Police search Punakaiki for missing woman

Police are again appealing for sightings of Shelly Crooks who has not been seen since December 22. Photo / NZ Police

Police were delivering flyers about missing woman Shelly Crooks today in Punakaiki and nearby Fox River, the area where she was last seen.

Detective Sergeant Kirsten Norton, of Greymouth CIB, said they were again appealing for sightings of Ms Crooks who has not been seen since December 22.

As well as delivering flyers they were making general inquiries with people living in the Punakaiki and the Fox River areas.

Norton said Crooks was known to have been walking local tracks but might have hitchhiked north.

She is described as 180cm tall and of medium to solid build.

She was wearing a blue/gray rain jacket, black three-quarter pants and running shoes, and might have been carrying a driftwood walking stick and a blue/purple Kathmandu tramping pack.

Crooks, a mother of four, told a friend she was planning to hitchhike to Opotiki but her family has not heard from her since.

The 36-year-old was last seen in Punakaiki.

Her father John Crooks told the Herald last week that Shelly had five-year-old twins, an 11-year-old and 12-year-old who lived with other family members.

She always loved going bush and it was not the first time he had gone a long time without speaking to her, he said.

Police today delivered flyers and made general inquiries about Shelly Crooks in the Punakaiki and Fox River areas of the West Coast. Photo / File

However he thought she would have made her way to Opotiki where her children were for Christmas, or to a family birthday party in Tokoroa on Boxing Day.

Crooks is an experienced tramper and was well equipped to go off the grid for a number of days.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts, or with reports of possible sightings, should contact Detective Sergeant Kirsten Norton on 03 768 2611.

Man located

Meanwhile, police say an Upper Moutere man, Phillip Ashworth, reported as missing last week has been located.

- Westport News