Girl’s family not giving up hope

Press, 5 September 1983, Page 1

Girl’s family not giving up hope

Special correspondent

Kirsa Jensen’s family will not give up hope. The mother of the missing Napier schoolgirl pledged last evening, “We will do anything to get her home alive.”

Kirsa, aged 14, was last seen beside the NapierHastings highway on Thursday. For her father, the Rev. Daniel Jensen, Father’s Day yesterday had been a “devastating” experience without his only daughter in the house.

But the distraught mother of the girl, Mrs Robyn Jensen, said, “We have our ups and downs, but we are still hopeful... we will not give up hope.” The family was comforted yesterday by the knowledge that thousands of people were praying for their daughter’s safe return.

Kirsa Jensen disappeared about five kilometres from the family home while riding her horse near a beach.

A motorist on State highway 2 saw the girl talking to a man near a gun emplacement at Awatoto on Thursday afternoon.

When the motorist returned about five minutes later, Kirsa was standing near the emplacement with cuts to her face. The man, and a white Mazda car, had gone.

The girl told the motorist that she had fallen from her horse, and that the horse had bolted. She said that her parents were being informed — but nobody has called them. After an intensive three-

day search for Kirsa, the Napier police said last evening that they feared the girl has been the victim of foul play. Detective Sergeant Murray Jefferies said, “We have to treat this withja lot of suspicion. It is now a major inquiry.” Fifty searchers have scoured grassland, the coastline, the mouth of a river, and the sides of the busy highway. Samples of blood and hair found near the gun emplacement have been sent to Wellington for examination.

The police have spoken to more than 30 people, including some who saw Kirsa riding her horse last Thursday afternoon and a couple who saw a girl standing on the roadside at the southern entrance to Napier about 6 o’clock that evening.

They want to speak to the driver of the white Mazda, a man described as being in his 50s, chubby, and balding.