POLICE in New Zealand have launched a new search for a former Bolton woman who vanished from a remote farming community six years ago.

Sara Niethe, who emigrated to New Zealand with her family, went missing after she was involved in a row at a former boyfriend’s home in March, 2003.

Her three children and her mother, with whom she lived, have not heard from her since and her bank account has remained untouched.

Now, detectives from Waikato police have begun reviewing the case of the missing 32-year-old, formerly of Breightmet, and have searched an area in nearby Ngatea in a bid to find her remains.

Detectives changed the focus of their inquiry from a missing persons case to a hunt for a body four years ago after numerous appeals for information and a 50,000 New Zealand dollar reward failed to throw any light on Ms Niethe’s whereabouts.

Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Greene said: “A team of three police, environmental science and research scientists and two contractors went to an area previously used to farm peat near Ngatea in an attempt to find matters of relevance to the case.

“This came about after the latest of a number of reviews of the case. However, nothing of relevance was found during the search."

Mr Greene said police would continue to follow up information as it came in and said the investigation team welcomed any new information.