{"id":381029,"date":"2026-04-15T17:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381029\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T17:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:34:09","slug":"residents-on-scottish-island-help-search-for-missing-kiwi-monk-justin-evans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381029\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents on Scottish island help search for missing Kiwi monk Justin Evans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Justin<\/p>\n

\nJustin Evans, 24, is missing from Papa Stronsay in Scotland.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Scotland Police\n<\/p>\n

Locals on a remote Scottish island are helping in the search for a New Zealand monk who has disappeared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Police Scotland are appealing for information about Justin Evans who went missing shortly before midnight from Papa Stronsay, Orkney on 11 April.<\/p>\n

Papa Stronsay is home to a handful of monks of the Catholic order Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.<\/p>\n

Evans – a 24-year-old orginally from Christchurch – was last seen within the Golgotha Monastery<\/a>, where he had lived for about two years.<\/p>\n

He was described by Police Scotland as being six-foot-tall with short hair and a dark beard. He spoke with a New Zealand accent and was last seen wearing a white robe, police said.<\/p>\n

A police spokesperson told RNZ on Wednesday evening the search for Evans was ongoing and continued overnight (NZT).<\/p>\n

A resident on the island of Stronsay – a short boat ride from Papa Stronsay<\/a> – said everyone was doing their best to find Evans.<\/p>\n

He felt the situation “must be a terrible worry” from the distance of New Zealand and wanted to reassure Evans’ loved ones that the community was looking for him.<\/p>\n

He said the couple of hundred residents were keeping their ears to the ground and would continue to do so.<\/p>\n

“Everybody is doing their best here and that’s how small communities are.<\/p>\n

“We saw people were out looking for the lad and we’ll just keep looking. Let’s keep him in our prayers.”<\/p>\n

Father Michael Mary – the founder of the traditionalist Catholic order which owns the monastery – said the situation was “utterly tragic” and suspected Evans had been suffering from long-term hypothermia before his disappearance.<\/p>\n

“We are a close community and this has hit us all very hard and is deeply hurting. We hope to find him and hope that the sea will give him up soon.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Evans, 24, is missing from Papa Stronsay in Scotland. Photo: Supplied \/ Scotland Police Locals on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-381029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381029","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=381029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}