Police worried about missing tramper

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 2

Police worried about missing tramper

Searchers are now “very worried” about the survival chances of a young Darfield, man, Thomas Jenkins, who)', has been missing on the ■ Heaphy Track since Sunday. The air and ground search for . Mr Jenkins, aged 23, started after he failed to report for work at Lincoln College bn Monday morning. ’The .- missing man would now have spent four nights in the open, said the search controller, Sergeant Paula Stevens, of the Westport poli.cb, She said searchers

•iad checked all the huts on the 70km track, between Karamea and Collingwood. It was not known if Mr Jenkins had a tent, but. it was believed that he was not carrying enough food to last an extra four days. Sergeant Stevens said the terrain in the area where the search was concentrated — between the Perry Saddle Hut and the McKay Hut — varied from open tussock country to dense bush. Mr Jenkins’s car was found at the Karamea end of

the Heaphy Track. He had walked the length of the track and was heading back towards Karamea when he was last seen at the Perry Saddle Hut about midday last Friday. It rained heavily in the area throughout Tuesday night. At first light 32 men in seven parties began a thorough search which continued without success until the light failed last evening. Sergeant Stevens said the search would resume today.