{"id":357485,"date":"2026-03-31T21:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357485\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:45:09","slug":"family-of-missing-french-man-antoine-richards-message-as-search-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357485\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of missing French man Antoine Richard\u2019s message as search continues"},"content":{"rendered":"
In a statement released by police, the family said they had \u201cbeen devastated with worry\u201d since hearing of his disappearance, <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are writing on behalf of his entire family, his friends, his colleagues in France and New Zealand, and all the people he loves, in the hope of finding him as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
French national Antoine Richard was last seen in Cromwell at 11.45pm on March 21. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n
Police have appealed for Cromwell residents to check their properties and review CCTV footage from the date and time Richard was seen onwards. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also wanting to hear from anybody who may have seen anyone matching Antoine\u2019s description, either hitchhiking or walking in Cromwell in the early hours of Sunday, March 22,\u201d said Hamlin. <\/p>\n
Richard was wearing a black T-shirt, light denim shorts, and Crocs.<\/p>\n
The Police National Dive Squad would assist by searching areas of Lake Dunstan, said Hamlin. <\/p>\n
Search teams found a grey rubber Croc-branded sandal at the shore of the lake and would like to speak to anyone who may have seen somebody wearing the footwear, or if anyone locates a sandal like the one pictured, Hamlin said. <\/p>\n
Police want to speak to anyone who may have seen somebody wearing the Crocs above. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n
Richard\u2019s family said he went missing after playing a rugby match with the Cromwell rugby team. <\/p>\n
\u201cAn enormous amount of work has already been carried out by the Police, the Search and Rescue team, Carrick winery where he worked, his friends, the Cromwell Rugby Team, local residents, and everyone who has taken part in the search. We are infinitely grateful to them.\u201d <\/p>\n
The family said anyone with the information the police asked for should contact them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThank you so very much in advance. <\/p>\n
\u201cHerv\u00e9, Marith\u00e9, Claudine, Elise, No\u00e9mie, Valentin and Corentin,\u201d the statement finished. <\/p>\n
Anyone who has seen Richard, or has information about his whereabouts, is urged to contact police by calling 105, or online at police.govt.nz\/use-105, using the file number 260324\/5771.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement released by police, the family said they had \u201cbeen devastated with worry\u201d since hearing of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62507,188810,806,13982,188811,33452,2109,11775,42,5158,6096,6501,43,1118,15267,22138,1870,40,38,41,39,102,27904],"class_list":["post-357485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-21yearold","tag-antoine","tag-as","tag-continues","tag-cromwell","tag-devastated","tag-family","tag-french","tag-headlines","tag-man","tag-message","tag-missing","tag-news","tag-of","tag-reported","tag-richards","tag-search","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-with","tag-worry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}