Line search for multi-millionaire Rockefeller ended

Former Brierley chief financial officer Herman Rockefeller. Photo / Supplied

Police have called off the search for missing multi-millionaire Herman Rockefeller in the area where his car was found.

Mr Rockefeller is the former chief financial officer of New Zealand-based Brierley Investments.

His 2007 Toyota Prius was found near an abandoned country homestead nestled next to a riverbank near Ballan, about 75km west of Melbourne, yesterday afternoon.

The car was last seen leaving Melbourne Airport at about 9.30pm (11.30pm NZT) four days earlier after Mr Rockefeller returned from an interstate business trip with his brother.

He was last seen on CCTV footage at the airport wearing a white shirt and pin-striped suit trousers and was carrying a plastic shopping bag with about four grapefruit in it.

Friends said Mr Rockefeller, a Harvard graduate and property investor, did not have any business dealings in the township of Ballan, where his car was found parked on the roadside.

A Ballan resident noticed the car and contacted police at about 1.30pm (3.30pm NZT).

Victoria Police spokeswoman Leading Senior Constable Michelle Walsh said late on Monday that a search in the area around the car had yielded little.

"A line search was conducted by local SES (State Emergency Service) crews but nothing of interest was found," she told AAP.

"The car has been examined forensically and it is being taken to the forensic science centre at Macleod for further forensic tests.

"But there is no sign of any untoward incident."

The line search will not resume on Tuesday, Constable Walsh said.

Police say they are still treating the case as a missing persons investigation, one that lead detective Peter Towner said was the most baffling in his three decades on the job.

"I'm just at a loss. I don't know why or what has happened," he said.

His family released a statement saying they only hoped the car's discovery would help in the continuing search.

His wife, Vicky, said Mr Rockefeller had been in great spirits, and there were no disputes, conflicts or hints of a secret life to arouse suspicion.

"We really need the help of the public because we've just reached a dead end so to speak," Mrs Rockefeller told ABC Radio.

"There's just nothing from 9.35(pm). We've been through the phone records, credit cards, banks, tollways, everything. I mean everything possible has been checked and there's just nothing."

Mr Rockefeller's past business dealings have seen him invest in properties across Australia.

In New Zealand, he survived three restructurings at Brierley Investments Limited during his more than 14 years as a senior executive.

He played a prominent role in the April 1998 boardroom coup that forced the departure of Brierley's chief executive, Paul Collins, and chairman, Bob Matthew.

In 2000 Rockefeller left Brierley Investments when the company's relocation to Singapore saw a major restructuring of roles. He had been the investment company's CFO for eight years.

"The company obviously damaged a lot of relationships ... both in terms of the banking community and among equity investors," he told a New Zealand newspaper as he left to take a job with the Pratt Group in Melbourne.

The New Zealand Herald reported in 2003 that he was the buyer of a six-level office block in Petone for $3.5 million.

Rockefeller was also a director of listed biotech company Genesis Research.

His most recent business investments garnered high praise from community leaders who viewed him as an honest, friendly and trustworthy man.

Peter Blackmore, mayor of Maitland in NSW, had met Mr Rockefeller and his brother for the first time on the day he disappeared.

The three had a meeting about the Pender Place shopping complex the brothers had purchased. Mr Rockefeller introduced himself as a "long-term" community investor.

"Honestly, there was nothing that would have indicated that there was a problem," Mr Blackmore told AAP on Monday. "They were both very buoyant and happy and in fact they talked about coming back in three weeks with their father."

Mr Rockefeller's wife was last contacted by him around 6pm on Thursday, while she was at the Australian Open tennis tournament.

She had her phone on silent and missed the call, but sent him a text message and later received a message back, in which her husband spoke excitedly about their daughter's university offers last week to study medicine.

- AAP