's a very tight-knit community, so everyone has been quite adversely affected."
Mr Keating said Emma was employed in two jobs. For two days a week she worked as an administrator for the Deaf Society of Canterbury. On the other three days she was the national administrator for the Deaf Sports Federation, a newly created role she began about six months ago.
"She's a very friendly, intelligent, highly skilled girl," he said.
"At the Deaf Society of Canterbury she manages the website, database, puts out a monthly newsletter which is like quite a significant, full-colour booklet sort of thing. [She is] pretty skilled on IT and that sort of thing.
Members of the Deaf Society yesterday took food donations to the Agnews' home, where extended family and friends had gathered to support one another.
Mr Keating said daily "update" meetings would be held at the Deaf Society, and counselling services and Victim Support assistance would be available.
"There are different levels of grief at the moment and they're going to fluctuate as time goes by, so we're just providing different levels of support for everyone."
Anyone with information on Emma Agnew's disappearance is asked to call Christchurch police on (03) 363-7400.
- with NZPA
