Weeks of desperation are over for a Featherston woman whose brother was found dead on Saturday beside a road she has often travelled since his disappearance. Sally Adams, who works in Lower Hutt, said last night she believes the body found in a black car discovered wrecked down a steep bankin the Rimutaka Ranges is that of her brother Stephen Baden Adams, 50, who vanished seven weeks ago. "When I drive the hill now at least I won't be scanning the road and checking the make of every black car I pass - and tonight will be the first night for weeks I can go to bed without anxiety, without staying half awake," Ms Adams said. "In case Steve comes up the driveway or knocks at the door, you know, that expectation that he'll turn up, the hope." Ms Adams' husband Gerard Hayes said that late on Saturday the pilot of a helicopter spotted the car, a black Ford Falcon, about 50m from SH2 in a scrubby area which he and his daughters Amanda, 9, and Meagan, 7, missed by metres during a 2000km Wairarapa road search. He said police woke Ms Adams and himself soon after midnight on Saturday with news of the discovery before he spent six hours "in the dark and rain with a brilliant team" of about 40 police and ambulance officers, search and rescue party members, and Upper Hutt, Featherston and Masterton firefighters who recovered Mr Adams' body. "In my opinion his car left the road at high speed, went through the fence without damaging it and didn't leave any traces. I came close to that area about four weeks ago, so had other searchers, and we're just so grateful he's finally been found." Mr Adams, a Lower Hutt father of three, would have celebrated his 24th wedding anniversary last week alongside wife Julie.On January 31 he told his wife he was travelling to the Greytown grave of his mother Sheila Adams. Sally Adams said the discovery of her brother's body is a heartbreaking end to weeks of constant worry and fear that had left scant opportunity to mourn the loss of their mother to cancer a fortnight before he disappeared. She said the time spent at her Featherston home nursing their mother had brought her even closer to her brother her only sibling
