Comment on the Facebook page —
Kia ora e te whanau,
We are very sorry to let you know that after 15 days of searching, Joe has been found today in the Reikorangi area of Waikanae where he was last seen. Unfortunately, Joe has passed away. We wanted to thank everyone in this community who shared the posts, printed the flyers and gave us valuable information. This mammoth effort surely aided our search and is what led us to him in the end. Joe was a wonderful, gentle, kind man who was loved so much by everyone who knew him.
Through these two weeks we, the family and support team, have been through an extremely difficult time but recognise and continue to recognise the overwhelming love and kindness that we received from this group in New Zealand and around the world. Take care and thank you.
The family would like privacy to grieve our loss at this time, so comments will be turned off.
A police statement earlier said they were not treating his disappearance as suspicious. Our sympathies go to his family. —Eds