New Zealand - Eloi Jean Rolland, 18, french exchange student, Auckland, 07 March 2020

[Darling136]

We need some special attention for this kid, his family is stuck in France due to travel restrictions and can not be there to search for him!

French teenager Eloi Rolland missing in Auckland; family stuck in France because of Covid 19

Eloi Jean Rolland has not been seen or heard from since the morning of Saturday, March 7, when he was spotted at a train station in New Lynn, West Auckland.

Cell phone data picked up later would place the 18-year-old in the area of Piha Rd - about 10.4km away - at 9.18am that same morning.

Police believe he may have walked there. According to Google Maps, it would take approximately 2 hours and 8 minutes to walk from the train station to the corner of Scenic Drive and Piha Rd, via West Coast Rd.

 

[Darling136]

Further links

Waitematā police still seeking missing French teen Eloi Jean Rolland

Police say missing French teen Eloi Jean Rolland could have walked for hours from New Lynn to Piha

French national, 18, missing in Auckland

Missing French teen in Auckland was 'homesick'; Piha was last location

 

[bancam]

This case is a bit of a worry as it’s not, in my opinion, getting the attention and resourcing that is required in NZ due to the current state of lockdown. He’s also a boy which the general public often (incorrectly) presumes makes him less vulnerable.

According to reports, Eloi was not in the best frame of mind just prior to his disappearance - see comments from his former employer here:
French teen missing from Auckland had 'troubled' state of mind

The reporter on this story, Caroline Williams, is thankfully giving it a good go. She has a further update today:
Sister of 'fit, smiley' French teen missing in Auckland desperate for answers

A little ominously, Eloi’s final Facebook post was at 5:46am on the day of his disappearance - a completely blacked out image, with no text. Three quarters of an hour later he was on an early train from the North Shore into the city.

It may well be that this kid’s expectations of living and working in New Zealand weren’t met and his experiences in Auckland left him feeling a bit lonely and isolated so far from home. Travelling alone on the other side of the world at 18yo, while still trying to work out who you are, has its challenges.

I do hope he emerges soon unscathed - NZ is not a vast country so his ability to simply “disappear” indefinitely (if that was his plan) are not high. Piha isn’t exactly remote but there are plenty of places out that way where people could come to harm, either by accident or intentionally. Police don’t appear to be treating this as a possible abduction or other foul play at this point, and because his family felt he wasn’t suicidal (although families are often the last to know), his whereabouts/fate is indeed a little mysterious.

I do hope some of the people Eloi came directly into contact with in NZ are doing whatever they can to publicise his missing person status, and giving insight to investigators and some comfort to his family who are stuck far far away.

 

[TatianaBarbie]

I am really worried about this young man. Until I mapped the reported locations, I had no idea that Eloi had walked to an relatively unpopulated area. I used the train station location from the article previously linked by @Darling136:

Police say missing French teen Eloi Jean Rolland could have walked for hours from New Lynn to Piha

• Fruitvale Road train station in New Lynn, Aukland

I used @Darling136's approximation of Eloi's location on Piha Road, as the Piha Road and Scenic Drive location is the closest point of Piha Road to the Fruitvale Road train station:


خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

It appears that Eloi had walked to the edges of the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park:

Waitakere Ranges

 

[TatianaBarbie]

We don't have any photos of Eloi yet! I found some:

Sister of 'fit, smiley' French teen missing in Auckland desperate for answers






To see all of these photos full-sized, follow the link.

 

[Darling136]

Interesting point from the link one post above

The family believes the last person from France to hear from Rolland was a friend on March 4. The pair had discussed plans for when Rolland returned to France on March 8 due to feeling homesick.

Was he supposed to travel back the next day? or is this a misunderstanding?

 

[TatianaBarbie]

Interesting point from the link one post above

The family believes the last person from France to hear from Rolland was a friend on March 4. The pair had discussed plans for when Rolland returned to France on March 8 due to feeling homesick.

Was he supposed to travel back the next day? or is this a misunderstanding?

Wow--great catch! I thought I had read the whole article, but I missed the significance of that statement. If Eloi was supposed to travel to France on the 8th, it seems strange that he would be travelling away from the city to a regional park just the day before.

Flights out of New Zealand should be easy for LE to check, but I don't know how regulated the access to those passenger lists is in New Zealand.

 

[Darling136]

Looking longer on this sentences, it may be also that it is a typo and the date should have been 18th or 28th.
I think i already understood that he wanted to return, so maybe there was already a date made up.
I dont think that he went on a flight. ..

 

[LadyL]

well I don't have much hope for him being found alive
he's likely in the park, which looks vast and dangerous

 

[bancam]

Was he supposed to travel back the next day? or is this a misunderstanding?

Yes, apparently so according to his sister in this latest news article:

Chances of finding missing French teen Eloi Rolland alive 'becoming more slim'

 

[TatianaBarbie]

Yes, apparently so according to his sister in this latest news article:

Chances of finding missing French teen Eloi Rolland alive 'becoming more slim'

Thank you for posting that very interesting article, @bancam. The information about Eloi returning to France was in the next-to-last paragraph of that informative article. The article also gave information from Eloi's former manager at Headquarters bar and restaurant. "The manager had 'grave concerns' for his former worker's state of mind."

I feel so sorry for Eloi's family, as the COVID travel ban is preventing them from going to New Zealand to search for Eloi.

 

[SpaceSeed]

This case is a bit of a worry as it’s not, in my opinion, getting the attention and resourcing that is required in NZ due to the current state of lockdown. He’s also a boy which the general public often (incorrectly) presumes makes him less vulnerable.

