The desperate search for Leo

What happens when someone suddenly goes missing with no trace? Reporter Laura Basham talks to the Nelson friends and family of Leo Lipp-Neighbours who has not been seen for three weeks despite their big search.

Neighbour Nikki Johnson was so excited. She'd gone to Blenheim in search of Leo Lipp-Neighbours and his orange Toyota Corolla station wagon, and here she was talking to a man who told her: "That car passed me last night as I was driving to Seddon."

It was the fresh lead the more than 80-strong team of family, friends and volunteers had been desperately hoping for.

However, by the end of the day it turned out that the man was colour blind and he wasn't certain.

"It was gut-wrenching," says Nikki.

The frustration is that they have no clues about what has happened to the 19-year-old student who disappeared from a Watson St flat in Washington Valley at 4am on Sunday, January 24.

It means he is simply listed as a missing person, and while the police are investigating the case, the family has been largely left to run its own search.

At first his father, Colin Neighbours, wasn't too worried when he got a call mid-morning at his Monaco home from Leo's flatmate, Lewis Christie, wanting to know where Leo was. He thought if Leo wasn't with his friends, he must be at his mother Charlotte's place in Nelson.

At lunchtime, Charlotte got a call from Lewis saying Leo had disappeared. The four boys from the flat had been out to the Phat Club and the Little Rock the night before, and told her Leo had been in a dark mood.

They left the bars about 2am, talked a bit when they got back, then went off to bed. Leo went outside to go to the toilet at 4am, and hasn't been seen since.

Nor has his orange Toyota Corolla stationwagon which had been parked down the road.

It is assumed he drove off, but whether he turned left or right out of Watson St, no-one knows. His searchers hope someone in the area at the time can tell them, or that video security footage from a business along an arterial route can, because after an exhaustive search they still don't know where he has gone.

Charlotte immediately went to Cable Bay to look for Leo, thinking he might have gone for a walk up the hill or stayed in his car, and that afternoon Colin and family friend Marcus Graf drove all the way to Anatori in Golden Bay.

By evening they were worried he might have had an accident and Charlotte went with his flatmate Ben Clark to the Nelson police station to report him missing.

Her partner Peter Randall rechecked Cable Bay, then drove around the Boulder Bank and the Glen.

On Monday, the police went up the Maitai and around Nelson, and Marcus began checking the 24-hour service stations' video camera surveillance.

Charlotte's friend Kirsty Keen made some posters which they emailed and took around supermarkets and service stations.

On Tuesday, the police put out a missing person media release, and on Wednesday the family placed a newspaper advertisement appealing for sightings.

From the start, they searched every day. They didn't record it very well at first but by Wednesday they went out and bought lots of maps.

"We realised it is a search-and-rescue operation we are trying to run without any experience and it was quite difficult," says Colin.

They have become quite expert now. A large map covers the dining table at Colin's home, which has become the search headquarters.

As word spread the searchers came, family, friends and strangers wanting to help. So far they total more than 80.

Their names would go up on a big whiteboard along with the area they were to search, their cellphone number, and the time, and they'd head off with fluoro vests from the fire brigade.

Friend Jo Bolton helped co-ordinate, and also put in the hard yards searching.

"It is really intense and at the end of the day your brain is mush. You just try so hard because you don't want to miss one little thing. You look up every single track, nook and cranny, and you're exhausted at the end of the day."

They'd arrive back and Leo's grandmother Joan Neighbours would have a cup of tea ready.

As new searchers came on board, they looked at the map, amazed at the area across the top of the South Island and down to Westport already repeatedly covered.

They've done six helicopter flights from Nelson, one from Blenheim and family friends did a plane search from Karamea. No-one is counting the cost yet.

Lewis has created a website, leolippneighbours.co.nz, and a facebook page to take the search online, and friends Andy Clover and Anna Leary organised the huge poster which hangs at a central Nelson cafe.

Service stations as far as Picton and Springlands in Blenheim have searched their camera footage, and the man at McDonald's in Nelson came in from his holiday to check theirs.

Victory community constable Reuben McCormack went on his day off with Charlotte on the first three-hour helicopter search. In the first two weeks, Leo's uncle, John Neighbours, went through more than 1000 litres of diesel searching in his 4WD.

"Heaps of people have put in heaps of time and money and effort. Really I think we have received about as much help as you can receive from the community, yet we still have not come up with anything," says Charlotte.

"Of course, we have considered the possibility that Leo just wanted to take time out and is hiding somewhere.

"The police don't believe that's the case. It's not that they don't think it's possible, but they think it's highly unlikely because of the circumstance he left in."

He hasn't touched his bank account or contacted his friends, and possible sightings of his car which police have checked out have drawn a blank.

"The only way he can still be alive is that he has somehow gone to ground and that for some reason, maybe because he is freaked out by the media coverage or for whatever reason, he is hiding. That is our only hope that he is alive," says Charlotte.

She acknowledges foul play is an option, and the police are attempting to eliminate any possibility of foul play as part of their missing person investigation. "We know that Leo needs our help, he needs to be found," she says.

The family holds it together in public, in private the emotions take their toll.

"It's a total rollercoaster," says Charlotte. "Because we don't know for sure, you have to get used to the idea you might not see him again and that's incredibly hard. It breaks your heart.

"Along with the idea that your child is in trouble and just disappears is enough to break your heart, but the idea you never see them again ...

"At the same time, we just hold on to the little bit of hope and while you're dealing with it and searching it's OK to hold it together. When you have a quiet moment it all changes a bit. We just want to see our boy again."

Says Colin: "We are not giving up hope."

TALENTED TEEN WITH PASSION FOR DESIGN

A loving, kind boy ... and a daredevil.

Incredibly bright, but also just a kid.

Friends and family of Leo Lipp-Neighbours light up as they describe the missing 19-year-old student, whose second-year mechanical engineering course at Canterbury University is due to start in a week.

His passion for designing and building is seen in the buggy he is part-way through making in his father's garage. It's like a huge radio-controlled model. He has built it from scratch – the cage, chassis and suspension out of recycled steel and a Datsun ute engine. He worked on it the day before he vanished, and to leave this project unfinished does not fit with his character.

His dad, Colin, says Leo always sets himself high standards.

Friends describe him as very bright, self-motivated and highly-skilled in computer design. "You could give him any technical issues and he'd come up with a solution," says Marcus Graf.

His mother, Charlotte, says he has always been a good boy. "He has always been considerate, never causing trouble for us or his friends.

"It is imaginable that he just would have cracked, it happens to people that they just have a meltdown and they can't handle talking to anyone but he is a kind, loving boy ... and he is a daredevil too.

" He can be impulsive and a bit dangerous."

A video shows him on a school outdoor education trip flying down a mountain bike track straight into a creek without a care.

At the beach, he'd have to climb to the highest rock and jump off, and in the backyard he would drive his radio-controlled vehicles off the shed roof and if they broke he'd fix them.

He is reckless but considerate, too.

His flatmate, Lewis Christie, who has known him since they were at Nayland College, says they had a lot of fun.

"He's the most intelligent person I know and the most dependable. We get on really well and he's just a great friend to hang out with."

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Check website leolippneighbours.co.nz

Businesses with video camera surveillance check footage

Anyone in Watson St, Washington Valley area from 4am Sunday, January 24, report sightings

Look for Leo, 19, last seen wearing blue jeans, yellow T-shirt with white printed writing and dark brown leather shoes

Look for his orange 1987 Toyota Corolla station wagon, NQ7258.

- © Fairfax NZ News