Brian Worth - the man who is convinced Paengaroa man Robert Paewhenua Roberts is still alive despite coroner's Photo/Andrew Warner
Brian Worth - the man who is convinced Paengaroa man Robert Paewhenua Roberts is still alive despite coroner's Photo/Andrew Warner
A former workmate of Robert Te Paewhenua Roberts is convinced he is still alive despite Coroner Gordon Matenga ruling the missing man is "most likely dead".
Roberts, 53, from Paengaroa, was last seen on November 30, 2004, driving his Fulton Hogan work van off the Kaimai Lookout and his body was never found.
Roberts had worked for several months on a Fulton Hogan Tauranga site alongside Maungatapu man Brian Worth.
"I'm prepared to swear on a stack of Bibles a metre high that it was him. Until the day I die, I will remain convinced it was Bob I saw that day," he said.
"I knew Bob very well as we worked side by side for about three months in 2004 and we also knew each other on a personal level.
"Bob, who was a really great guy, is quite capable of surviving in the bush," he said.
In his ruling, Matenga put to one side both Worth's sighting and former Fulton Hogan foreman Conrad Carroll's reported sighting of Roberts about three years ago as "honest mistakes".
Roberts' failure to contact his family was one of the reasons for his ruling, Matenga said.
"The Bob Roberts that they knew would not have completely abandoned contact with whanau . . . accordingly, I find that Mr Roberts is missing, presumed deceased."
Coroner Gordon Matenga has ruled that Robert Te Paewhenua Roberts, missing since November 30, 2004 is likely to be dead. Photo/File
Worth said he was "brassed off" his and Carroll's evidence had been discounted.
"I have copped a lot of flack by speaking up. For two people to have seen Bob years apart, then to have the coroner reject our evidence makes me look like a bit of a tool," he said.
"Bob hasn't done anything illegal but I believe he is still alive and either wants to keep a very low profile or has chosen not to be found for some reason."
Worth said the mystery remained, particularly with no body found, and he believed some of Roberts' family were keeping silent on the two sightings.
"My wife is a disbeliever but at 63 years of age, I'm not the sort of person to speak out to seek some sort of glory. I just think the truth needs to come out," he said.
Conrad Carroll, who was Roberts' foreman at Fulton Hogan for two or three months in 2002, said he saw Bob working on the side of the road in Ellerslie about three years ago.
The Bayfair man said while his sighting was only fleeting from the back seat of a moving car, he was convinced at the time it was Roberts but had to accept the coroner's ruling.
"I think Brian would have had a much closer look than I did. But at the end of the day, I could be mistaken and it was just someone who easily could have been Bob's twin."
Matenga ruled that Roberts was most likely dead after an inquest on September 12 last year after an extensive search using cadaver dogs and further investigations.
In 2004 a Fulton Hogan vest was found near the crash area and socks, boots and blue overalls marked "FH BOB" found beside a log in the area on July 9, 2015.
Matenga said he was persuaded by the evidence that on balance, Roberts did not make it out of the bush, but was missing presumed deceased of unknown causes,
