800 man-hours in quest for Joyce and search continues

EIGHT hundred hours of work involving nearly 130 people have been expended so far in the search for missing pensioner Joyce Wells.

There has been so sign of Joyce, 74, since she disappeared from her home in Pebsham Lane on Saturday, November 22.

The "fit and active" grandmother had agreed to babysit for her daughter Carole Crathern that evening and was due to go for a meal with her other daughter, Nicky Gumbrell the following day.

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Scenes of crimes officers trained to look for clues scoured Joyce's home last Friday without finding any indication why she might have left.

While uniformed officers have made enquiries in Pebsham in particular and the town in general, much of the search has covered the woods, fields, rivers and ponds between Pebsham and Crowhurst.

As a dog-owner living near the open countryside, Joyce had known and walked the area extensively in her younger days.

Sergeant Dan Boxall is police search advisor for Sussex Police. His responsibilities cover the whole of Sussex.

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Whenever a high-risk person goes missing he is called in to coordinate the search effort.

This week he explained the lengths to which Sussex Police have gone in their bid to trace Joyce Wells.

"I don't get involved in the investigation. I just look at the details of the person and where they live and the life-style of the person."

His task is to coordinate the search plan to ensure the right people with the right skills are used to best advantage.

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"During the search there have been about 129 persons searching. About 800 person-hours of searching has gone into this.

"There is nothing to suggest where she is at the moment '“ and this is the problem."

The searchers have included many volunteers from specialist groups.

The Lowland Dogs are a team of volunteers whose dogs are trained to search for human scent. They are ready at any time of the day to leave home or work-place to help the police search for missing people anywhere in the south of England.

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The same applies to search volunteers from Neighbourhood Watch and from Sussex Search And Rescue.

Sergeant Boxall said that having these resources at hand has meant that he has had trained and experienced searchers available in considerable numbers and has been able to coordinate the search in an orderly way.

The search for Joyce Wells also involved the Surrey air support helicopter in the early stages. The Sussex Police helicopter was off-line at the time and the Surrey machine used its heat-seeking device on the Sunday after Joyce disappeared.

Last week, the Sussex Police underwater search team checked the Coombe Haven river plus the lake near Pebsham Farm and the network of streams and ditches on Crowhurst Marsh and nearby farmland.

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Because of his specialist local knowledge, The Pebsham Countryside Park ranger, Guy Loader, has been involved.

Sergeant Boxall said: "We have used as much of the community as we could during the high-point of the search.

"Pebsham Community Association gave us free use of one of the halls at the community centre. As many as 30 or 40 people at one time would be using it as a rest centre for tea, coffee and the toilets. We used it as a base to manage the search from.

"We are very grateful to the community association."

Sergeant Boxall added: "The search is still going and will continue in one form or another until she is found. It may not be at as high an intensity as it was in the first few days. It gets to the point where you have to be more specific."

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Anyone interested in joining such such bodies as the Neighbourhood Watch search team, Lowland Dogs or Sussex Search and Rescue to train for future searches is invited to contact Sergeant Boxall at Sussex Police on 0845 6070999.

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