Missing man's family step up search

Sheppard and the couple's son, Jaden, 3, live next door to Lee's parents in Northland. Picture / Chris Skelton

The father of a New Zealand man who disappeared four years ago in London said his family will never stop looking for him and have employed private investigators to help in their search.

Lee Sheppard, aged 26, from Pahi in Northland, mysteriously disappeared from his northwest London workplace during a nightshift early on January 31, 2003.

He left behind his belongings and his bank accounts were never touched.

Hours earlier his wife, Juliet, had told him she was pregnant with their first child.

She said Lee was excited when he heard the news and was looking forward to being a father.

Mr Sheppard's father, Ken, said the family were stuck in limbo and would never move on with their lives until they found Lee or learned of his fate.

"Nothing has changed since the day Lee went missing as far as we are concerned. We've never stopped looking, we've never given up and we never will, not until we know," he said yesterday.

British police renewed contact with the Sheppard family recently after they had stopped returning the family's calls three years ago.

Mr Sheppard said police had no more information about their son and just appeared to be revisiting the file.

He said the family felt they had to take the law into their own hands and three months ago employed a New Zealand-based private investigating firm to help them in their search.

"[British police] might have got wind that we employed a private investigating firm ... the moment we did that things started to change over there," Mr Sheppard said.

Juliet returned to New Zealand and gave birth to the couple's son, Jaden Lee Sheppard, who is now 3 years old.

Mr Sheppard said Juliet lived next door in the small community of Pahi.

"She's in limbo, too," he said. "In a sense it's worse because she cannot move on with her life in any shape or form, legally or otherwise."

He said Juliet must wait seven years if it was her wish to remarry or legally declare Lee dead through court proceedings.

"And you're not going to do that, are you? It's giving up."

Mr Sheppard said it was a blessing to have Jaden in their lives.

- NZPA