SUPPLIED
Police have serious concerns for the welfare of 10-year-old Lily and 8-year-old Pearl, and are asking for the public’s help to locate them.
A mother who is accused of taking her two daughters in breach of a parenting order travelled to Wellington in hopes of meeting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Lily, 10, and Pearl, 8, were taken on December 24, police said.
They were last seen at 11pm on Monday, at a service station in south Auckland. Police, who have serious concerns for their welfare, are urgently seeking information on their whereabouts.
Their mother is due in Wellington District Court on Wednesday after being arrested in Wellington on Tuesday. Police believe people who came across the mother and children “may have been misled or are unaware of the true circumstances in this case”.
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The mother posted a video on Facebook on Tuesday evening.
“I am here at Parliament in Wellington because it is my hope that I can see the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, or at least she will see me,” she says in the video.
“There is an extreme problem that I have and I have tried going to many levels but it is not working. So it’s my humble petition that I get to see her.
BRUCE MACKAY/Stuff
The car linked to the missing children was parked at Te Papa on Wednesday morning.
“It involves my two children and I.
“I have driven all this way. It has taken me nearly 24 hours. And without going into too much more detail, please Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern we need you.”
A car in which they had been travelling was sighted at about 9.40am on Tuesday, in Devon St, New Plymouth. It is a silver 1994 Toyota Camry, registration CLR45, police said.
The girls’ mother was found alone and arrested in Wellington on Tuesday about 9.45pm.
Ross Giblin/Stuff
The mother is due to appear in Wellington District Court on Wednesday.
She refused to say where the children were, police said.
Police searched vehicles parked in central Wellington after her arrest, without finding the children.
Police believe Pearl and Lily may now be staying anywhere between Auckland and Wellington.
“The woman has been meeting people through Facebook in the time we have been looking for her and the children, and it is possible she has left Pearl and Lily with one of these people,” Detective Senior Sergeant Kevan Verry said in a statement.
“We believe these contacts may have been misled or are unaware of the true circumstances in this case, or the serious concerns that are held for the children’s welfare.”
The car linked to the trio was parked at Te Papa on Wednesday morning.
Charlotte Limet was staying in a camper van adjacent to the silver Camry. She said she saw the car pull up in the early hours of Wednesday.
”A man pulled up in the car and just left it here. Then there was all this attention around it from security.
“I just didn’t understand what the interest in this car was.’‘
The man was Pākehā with brown hair and seemed to be in a hurry, Limet said.
The mother’s Facebook timeline shows she was married in 2011. Lily was born in 2012 in the United States and Pearl was born in 2014.
The woman separated from her husband on December 5, 2016 and left for the Middle East on the same day, the timeline says. She then returned to New Zealand in 2019 and got divorced.
She will appear in the Wellington District Court on Wednesday, charged with breaching a parenting order.
Anyone with information on Pearl and Lily is asked to call 111 and quote the file number 221224/4977.
