Police searching for missing woman last seen at Thames coast campsite back in February

Ann Louise Bunning, 56, has been missing since January 30. She was seen at the Te Puru Holiday Park, north of Thames, where she had been staying. Photo / Supplied

Ann Louise Bunning had been living at a campsite near Thames for about a month when she suddenly vanished without a trace.

Police are continuing investigations into her whereabouts after she was reported missing in early February.

The 56-year-old, who also goes by Anne Gibbons, had been staying at Te Puru Holiday Park, on Thames Coast Rd, since checking in on January 5.

The park manager, who asked not to be named, told the Herald Bunning had been living in a small tent near the back of the campsite and was often seen going for long walks.

"She only came into the office to pay for her rent and was very quiet.

"She had no visitors or anything. She was just dropped off here.

"Every morning when I'd get up to go around . . . I'd see her in the kitchen or she'd be doing her washing and hanging her washing out on her little line that she had from her tent to the tree.

"She just kept to herself. She was fine.''

The manager said Bunning had previously been staying with a friend nearby, in Waiomu, but had found her way to the campsite temporarily while she looked for a place to stay.

She did not have a car.

The manager said she had last seen Bunning on Monday, January 30.

But a resident onsite reported seeing her a couple of days after that.

"One of the ladies down the back of the camp noticed on the 5th of February that she hadn't seen her.

"I went down to check her tent and noticed that everything was there and just thought she might've gone away for the weekend or something."

A week later, Bunning's rent was due - but she failed to turn up.

The manager and her husband went back to her tent to check if she was there.

"We noticed her handbag, her wallet, credit cards, her reading glasses were just sitting on a book on the bed.

"We thought: 'Sh*t, something's wrong here, because she would have her handbag'.

"We rang the police and they couldn't do anything about it because we weren't family.

"In her wallet there was a little phone book, which people don't carry around these days - so we went through and found someone who had the same surname as her and rang them. Then they got in contact with the police."

There had been no suspicious activities in or around the campsite at the time of Bunning's disappearance, the manager said.

Police quickly put out an appeal for anyone who may have seen Bunning to come forward.

Today, authorities again asked the public for any information about her whereabouts.

The photo included with the police appeal showed her in her younger days, the manager said.

Bunning now had blonde/fair hair and was always dressed well; often wearing casual tops and jeans, she said.

At Te Puru Holiday Park, Bunning's tent has been packed up and put away.

But residents still come into the office asking about any leads into her sudden disappearance, the manager said.

"It was very sad. It's not a nice thing to be thinking, about where she would be or where she'd gone.

"She was very nice and good to talk to, but she just kept to herself. And she'd do lots of walks. She'd walk along the beach, she'd walk up to the swimming hole, stuff like that.

"It's gut-wrenching to think about it.''

**Can you help? Call Thames police: (07) 867 9600 or CrimeStoppers anonymous: 0800 555 111.