Maia Johnston: Up to 70 people join search for missing Upper Hutt ...
The mother of 19-year-old Maia Johnston missing from Upper Hutt since Saturday has pleaded for her daughter to come home.
Police set up a base at a local school as the search for Johnston continued.
The 19-year-old left a family address in Totara Park about 8.30pm on Saturday during heavy rain and has not been seen since.
Her mother, Amy Walsh, speaking at the search base on Monday made made an emotional plea for her daughter's return.
"Please just come home, she said.
"If you are alive and well I don't care where you are, I don't care what decision you made, I don't care who you are with," she said.
"I just want to hear you made a dumb decision and got in someone's car. Please just come home if you are still alive."
Walsh said she was "absolutely blown away" by the number of people out searching.
"Thank you each and every one of you."
CCTV image of missing woman Maia Johnston. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
Up to 70 people were joining the searh on Monday, managed by a volunteer coordinator from the base at Totara Park School.
Dozens of people turned up to speak with the coordinator and check a map of the local area before heading out.
The search is centered in the Totara Park area, which is surrounded by dense, bushy hills and Te Awa Kairangi, the Hutt River.
Maia Johnston is missing from Totara Park, Upper Hutt. Photo: Supplied
Police said they followed up a number of calls from the public after appeals for information but it didn't lead them to Johnston's whereabouts.
Johnston, who is from Hamilton, was last seen wearing a black cardigan or light top, dark shorts, and black and white Converse shoes.
Earlier they asked that anyone with CCTV cameras in the Totara Park area check for sightings between 8 and 9pm on Saturday, an anyone near Harcourt Park and Brown Owl to review CCTV for any sightings of Maia after 8.15pm
Maia Johnston, 19, left her home in Akron Grover on Saturday evening. Photo: RNZ / Mark Stevens
In a Facebook post on Saturday night, Walsh said she left her house in Akron Grove while intoxicated.
She said her daughter had no phone or wallet with her.
Walsh said she and "half the neighbourhood" had been out searching in heavy rain overnight, and there was "no sign of her anywhere".
"I just can't understand where she has gone."
"She does not know the area and I am seriously concerned for her safety."
Residents of Totara Park may see a drone in the air behind the houses on the northern end of Totara Park as part of the search, police said.
Anyone with any information or CCTV footage can updated police online, or call 105, using the reference number 241222/0237.
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