Police have retrieved Kim Richmond's car form Lake Arapuni in the Waikato nearly a year after she disappeared
The grieving family of Kim Richmond continues to wait for answers.
On Thursday the ute the 42-year-old mother-of-three was driving when she went missing almost a year ago was pulled out of Lake Arapuni, not far from where Kim lived at Arohena in the Waikato.
Police confirmed a body was inside the 2014 silver Ford Ranger, and a post mortem was being carried out on Friday.
Kim's mother Raywynne Richmond told the Herald the family were awaiting confirmation it was Kim's body, though they believed it would be.
"It's hard, it's a waiting game, but you can't do anything, you just have to wait. It's awful. But we're convinced that it is Kim."
Kim Richmond disappeared in the early hours of July 31 from her remote farm at Arohena.
She was last seen with her partner of 26 years and the father of her three children, Corey Jefferies, after they went to a mid-winter barbecue to watch a Super Rugby semifinal with friends at the Arohena Hall.
Raywynne and husband Matt, Kim's two sisters, her children and Jefferies gathered at the Richmond's home in Te Puke on Thursday night to process the shocking news after the find of the vehicle and body.
Kim Richmond and her partner Corey Jefferies before the 42-year-old mother-of-three disappeared 11 months ago. Photo / Facebook.
They along with Kim's sisters were shattered at the discovery because it meant the hope they had clung to of finding Kim alive was gone.
"A little bit devastated because there was always that glimmer of hope that she was out there somewhere, you know. Maybe captured, but still alive. But then to say that they'd found the ute and then to say there was a body in it, well yeah, that was a shock.
"But we will have closure. That is something."
Raywynne said Jefferies took it hard and tears had been shed, and her grandchildren - two boys and a girl - were sad but they were also resilient, heading off to Fieldays in Hamilton today.
"They're coping ok. That was all planned and it's best just to keep to their routine."
The family went to Lake Arapuni, not far from where the couple farmed in Mangare Rd, this week after police told them the ute had been found.
"We went there on the Wednesday, down to the lake to have a look. The crane was going in late that evening."
Police remove Kim Richmond's silver Ford Ranger ute from Lake Arapuni on Friday. A body was found inside. Photo / Alan Gibson.
The ute was submerged near a boat ramp, a place Raywynne believes now was an obvious spot for a vehicle to go into the water.
"I'm not too sure why it wasn't found the first search."
She said the enormity of their loss seemed surreal at the moment.
