A much loved brother missing for 10 years has got back in touch with his family following their appeal in a local newspaper.
John Daniel Tohill, known as Danny, was last seen in Te Puke 10 years ago before seemingly vanishing.
Danny's family reached out this week in a desperate final attempt to track him down or to find out what may have happened to him.
He said he was well and happy and very busy with work. He didn't offer an explanation though.
Danny's younger brother Tobias Tohill shared his story with the Bay of Plenty Times, but after today's story went to print in the paper last night, Danny made a phone call to his brother.
''He called me last night, out of the blue. He looked me up and got in touch.
''He said he was well and happy and very busy with work. He didn't offer an explanation though.''
The last trace of Danny had been his contact with a cousin in 2005, when he was 37, after he left Nelson to travel north. There was a subsequent unconfirmed report that he was managing a holiday inn in Te Puke in 2006.
Tobias and his family launched an appeal in a last-ditch effort to track Danny down, as their father's health has begun to deteriorate.
When Danny went missing, it was understood he told the owners of the holiday inn he planned to either continue north or go to Gisborne to get a horticultural job.
Tobias said it was not unusual for Danny to disappear for a while.
He would often go away for months on end without making contact with anyone, so initially, his lack of communication was not suspicious.
Despite his reserved nature, Danny was "a very likeable guy, very good at pool, got all the trophies down at the pub, was a keen fisherman ... Danny had a real good sense of humour and was a good indoor cricket player too," Tobias said.
"When he was younger he used to go tramping for two or three days by himself ... I think he just liked doing his own thing."
Danny Tohill
The last time the brothers saw each other was in 2003, before Tobias moved overseas and Danny left Nelson.
"As time went on it became more and more out of character," Tobias told the Bay of Plenty Times.
"Six months and you don't think too much about it. A year goes by and you think 'that's odd' and then pretty quickly you're into two years and people started making inquiries," he said.Their sister Sarah, closest in age to Danny, who began the search in 2007, prompting the start of the missing person case.
False leads about three years ago led the family to believe Danny was living in Wellington and the investigation quietened down until the reports were found to be false in 2013, Tobias said. The family had held off going public with their search while their father was still at home and disillusioned by his worsening dementia.
"a very likeable guy, very good at pool, got all the trophies down at the pub, was a keen fisherman ... Danny had a real good sense of humour and was a good indoor cricket player too,"
In his father's mind, Danny was living first in France, then Australia, with a French wife and their children. Now their father had been moved to fulltime care in a rest home, Tobias said they felt comfortable to appeal publicly.
A worst-case scenario was that Danny had disappeared without a trace and they imagined he must be dead, Tobias said.
On a good day, Tobias would imagine Danny had jumped on a Russian fishing vessel years ago and was still travelling.
The family requested that people respected Danny's privacy.
