The family of Mary Berrington, above, who vanished without trace from her Upper Hutt home almost a year ago, are now raising funds for a park bench in her memory. Photo / Supplied
The family of Mary Berrington, above, who vanished without trace from her Upper Hutt home almost a year ago, are now raising funds for a park bench in her memory. Photo / Supplied
Mary Berrington's family cling to the grainy CCTV footage of her walking in an Upper Hutt street just after midnight.
It is the last time she was seen since she vanished from her home almost a year ago.
When Berrington's family discovered her disappearance the following morning on July 20, her bedcovers were thrown back and the front door to her home was locked.
There was no sign of a struggle with the 62-year-old who was known to have bipolar disorder and a mental impairment.
Susan Geerars would later watch as DNA samples were taken from her mother's hairbrush and fingerprints collected from her home.
"We don't have a body, we don't have a grave site, so I thought it would be a nice place to sit and reflect on my mum's life and try to be at as much peace as we can", she said.
Geerars said she carried on for her two children.
Mary Berrington with one of her two grandchildren. Photo / Supplied
She said her 4-year-old son recently asked her if his grandmother was dead and she told him she did not know.
"Maybe one day there's going to be a phone call and it's going to be her but just being this far on we know that there's pretty much no hope now.
"We're just trying to move forward the best we can. It's just absolutely life-changing to have her gone so suddenly."
At the time of Berrington's disappearance police never publicly released the CCTV footage of her walking past the corner of Fraser Crescent and Fergusson Drive at about 12.30am.
Geerars said her mother did not show up on cameras further down the road.
"It's really weird."
She said she had no idea what happened to Berrington but plenty of theories had circulated.
Did she step into the Hutt River and get washed away into the ocean? Did she hide somewhere she would never be found? Was someone else with her that night?
Those are the questions Geerars has asked herself in the months following the disappearance.
Police suspended the search for Berrington after five days and said they had completed searches of all "reasonably possible areas" where she could be.
A grainy image from the CCTV footage of the last time Mary Berrington was seen, walking past the corner of Fraser Crescent and Fergusson Drive at about 12.30am last year. Photo / Supplied
The park bench in memory of Berrington will be installed at Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt where she spent a lot of time as a little girl.
Geerars has set up a Givealittle page to raise the money for it.
She said any extra money would be given to Victim Support, Upper Hutt Community Rescue and Mix.
Geerars said she missed watching her mother play with her children, the youngest was just 4 months old when she seemingly vanished into thin air.
