Police revisit missing father case

Police are re-visiting the case of a Bay of Plenty man who disappeared early last year after dropping his two young sons off at school.

Siegfried Newman, 49, when last seen at Katikati, 35km north of Tauranga, on February 25, 2008.

Mr Newman's wife had died a few months earlier and there were suggestions he may have been suicidal, but his two German sisters said he loved his boys too much to take his own life.

Extensive searches failed to find him.

Sergeant Craig Madden, head of the Tauranga police search and rescue team, said a scenario analysis had been done over several months.

He said it suggested there was a "higher probability" that Mr Newman had entered bush in the Kaimai Range and either took his own life, or injured himself unintentionally and couldn't make it out.

All areas around Lund Rd, southwest of Katikati, had been assessed and the regions inhibited by farmers had been considered low priority as his body was likely to have been detected there.

Other areas in rural Katikati will be re-searched by five search and rescue staff and dozens of other people from search-based and other groups as part of an annual training exercise.

"They will spend Saturday and Sunday searching areas of bushland north and south of Lund Rd, as well as the Kaimais, towards the area of Mt Eliza."

Mr Madden said he hoped Mr Newman could be located so his family could have some closure.

- NZPA