Jeff Lam is trying to stay strong. It's difficult to do when his younger sister, Joanna, is missing. "Everybody loves her, "Jeff Lam says. "We want her home.”
Joanna works at the Ottawa hospital civic campus in the medical imaging department. She is on a leave of absence. She has been travelling with her boyfriend, 25 year old Connor Hayes. "Joanna is a free spirit, " says her brother. "She always wanted to go explore"
That sense of adventure led to the couple taking an extended trip to New Zealand. Joanna had work lined up at a hospital as a sonographer. A week ago the couple visited a popular glacier park on New Zealand's south island. It's a remote area. That was the last time the couple was seen.
However the under carriage of their rental van has been found at the bottom of a cliff ...an 80 metres drop from the roadway. The rest of the van has not been found. Investigators don't know whether Lam or Hayes were inside the vehicle when it left the road. The couple went missing around the same time as there was heavy rainfall and flooding in the area
A search and rescue team has resumed its search for the couple again today. Police have added a helicopter and ground search crew now that they have been able to hone in on the area where the vehicle was found.
The Lam family has set up a website to keep the public informed on the search.
