The Invercargill community is refusing to give up on the search for Raymond Horn, an elderly dementia sufferer who went missing from his rest home over four weeks ago.
His family say they are so grateful for the community’s efforts to help find Horn, which has seen around 14,000 leaflets dropped around the city asking people to re-check their properties, including sheds.
The 68-year-old, who is non-verbal and walks with a shuffle following a stroke, went missing from Walmsley House in central Invercargill on February 15. His impaired walk means he was unlikely to have gone far.
Horn’s sister Wendy Lee-Arona says the family wants closure.
“It would be nice for Ray’s family to have closure, some peace. We need to get him home and get him to rest,” she said.
Horn was remembered by his family as a “a very quiet spoken man” who “loved his family” and “worked hard all of his life”.
The called the community effort “amazing”, saying it was “phenomenal that people of Southland have done so much to help find him”.
Susan Hodson is one of the people responsible for the community effort, which involves rallying volunteers on a Facebook page to complete huge flyer drops.
“Mr Horn went missing and you kind of expect someone like that to show up within the next couple of days or something and he didn’t,” she said.
“I just so felt for the family and it was obvious from some of the comments that were being posted on Facebook, I wasn’t the only one so I guess lots of people were saying someone should so something and I’m like okay, I’m going to do something,”
Police wish to speak with two people who were seen walking near Raymond Horn on Monday, February 15.
“We’re aware that the outcome is possibly not the outcome that we would want but we still want to exhaust every possible avenue we can because for the family to at least have the closure of if he has passed, for his body to be returned.”
Hodson said there were many visitors in Invercargill for the Burt Munro Motorcycle Challenge the weekend before Horn’s disappearance and one of them could have information.
“Invercargill was full of people that weekend. Maybe someone spoke to him, saw him, gave him a lift even somewhere,” she said.
“Maybe someone has had an interaction with him but because there has been no national coverage they don’t actually know that they have got information that is vital to this.”
“Once police decided that wasn’t in the [Queen’s] park that literally meant he could be anywhere.”
Police say there is no update to the three public appeals they have made about Horn’s disappearance.
“The investigation is continuing and we remain keen to hear from anyone who may have information that can help,” they said in a statement.
In the week of his disappearance, police appealed to the public twice for information about Horn, once on February 17 and again on February 20.
In the second appeal, they included CCTV image of Horn walking through Queen’s Park in central Invercargill between 10:20am and 11am on February 15.
“We urge anyone that was in the park between these times to contact police. We also urge any property owners in the area near the park to thoroughly search their dwellings and properties,” police said at the time.
A third appeal was made by police on March 1, in which they asked for help identifying two people seen in CCTV footage of Queen’s Park.
“We're hoping they [the two people] might have seen Raymond and can help us continue to build a timeline of his movements,” Senior Constable David Loader said at the time.
For now though, the community is at the forefront of continuing to appeal for information about Horn’s disappearance.
“This is about us doing anything we possibly can to get him home,” Hodson said.
“I know what it’s like having a family member go missing and not come home. When Mr Horn went missing, just the thought of that for any family, that lack of closure. The fact that he is an older gentleman. The fact that this is Invercargill.
“Any little thing that we could do to help or even just to show the family that people in Invercargill did care, people in Invercargill did support them and we’re prepared to get out there and do whatever we could.”
Horn’s family is so appreciative for the efforts of the community.
“We’d just like to thank everyone, LandSAr, volunteers, police, the people of Southland and beyond, we are so, so grateful for their help,” Lee-Arona said.
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