Maia Johnston, 19, has disappeared after going out for a walk from her mother's home in Akron Grove, Totara Park, Upper Hutt on December 21.
Maia Johnston, 19, has disappeared after going out for a walk from her mother's home in Akron Grove, Totara Park, Upper Hutt on December 21.
Maia Johnston, 19, has been missing since going for a walk last night.
Mother says up to 100 family and community members have joined the search.
Johnston was last seen wearing a green singlet, black jean shorts, Converse shoes, and carrying a black T-shirt with a skull on it.
A mother desperate to find her missing teenage daughter says she feels like she’s been walking in circles and can’t understand how the 19-year-old has still not been located.
She is urging anyone with information to come forward and told the Herald that specialist search and rescue teams had nowbeen deployed.
“We have been walking since 9pm last night, but I just can’t get my head around that no one has seen her.
“It seems impossible that she could be walking around and not bump into people looking for her.”
Maia Johnston was last seen at Akron Grove, Tōtara Park about 8pm yesterday, when she left a residential property to take a walk.
While Johnston had been drinking during the day, her mother Amy Walsh did not believe her daughter would have been particularly intoxicated at the time.
Walsh told the Herald she felt like she was walking in circles since news of her daughter’s disappearance, searching under the same tree.
“The community is amazing. There are so many locals out looking for her,” she said.
Walsh estimated between 50-100 people were now searching for Johnston.
She said Johnston was visiting from Hamilton and had joined in their family Christmas celebration yesterday.
Johnston's mother Amy Walsh said, on her Facebook story, that she was “still searching".
Walsh posted images from the search on Facebook, writing “still searching”.
“Still no sign. Still just the community searching it seems. 43,000 steps and counting.
A mother desperate to find her missing teenage daughter says she feels like she’s been walking in circles and can’t understand how the 19-year-old has still not been located.
“My girl, everyone knows your name at this point..there are SO many people searching ... how has no one seen you?,” she said in another post.
“I must have called your name several thousand times at this point ... please come home.”
Johnston’s family learned of her disappearance last night but only later realised the teen, who is unfamiliar with the area, left without her phone and wallet.
Police and Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy are urging anyone with CCTV footage to send it to police to help in the search for Johnston who went for a walk about 8pm last night to get some space after Christmas drinks and never returned.
Family, members of the Upper Hutt community and police are undertaking a large-scale search.
Guppy said Tōtara Park was a tight-knit community.
“Anyone that thinks they saw anything last night at that time, please report it to police,” he said.
“Police are wanting to know if people have CCTV cameras. If anyone has got those, please get in contact urgently because everyone is thinking of her and her family.”
Deputy Mayor Hellen Swales said when a young person went missing, the community’s heart went out to their loved ones.
“We hope that she is found and it is such a terrible thing to happen at a time so close to Christmas when families should be together.”
Maia Johnston, 19, disappeared in Upper Hutt on December 21.
Police are now asking residents in the Tōtara Park area to check their CCTV cameras for any sightings of Johnston.
Officers are particularly interested in footage between 8pm-9pm on Saturday.
It is understood police wanted to know where to look for Johnston before search and rescue were brought in.
“If you have any information that could help our inquiries, please update us online now or call 105,” police said.
“Please use the reference number 241222/0237.”
Missing teen had socialised with friends before disappearing
Johnston and a friend went to nearby California Park after a few drinks between 4.30pm and 6.30pm, and had another drink at home after returning, but Walsh believed Johnston would not have been particularly intoxicated as she had not been drinking for the two hours she was at the park.
That evening, Johnston said she wanted some space and left for a walk, carrying nothing but a black T-shirt with a skull on it and wearing black jean shorts, a green shoestring singlet and Converse shoes.
Johnston’s friend said it was not unusual for her to take time out and go for walks, but Walsh said Johnston had never “gone missing” before.
After half an hour her friend went to check on her, and about 9pm it began raining so Walsh jumped in the car, barefoot and wearing just a T-shirt and shorts, thinking she would need to pick the girls up.
“I found a very wet child looking for her friend and we haven’t stopped searching since.”
Family and friends have posted on local community Facebook groups asking people to look out for Johnston, and members of the community have been out helping with the search overnight.
This photo, taken yesterday, shows the outfit Maia Johnston was wearing when she left the Tōtara Park house.
Walsh said she tried to report the matter to police overnight but they were more concerned with reports of a man in a yellow high-vis jacket acting suspiciously.
She said she was even questioned by a police officer while out searching because she was wearing a yellow rain jacket.
Police contacted Walsh this morning asking her to come in and fill out paperwork about the disappearance, she said.
She believed it was possible her daughter had suffered an accident and was stuck somewhere, hurt.
She did not believe it was possible Johnston was drunk enough to have fallen asleep somewhere, particularly given the poor weather overnight, and said she would surely have woken up well before now if that was the case.
“Just please come home,” Walsh begged her daughter.
Police have put out a statement about Johnston’s disappearance this morning, saying her family are anxious to find her.
“If you have any information that could help our inquiries, please update us online now or call 105.
Members of the public have been commenting on the Upper Hutt Facebook pages, saying they have been out looking for Johnston as well.
“I’ll stay out as long as I’m needed to get her home safe,” said one man.
Another person said they and their partner had been out searching with their baby daughter in the car with them.
“My son and his friend came home late last night really concerned, as they had been helping to look for her last night. I hope she is [okay]. I’ll send the boys back out today to look,” one woman wrote.
Other people have been searching along the Hutt River, under bridges, in paddocks, and throughout multiple Upper Hutt locations.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
