{"id":621506,"date":"2026-10-05T18:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T18:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621506\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T18:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T18:10:11","slug":"opotiki-river-search-man-and-woman-still-missing-after-entering-otara-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621506\/","title":{"rendered":"\u014cp\u014dtiki river search: Man and woman still missing after entering \u014ctara River"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to police, the pair fled on foot from a vehicle on Snell Rd near the \u014ctara River shortly after 4am on Sunday after failing to stop for officers.<\/p>\n

They then entered the river, prompting an extensive search. <\/p>\n

Police, including specialist search teams, have searched by air and on the ground on both sides of the river and along the coastline.<\/p>\n

The operation has involved search dogs, New Zealand LandSar partners and Coastguard \u014cp\u014dtiki.<\/p>\n

The Police National Dive Squad is also travelling to \u014cp\u014dtiki to assist.<\/p>\n

Gillbanks said police were particularly interested in hearing from anyone who had seen either person after they entered the river, or who had provided them with transport, shelter or other assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven a brief contact to confirm they are safe could significantly assist our efforts and ensure valuable search resources are directed appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police are also appealing directly to the pair to make contact if they are safe.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information should call 111 and quote job number P067829874.<\/p>\n

Information can also be reported to the police on 105 using the same job number.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, Crime Stoppers can be contacted anonymously, if necessary, on 0800 555 111 or Crime Stoppers New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to police, the pair fled on foot from a vehicle on Snell Rd near the \u014ctara River…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,95,13982,2245,26954,5158,6501,111,43,139,69,384,669,6739,1870,6100,10809,33913,2201,1354],"class_list":["post-621506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-and","tag-continues","tag-early","tag-entering","tag-man","tag-missing","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-ptiki","tag-river","tag-search","tag-still","tag-sunday","tag-tara","tag-went","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621506","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=621506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}