Aydan Brown (inset) has been missing since August. His family as well as his partner, Terene Hetet (main photo), are desperate for answers.
The family of a Hamilton man missing for more than 11 weeks are desperate for answers, as police close the investigation.
Aydan Brown, 39, was last seen at a birthday party in Chartwell on August 17.
Despite searches by police and Brown’s family, he has not been found and police have referred the matter to the coroner.
Brown’s partner, Terene Hetet, said Brown was very happy with his life recently and had a lot of things he was looking forward to, so the family didn’t understand how “he couldn’t have made it home” from the party.
“Really deep down, I feel something’s happened during that time.”
Hetet said not having any answers made it a “lonely world” for her.
“You’re not able to put them to rest [and] that’s a different loss.
“I will carry it forever until we find him.”
Hetet said Brown was celebrating a cousin’s 30th birthday on the night he was last seen.
Hetet’s uncle had died and she was involved in preparations for the funeral at a marae the next day, so she didn’t attend the party.
She said Brown had made plans to attend the funeral and had even bought a new black shirt for it.
Hetet said the last time she saw Brown was before the birthday party and “he was excited”.
They shared a kiss and said ‘I love you’ before he left around 5pm.
“Little did we know the last time that we were going to see each other was that time,” she told the Herald.
Hetet said the couple usually stayed in touch by phone and she messaged Brown around midnight to check how his night was going.
He responded quickly with “I love you, my babe” – the last text she received from him.
She messaged him again around 3.30am, after her work at the marae’s kitchen was finished.
When messaging Android-to-Android, it leaves two ticks to confirm a text has been sent and received.
“It only had the one tick ... but it didn’t say that he received it.”
She found it odd as his phone or data would need to be off, and Aydan “never” had either turned off.
“We always make contact,” she said.
Hetet tried to ring, but the call didn’t go through. Initially, she didn’t think much of it.
It wasn’t until she arrived back at the place they lived in that she really got suspicious.
She said the shirt he had bought to wear to the funeral was still sitting untouched on her bed.
Hetet contacted some people from the party and one of Brown’s cousins told her Brown left in the early hours of Sunday morning.
According to Hetet, the cousin said Brown even told party attendees that his reason for leaving the party was that he needed to get home for the funeral.
The drive from the party to their place would only have taken 10 minutes.
Hetet said she was sure “something’s happened during that time”.
Brown’s family lodged a missing persons report with police on August 19.
Detective Sergeant Jonathan Carter said police investigated many leads and information provided by the public since Brown was reported missing.
This included that Brown may have travelled to a rural or bush area in the Waikato or Bay of Plenty.
“Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we have still not been able to locate Aydan or his grey Mazda ute,” Carter said.
Police would not confirm if they were treating this as a death.
“Police have now referred the matter to the coroner.
“While the active investigation is closed, police may reopen the case if new information that can assist them arises.”
He said if anyone still has information about Brown or his grey Mazda ute, registration QYA209, could they please contact police using the reference number 250819/5160, or by calling 105.
Carter said police “regularly” updated key family members throughout the investigation via a family liaison officer and Brown’s parents.
Aside from the police searches, Brown’s family also carried out private searches after appealing for information on social media via Waikato, Auckland and Rotorua pages, Hetet said.
She said they also sought help from a psychic.
The family unsuccessfully searched across Waikato, Auckland and Rotorua, including the Mamaku Ranges, as Brown used to live there with his grandmother, and a psychic reading pointed them there, she said.
Hetet said they also contacted commercial diving company Deep Dive Division to carry out an underwater search from the Pukete boat ramp in Hamilton to Ngāruawāhia.
Deep Dive Division managing director, Tua Karalus, confirmed the search and said he was grateful the family reached out.
“We see that as our role to play in the community, to help those who don’t have the capability,” Karalus said.
“I just love how they’re searching hard-out ... they love the guy and they’re doing all they can ... to find him.”
Hetet said she met Brown in June this year and had an instant “deep connection”.
She got emotional when speaking to the Waikato Herald at Hamilton Lake, a place she’d visited with Brown a few times.
“Our first dates were walking around here”, she said.
Brown moved into her home a week before his disappearance.
Hetet said since then, they had spent some time thinking more about “how we wanted to live life”.
Hetet said Brown was happy.
“He ... had mentioned that he’s never been as happy as he was in a long time.
“He was thinking about building his life.”
Hetet said Brown had many plans and had been looking forward to a lot of things.
One of the events Brown was particularly looking forward to was a visit from his mum, who is living in Australia and whom he hasn’t seen in eight years.
Brown also had two sons, whom he hadn’t seen in two years.
Hetet said Brown missed his mother a lot, and was so excited he “started to bawl his eyes out” when he heard she booked tickets to come to New Zealand.
“He was so over the moon.”
Brown had also planned to reconnect with his two sons at Christmas.
“Something’s happened [to him]... [he] had so much to look forward to.”
Hetet said Brown would also “never take off”, because of his family’s history.
She said the family were already struggling with the death of Brown’s brother, who died in Australia a few years ago.
“He wouldn’t want to upset his whānau ... they’re already hurting.”
Hetet said Brown’s disappearance was “out of character” for him and she was “very suspicious”.
“We don’t understand how he couldn’t have made it home.
“We believe there is somebody out there [who] knows something.
“We just want to bring him home.”
Despite the uncertainty, Hetet finds comfort in Brown’s final messages to her, saying it empowered her.
“They help keep pushing me, knowing that he loved me ... [and] he thought about me in those last moments.”
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.