Son appeals for help finding missing father

A missing 73-year-old man's son is making a renewed public appeal for help in finding his father, missing for more than a month.

Stefan Jensen, who suffers from mild dementia, disappeared on June 4 from his son Alexis' rural property on Geraghty Rd in Pukekawa, 24km southeast of Pukekohe.

A substantial search and rescue operation has failed to uncover any clues as to his whereabouts and Alexis Jensen is beginning to fear the worst.

"There's been no news at all. I was supposed to have an update session with the police this morning but all of the staff connected to it are tied up with the homicide investigation in Manurewa," he told NZPA.

"But I'm hoping to catch up with them in the next couple of days.

"He's been missing for nearly six weeks now. It's a very worrying time and it's also getting quite frustrating.

"The police are not actively searching but I'm not sure what their next steps are," he said.

Mr Jensen said he was still hanging on to hopes his father was alive and well.

"I'm being quite realistic in thinking that by this point something bad's probably happened, but I really do want to appeal to anyone who has even a vague thought that they've seen him to get in contact with the police," he said.

His father had still not used his bank accounts since going missing and all reported sightings have proven to be cases of mistaken identity, he said.

His father was unable to continue living on his own so moved into his son's family home, which is surrounded by farms and about 2km from a river.

The family had since moved out because all they could think about was that his father was in the river, he said.

Mr Jensen said his father was "fiercely independent and very intelligent" and fit for his age.

"He could be lost and doesn't know how to get home. He's got a grandchild who he loves to bits and another one about to be born and he's not going to know him so it's quite tragic really," he said.

"Unfortunately it's got to that point where we've got to get on with life and go back to work."

Sergeant Shane Fogarty told NZPA today the police investigation was continuing.

"We still have him listed as missing. There were a couple of sightings of him in the Botany area but they turned out to be false alarms.

"I'm currently in the process of reviewing his file to see if there's any other lines of inquiry we can cover," Mr Fogarty said.

Stefan Jensen was described as about 1.78m tall, medium build, broad shouldered, and bald with a grey moustache.

He was wearing a navy coloured turtle neck jersey with a black and grey pattern on the front, navy trousers, and black shoes.

Anyone with information should contact police.

- NZPA