"The search for Karl Roberts continues"

Search and Rescue Exercise Uruti November 10, 11 2018

Please attribute to Constable Andrew Wong Too, Officer in Charge, Taranaki Search and Rescue

This coming weekend a search and rescue exercise will be held in the Uruti area about 30 minutes north of New Plymouth to search for Karl Roberts who’s been missing for over a year.

In August 2017, Mr Roberts, a local from Uruti went missing after a vehicle crash. Despite a large search over the following days involving Police, LandSAR, the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter, family and friends and a private search, his disappearance remains a mystery.

Taranaki Police SAR and Taranaki LandSAR will be joined by Whanganui Police SAR and LandSAR from as far afield as Whanganui, Taihape and Ruapehu for a two day search in the area.

Our dedicated and experienced SAR people are committed to doing all we can to bring some closure to Mr Roberts’ family and friends.

Significant time has been spent reviewing the original search, and although no issues were identified, Police and LandSAR wish to search further areas of interest.

Public in the area are likely to see SAR teams in action over the Saturday and Sunday.

We hope to achieve a number of objectives over the weekend, including locating any evidence that Mr Roberts had been in the search area. We also wish to test and use new digital SARTrack technology that allows search management to better record and review how searchers search a particular area and debrief them more effectively so that we can identify items or areas of interest to the search.

Police wish to thank the local community for all the support they have given since Mr Roberts disappeared. In particular we would like to thank Uruti School and Uruti Community hall who will host 70 of us this coming weekend.

Many hours are spent annually on training and learning new skills specific to search and rescue.

LandSAR personnel give up significant personal and work time each year to train and deploy to assist the missing, the injured and the lost. Without the support of their families and employers we would not be able to respond in the timely and professional manner we do.

ENDS

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