Missing Northland woman: Body found in search for Bridget Simmonds, man arrested

Police searching for missing woman Bridget Simmonds have found a body on a Northland property.

A 57-year-old-man has been arrested for an assault and is in custody.

"We cannot rule out further charges being laid," Detective Senior Sergeant John Clayton said.

Earlier, police said they were excavating a site at a rural property in Northland where they believed she was buried.

Police converged on a 20ha block of land on Wilson Rd, Parakao, 40km west of Whangārei on Wednesday after new information came to light which caused investigators to believe foul play was involved in the disappearance of the mother of two.

About 20 staff were working at the scene today and the excavation process was a complex one, and may take some time.

Included in the police contingent was a team of four divers who scoured a section of the Mangakahia river near the block of land, a cadaver dog, Environmental Science and research staff and specialist search teams.

Clayton said it was understood Simmonds travelled to the property by taxi. The information was recent.

He wouldn't confirm where the property was or where the body was located on the property.

Asked if it was known when Simmonds died, he said he wouldn't go into details about that.

It was hoped the body would be removed this evening, Clayton said.

"We've also found other items of interest at the property, but I'm not going to go into detail."

He said there were "still a few gaps" and urged the public to come forward.

"I'm adamant there's other people out there that know what happened to Bridget, and we certainly want to hear from them.

"It's been a long investigation ... we've had a lot of information from the public. Some of the leads have been ... very useful."

The assault charge against the man is unrelated to the disappearance of Simmonds, he said.

Police also this week opened a dedicated phone line for people to call if they had information that might help with the case.

Police search at Wilson Rd, Parakao, following the disappearance of a Northland mother Bridget Simmons. Photo / Michael Cunningham

By late Thursday police announced they had reached a "critical point" in their investigations but due to "operational reasons" would not reveal what that meant.

Simmonds, who was 42 at the time, was last seen at Countdown on February 23 and was reported missing on March 6 after all communication with her family stopped.

Simmonds' mother, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told the Northern Advocate this week that her daughter's disappearance was hard for all the family and it was like living a recurring nightmare.

"I'm hoping they find something ... I don't believe after all this time she is still alive, that's my feeling," she said.

"I hope police can get some answers because for me this is constant. It's like you are living it over and over every day and there's no end to it. It would be a relief to find her so this can come to an end and we can move forward."