SATURDAY, JULY 21 12:30PM UPDATE: A group of around 20 people today started a painstaking search of isolated areas in the hunt for missing man Rudy Smith.
The group gathered at the Arboretum in Devonshire before fanning out across the parish and neighbouring Pembroke, concentrating particularly on secluded areas and derelict properties.
One of the organisers said: “We’re looking at open spaces, spaces with trees, areas like that. We’ll be on foot searching both parishes – mostly places where Rudy was known to frequent, where his bike was found and where he was last seen.”
Mr Smith has been missing for nearly two weeks.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had organised the search because she had known Mr Smith, 39, of Pembroke, since they were schoolchildren.
She added: “We’re still hoping to find him safe and well. I have been talking to the police on a daily basis and they’re backing the search.”
The team of searchers was equipped with large scale maps donated by the Government survey office, while local companies chipped in with bottled water and surgical gloves for fingertip searches.
One Pembroke man who turned up to join in the search said: “Rudy is a neighbour and it’s the least I could do. His momma would like some closure to this, so it would be great if we could find him.
“We would hope to find him safe and well, but we want to find something.”
Mr Smith was last seen on Monday, July 9 after he left his girlfriend in Devonshire and said he was returning to the family home in Pembroke.
He never turned up and a week later, police divers recovered Mr Smith’s motorbike from the waters off North Shore Road, near the Grace Methodist Church.