Police guard van owner's home

A marked police patrol car has guarded the driveway to this house since Friday. Photo / Alan Gibson

Neighbours of a Feilding father whose van is the focus of the hunt for a missing Wanganui woman say the vehicle was towed by police last weekend.

Officers have been appealing for sightings of the green Mitsubishi people-mover since 45-year-old beneficiary Marice McGregor was last seen near Lismore Forest, 20km north of Wanganui, on April 19.

They want to know where the van travelled between then and last Saturday.

Ms McGregor's red Suzuki car was found parked among pine trees, locked, with her wallet inside.

Feilding woman Sandra Watty, who shares a back fence with the guarded property on Sherwill St West, said police measured the outside walls of the house after towing the van away.

"It is really weird, the whole thing," she told the Herald.

"Police have been there since Friday night and there has been a police officer there at all times.

"But I haven't seen any forensics, no white suits or anything ... just detectives in stationwagons."

Since that day, a marked patrol car has guarded the driveway leading to the single-storey wooden home.

Other residents said they had not spoken to police, but had put two and two together by following the news.

"I suppose everybody is quite concerned because it's in our neighbourhood," said one woman.

"It's just too close to home, it's quite scary," said another.

Police spokeswoman Kim Perks said the residents should not worry. Officers were working with the local neighbourhood watch network "to spread the word that it was nothing to be concerned about".

Ms Perks said the van owner was not in police custody and was staying "elsewhere", while staff examined the scene. Nobody was in custody and no charges had been laid.

Resident Natasha Williams told the Manawatu Evening Standard that police told her partner a car and cellphone, possibly linked to the investigation, had been found at the property.

"Apparently the cellphone was turned on for 15 minutes at that house, but that's all I know. That's a bit 'trippy'," she said.

Locals said the man at the house was wheelchair-bound and lived there with his wife and children.

A sign advertising his computer business stands at the entrance, but when the contact number was phoned, the call went straight to a voice message.

Ms Watty said the man was "very quiet and family-orientated" and she had "no problems whatsoever" with her neighbours.

Another resident said she had seen Ms McGregor on the street before, and walking about the town centre. "She's an eccentric-looking lady."

The missing woman's brother, Garth McGregor, said it was possible that his sister had led a secret life.

Ms McGregor, who was adopted as a baby, had not coped well with the death of her foster parents a decade ago, he said.

She had attempted to track down her birth parents, and an aunt had contacted Mr McGregor on hearing about her disappearance.