Car Found In Creek Bed

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31499, 13 October 1967, Page 26

Car Found In Creek Bed

(N.Z. Press Association) BLENHEIM, Oct. 12.

The car which an Awatere Valley rabbiter, Mr Meyers Auton, was driving when he disappeared seven months ago has been found, but is no sign of Mr Auton.

The car was discovered yesterday in Cow Creek, a tributary of the Awatere River, near the Jordan sheep station.

The search for the missing man is continuing. A police and Air Force search and rescue squad qf 13 men, led by Sergeant A. E. K. Keown and Flying Officer R. R. Parsons, went early "this morning to make an extensive search.

The car is thought to have run down a steep hillside and dropped 40ft into a small gorge, stopping about I6oft below the road. It was wedged among rocks and large boulders, hidden in the shadows of the gorge and camouflaged by a stand of tall manuka trees and by bracken. The car was not badly damaged. Its engine was covered by gravel and flood debris and there was gravel inside, but the car was well above the creek bed. The ignition key was still switched on and, although the inferior of the car was shaken about, there were no signs of the driver having been injured. The steering wheel was not damaged and the roof was not pressed in. The windshield was intact Rabbiter’s tools were strewn about the interior and in the boot were

traps and a shotgun, all badly rusted. Sergeant Keown said that the search for Mr Auton would be extended along the Awatere River, to its mouth about 30 miles downstream.

Mr Auton, aged 42, single, was last seen in a Blenheim hotel the night he went missing. He was believed to have driven to his hut at Awapiri, two miles up the valley from Cow Creek. He was new to the area.

No-one worried about his absence when the rabbit board which employed him reported him as missing because the police were informed that he frequently went “walkabout” However, inquiries were intensified when his car was not registered for the new registration year.