Police search cupboards for Lucas

Gisborne people are being urged to report any detail that could help find Lucas Ward. Photo / Alan Gibson

Police searching for Gisborne 4-year-old Lucas Ward have taken the hunt into residents' bedrooms, searching wardrobes in homes near where the youngster disappeared.

As the search for the pre-schooler enters its fifth day, police have acknowledged there could be a criminal aspect to the case.

Lucas has not been seen since wandering off from his grandparents' Graham Rd home, which backs on to the Waimata River, about 3pm on Tuesday.

There are no plans to scale down the search and investigators yesterday appealed for two kayakers, seen on the river around the time of his disappearance, to come forward.

Lucas' grandmother, Anne-Marie Hunt, found his bike, which he'd been playing on, at the top of a pathway leading to a jetty on her property.

She found a chip packet she had given him floating in the river.

Resident Edwina Ashwell said police had knocked at her door twice since Lucas disappeared. On Wednesday they searched inside.

"They even looked in the wardrobes, they asked if they could come in and we were happy to let them ... they looked around our backyard, over fences and into other people's backyards."

Ms Ashwell, who does not know the Ward family, set up a Facebook page providing updates on the search, urging people to check their backyards, and asking anyone with any information to call police.

"My sisters have been out looking all day but I can't because I have to work, so on my breaks I put up a Facebook page and people have been putting a lot of kind messages on it."

Gisborne police area commander Inspector Sam Aberhama confirmed to the Weekend Herald that police had searched some houses. "Some people spoken to have been asked if police can look inside ... there is no suspicion cast around anyone we would have done that to."

Mr Aberhama said police were not discounting the possibility of foul play. "We are treating this incident as a missing person investigation. That type of investigation encompasses any potential aspects of foul play or a criminal element. It is an option we must consider.

"But at this stage we have nothing to indicate that there is foul play involved."

Mr Aberhama appealed for two kayakers seen by a Gardener Place resident to come forward.

Tairawhiti Polytechnic student Karen Clune has been searching for Lucas every day.

Wearing a high-visibility vest with "Have you seen Lucas" written on the back, she walked along the Waimata River with her two dogs yesterday. "I'm thinking he might have broken his leg and is stuck somewhere."