Missing girl returns home

Press, 14 September 1987, Page 1

Missing girl returns home

PA Gisborne A search for a missing firl, Heather Garland, aged three, ended happily inland from Gisborne yesterday when she arrived home shortly before dawn.

The child made her own way home just before the search for her was about to enter its second day. She had been missing for 17 hours. A search by friends, neighbours, and search and rescue teams, along with sweeps for two hours by a helicopter, had

failed to find her. While members of the community were frantically hunting for her, the child was sleeping in the grass near her home. She had set off to find her parents to tell them her baby brother was crying, but had not realised that they were on the lawn on the other side of the house. She headed towards stockyards on a ridge on the other side of the valley, about a kilometre from her home.

She had to climb a steep hill, cross a small river, and several fences to reach the yards.

Searchers apparently passed close by because she later told her mother that she had seen the helicopter and had heard a man calling out After sleeping in the grass, she headed home shortly before nightfall, but spent most of the night asleep in grass nearer to her house.

She awoke just before dawn and walked towards the house lights.

Searchers were amazed that she came through the night unscathed.