On Monday, 13 June 2005, 62-year-old Margaret Kaye Stewart disappeared after setting out for what was supposed to be a short walk in the Catchpool area of Rimutaka Forest Park, now known as Remutaka Forest Park. Despite two major searches, an extensive police investigation and continued interest in the case, no confirmed trace of her has ever been found.
Known as Kaye, Stewart was a retired physiotherapist from Wellington who had treated a number of prominent sportspeople, including former All Blacks. She had travelled to Wainuiomata that morning because her daughter had an appointment in the area. Rather than wait, Kaye decided to spend the time taking a walk at Catchpool.
At around 10.30 to 11.00 am, she spoke to a Department of Conservation employee and asked about a walk that would take approximately an hour. She was apparently directed towards the nature walk and Nga Taonga area.
Her car was later seen parked near the ford on the Catchpool access road.
Kaye was expected to meet her daughter again at about 12.30 pm, but she never arrived.
The last confirmed sighting
At approximately 1.00 to 1.05 pm, Kaye spoke to another Department of Conservation employee at a DOC workshop or residence near Wainuiomata Coast Road, around two kilometres from where she had left her car.
She asked how to get back to the Catchpool car park and was given directions.
This conversation became the last confirmed sighting of Kaye Stewart.
The location of the sighting was significant because she had apparently travelled some distance away from the short walk she had originally intended to complete. However, the directions she was given back to her car involved established tracks and roadways and should not have been particularly difficult to follow.
When Kaye failed to meet her daughter, family members went to Catchpool to look for her. They found her car still there and locked. After searching nearby tracks themselves, they contacted police.
A major search begins
A large search operation was launched.
More than 40 searchers were initially involved, supported by helicopters, search dogs, infrared equipment and police divers. Tracks, bush, road verges, logging areas and waterways were searched.
Divers examined Catchpool Stream and sections of the Wainuiomata River.
Conditions were far from ideal. The weather was cold, wet and windy, and Kaye had not been dressed or equipped for an extended period in the bush.
Despite the scale of the search, nothing belonging to her was found.
Around two weeks later, authorities mounted another major search. The forest park was closed while as many as 80 people searched the area, including police, Land Search and Rescue volunteers, divers, specialist search personnel and around 20 members of the New Zealand Army.
Again, the search produced no confirmed trace of Kaye.
No clothing, jewellery, glasses or other personal possessions were discovered that could establish where she had gone after the final sighting.
The unidentified quad bike
One of the more intriguing details to emerge from the investigation involved a quad bike.
At around 1.50 pm on the afternoon Kaye disappeared, a quad bike was reportedly seen travelling down Forest Park Road towards Wainuiomata Coast Road. It was described as possibly being red and may have been towing a trailer.
Police made repeated attempts to identify the rider.
Years later, Kaye’s family still regarded the unidentified person on the quad bike as someone who could potentially hold important information about what happened that afternoon.
The sighting does not in itself establish that the rider had anything to do with Kaye’s disappearance, but investigators were sufficiently interested to continue appealing for the person to come forward.
What happened to Kaye?
In the days immediately following the disappearance, police said there was no evidence to suggest anything sinister had happened. An accident, exposure or becoming lost in the bush remained obvious possibilities.
As time passed, however, the complete absence of physical evidence became increasingly difficult to explain.
By 2007, Detective Senior Sergeant Ross Levy said police had developed a strong belief that Kaye may have been the victim of foul play. A $50,000 reward was offered for information that could lead either to the recovery of her body or to a conviction.
No breakthrough followed.
The case eventually reached the Coroner’s Court. In 2013, Coroner Garry Evans concluded that Kaye had died on or about 13 June 2005 in Rimutaka Forest Park or the surrounding area.
However, her cause of death was recorded as undetermined.
The coroner considered the possibility that she had become lost and died somewhere in the bush, but there was not enough evidence to establish precisely what had happened.
Police also acknowledged that there was insufficient evidence to support one particular explanation over another.
An enduring Wainuiomata mystery
The disappearance of Kaye Stewart remains particularly puzzling because of the circumstances surrounding her final confirmed sighting.
She was alive at approximately 1.05 pm and had spoken directly to a DOC employee. She knew she needed to return to her car and had specifically asked for directions. Those directions should have taken her back through an area containing established tracks and roads.
Yet somewhere after leaving that location, Kaye disappeared without leaving any confirmed trace.
The extensive searches that followed make the mystery even more difficult to explain. Searchers covered the surrounding bush, waterways, tracks and roads, but found nothing that could reveal what direction she had taken or what had happened to her.
More than two decades later, the central question remains unanswered: what happened to Kaye Stewart after she walked away from the DOC facility near Wainuiomata Coast Road on the afternoon of 13 June 2005?
