‘WE WON’T FORGET ABOUT HER’: Search suspended at Brooms Head

Police rechecked area after receiving new lead on Friday over woman missing from Brooms Head campground

POLICE have officially suspended the search for a woman reported missing Tuesday from a campground near Brooms Head.

However, Grafton police station officer-in-charge Chief Inspector Jo Reid said that they would continue to do all they could to keep the investigation at the forefront of people's minds.

"We don't want to forget about her, and any small bit of information we want to get to help give this family some closure," she said.

The missing woman is Anne-Marie Jeffery and is 73 years old from Coffs Harbour. She was last seen at the Lake Arragan campground around 9am on Tuesday, and left her site to go to a toilet block 100m away.

>>> BIGGEST EVER SEARCH: Community helps 1km line-search of campground

Chief Inspector Red said that police would continue their investigation and look at the entire list of people booked into the campground, and canvas them all to see if they had any further information or dashcam footage from their campsite.

Police and SES crews followed a new lead they received on Friday, with information provided of a possible sighting later than previously reported.

The search for missing 73-year-old woman Anne-Marie Jeffery on its third day in the Lake Arragan area near Brooms Head.

"Witnesses were confident they'd seen her at about 10.30am on Tuesday which was an hour later than the previous sightings we'd had, so we went back over that area and a few pockets we hadn't covered," Chief Inspector Reid said.

"There were a couple of sightings not long before she was reported missing … shortly after she was going to the toilet and she was seen a short time after that, so that's what we followed up today with a small group of SES, but unfortunately we still haven't had any luck.

"We're going to follow up with everyone that camped there; we're hoping that someone might have seen her. Maybe they're not aware; they might have left the campground and not be aware she's missing."

During the search, volunteers from SES, RFS were joined by community members who assisted the search.

"We even had one on horseback," Chief Inspector Reid said. "It's been wonderful the response from the community, locals and campers alike."

Chief Inspector Reid said it was impossible to rule out foul play concerning the disappearance, however, said they also had no evidence that supported it.

"Normally you get steered in one direction or another," she said. "But there's nothing to support foul play, but we can't rule it out.

"We're going to keep an open mind and look at everything.

"Considering the number of campers that were out there it is baffling to us there's not more information."

>>> ORIGINAL STORY: Police release details of missing woman

Chief Inspector Reid said that National Parks rangers would continue to search as part of their patrols, and urged anyone with information to come forward.

"We want to keep the message out there for anyone that may have seen her or have any information at all," she said.

"We may revisit out here in a couple of weeks with a larger scale search if needs be."

Ms Jeffery is described as being of caucasian appearance, with a slim build and grey hair. She was wearing a red and pink top, woollen leggings, red shoes, and a beanie.

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