According to reports, Eloi was not in the best frame of mind just prior to his disappearance - see comments from his former employer here:
French teen missing from Auckland had 'troubled' state of mind

The reporter on this story, Caroline Williams, is thankfully giving it a good go. She has a further update today:
Sister of 'fit, smiley' French teen missing in Auckland desperate for answers

A little ominously, Eloi’s final Facebook post was at 5:46am on the day of his disappearance - a completely blacked out image, with no text. Three quarters of an hour later he was on an early train from the North Shore into the city.

It may well be that this kid’s expectations of living and working in New Zealand weren’t met and his experiences in Auckland left him feeling a bit lonely and isolated so far from home. Travelling alone on the other side of the world at 18yo, while still trying to work out who you are, has its challenges.

I do hope he emerges soon unscathed - NZ is not a vast country so his ability to simply “disappear” indefinitely (if that was his plan) are not high. Piha isn’t exactly remote but there are plenty of places out that way where people could come to harm, either by accident or intentionally. Police don’t appear to be treating this as a possible abduction or other foul play at this point, and because his family felt he wasn’t suicidal (although families are often the last to know), his whereabouts/fate is indeed a little mysterious.

I do hope some of the people Eloi came directly into contact with in NZ are doing whatever they can to publicise his missing person status, and giving insight to investigators and some comfort to his family who are stuck far far away.

 

[TatianaBarbie]

Welcome to Websleuths, @SpaceSeed, and great first post! I almost missed it because your post was inside the quote box!

 

[Darling136]

Welcome to Websleuths, @SpaceSeed, and great first post! I almost missed it because your post was inside the quote box!

I dont see the content you are refering to, the post above looks like a quote of a post written by bancam (post #3 of this thread)

 

[TatianaBarbie]

I dont see the content you are refering to, the post above looks like a quote of a post written by bancam (post #3 of this thread)

Y0u are correct, as alway, @Darling136! I went back and reread the original post by @bancam (which really was an excellent post). Although I was incorrect (I thought that @SpaceSeed had just added to the last part of the quoted post), I still want to extend a welcome to @SpaceSeed, and I hope their next post contains some original content.

 

[Darling136]

Thanks! I was looking how to repair the quote and started doubting my eyes

 

[TatianaBarbie]

Thanks! I was looking how to repair the quote and started doubting my eyes

Don't doubt your eyes, @darling--I think they are laser sharp!

 

[bancam]

In similar circumstances, Guoquan (Laurence) Wu went missing in the same area one year earlier than Eloi. In February this year, the New Zealand Police called off the search for Guoquan:

Police say all lines of inquiry exhausted in search for missing Auckland man

22yo Guoquan’s car was found at Piha beach, but there has been no sign of him - he was last seen on CCTV at a liquor store on the afternoon of March 10, 2019, presumably en route.

18yo Eloi was last seen on CCTV at a train station on March 7, 2020, also presumably en route to Piha beach.

Here we have two young men of similar age, both from an overseas country, in NZ for work or study and away from their families, who randomly disappear without trace from the same area almost exactly one year apart. This is not normal, particularly in New Zealand.

 

[bancam]

Three more cold cases from Piha (all women this time). The most recent being a 21yo nurse in another ‘month-of-March’ disappearance:

1. Kim Bambus, 21yo, missing since March 24, 2017: New Zealand - Kim Bambus, 21, Piha, 23 March 2017

The earlier two date back to 2012 and 2004 as noted in this article and others:
Women vanishing in ‘eerie’ circumstances

2. Cherie Vousden, 42yo, missing since December 22, 2012.

3. Iraena Asher, 25yo, missing since October 11, 2004.

Piha is a small coastal settlement with a resident population of approximately 600 but a large number of day visitors from nearby Auckland city: Piha - Wikipedia

For a small and relatively safe country like New Zealand this is quite a few people to simply vanish without a trace from what must now be the same well-searched area. How is it that no bodies ever turn up, either from the sea at the time or in subsequent searches of the bush for other missing people?

If we discover anyone else in their late teens/early 20s who went missing in the vicinity of Piha in the month of March 2018 (and potentially earlier years like 2016 or 2015) I’d be inclined to think we might have something a little sinister going on out there.

 

[TatianaBarbie]

Three more cold cases from Piha (all women this time). The most recent being a 21yo nurse in another ‘month-of-March’ disappearance:

1. Kim Bambus, 21yo, missing since March 24, 2017: New Zealand - Kim Bambus, 21, Piha, 23 March 2017

The earlier two date back to 2012 and 2004 as noted in this article and others:
Women vanishing in ‘eerie’ circumstances

2. Cherie Vousden, 42yo, missing since December 22, 2012.

3. Iraena Asher, 25yo, missing since October 11, 2004.

Piha is a small coastal settlement with a resident population of approximately 600 but a large number of day visitors from nearby Auckland city: Piha - Wikipedia

For a small and relatively safe country like New Zealand this is quite a few people to simply vanish without a trace from what must now be the same well-searched area. How is it that no bodies ever turn up, either from the sea at the time or in subsequent searches of the bush for other missing people?

If we discover anyone else in their late teens/early 20s who went missing in the vicinity of Piha in the month of March 2018 (and potentially earlier years like 2016 or 2015) I’d be inclined to think we might have something a little sinister going on out there.

Thank you for that informative research. It does sound unusual--that many missing people from that extremely small community. Do you know what law enforcement department is in charge of this area? Are they capable of investigating these disappearances/deaths?