The sister of a man missing for the past two weeks in bushland around the New South Wales-Queensland border has rallied a team of volunteers to continue a search for him.
Patrick Liedke, 39, was last seen west of Tweed Heads on April 22.
His car was found on April 26 on a property at nearby Cobaki, and a multi-agency search operation was launched the following day.
The multi-agency co-ordinated search was suspended on May 1.
Nicole Liedke said police had told her they could not resource a full-scale operation without fresh evidence to narrow the search area.
Since then she has been out every day scouring bushland in the area with the help of volunteers, including off-duty police and rescue specialists.
Ms Liedke said she had strong hopes her brother was still out there.
“I believe that if anyone was missing, if you were missing, if one of your family was missing, you’d hope that no-one would give up on you, that no-one would stop searching for you,” she said.
“He’s my little brother, my job is to protect him and I am always going to be searching for him.
“We have power as people, we see a lot, so it could just be a stroke of luck that you could see him.”
Ms Liedke said Patrick had most likely headed into the bush to help with his mental health, and he would possibly now be disoriented and confused.
She described her brother as a “gentle giant” who loved to paint, had been involved in team sports and studied engineering.
Volunteer efforts
Queensland Police sergeant Beau McNamara has been assisting with the search on his days off, and returned in a professional capacity on Thursday after some promising signs of life the night before.
Volunteers had reported seeing some footprints and a stick hut on private property off Currumbin Creek Road in the Currumbin Valley.
“I’m just doing everything I can tracking through the mountains and whatnot,” Sergeant McNamara said.
“The community is just rallying around the family.
“Obviously it is a tough situation to go through and so we are just throwing in as much support as we can.”
Search and rescue expert Philip Benfield has volunteered the use of his thermal drone, which is used to detect heat emanating from humans and animals.
Mr Benfield said it was tough terrain and it was a large search area.
“The recent footprints are a good indicator of where he may have been in the past 12 to 24 hours,” he said.
Call for owners to search their properties
Family friend Kaye Ball has also joined the search.
Ms Ball said hundreds of search hours could be clocked up if every property owner in the Currumbin Valley, Cobaki and Pigabeen areas spent some time each day looking for Mr Liedke on their land.
“I think it is very reasonable to hope that Patrick is still in good condition and he is out there, so if we can just all keep going at the very important moment, they will have a great chance of locating him,” she said.
Mr Liedke is described as being of Caucasian appearance, solid build, 183cm tall with short brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone who sees him is asked to call triple-0.
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