Northern Territory Police have suspended the search for 64 year-old Patricia Hastie, who went missing from her Virginia residence on Wednesday, May 29th.
Superintendent Matt Hollamby said the decision was made this afternoon after search teams had failed to find any trace of the missing woman.
“To suspend a search is never an easy decision to make and our thoughts are with Patricia’s family at this time.
“This now will turn into a missing person investigation and does not mean we have stopped looking for Mrs Hastie.
“If there are any positive leads or any new information comes to our attention the search will be resumed immediately.”
Superintendent Hollamby said Police will continue to investigate what has happened to Mrs Hastie and all information received will be reviewed.
“Detectives from the Crime Division will now take over the investigation.
“As part of this process we would like to talk to any elderly females who may go for morning walks along Lowther Road. This is essentially to check whether two reported sightings of a female walking along this road on Thursday morning were our missing person or someone else.
“The description of this female was Caucasian, elderly, possibly wearing a hat, orange coloured knee length shorts and a light blue shirt. The sightings were reported to have taken place between 7:45 and 8:45 am.
“One sighting was near the pipeline and the other was on Lowther Road not far from the pipeline.
“If this person could come forward it would assist Police in their investigation.”
Superintendent Hollamby said he would like to thank all Police and Emergency Services involved in the search for their professionalism and dedication to finding Mrs Hastie.
“A special mention must go to all our volunteers including Bushfire Units, NTES, Surf Lifesaving and members of the general public for offering support, encouragement, food and water to our searchers.
“The owners and staff at the Virginia Store also contributed greatly to the effort.”
“Thank you to everyone and we all hoped the result could have been different.”
