Missing Gary Tweddle Book Part 17 – CHAPTER 4: BLUE MOUNTAINS MASSIVE SEARCH
“Gary is still out there waiting for us, there are 200 people looking. We have searched the cliffs and gullies with choppers, abseilers andbushwalkers. It’s minus five (Celsius) up top with the wind (factor). There is no sign of a down scale (in the search) yet.”

Supportive volunteer State Emergency Services (SES) experienced local searchers co-ordinated with local police rescue authorities to systematically find Gary ASAP. The tall bloke wearing is with Police Rescue as his white overall ‘fatigues’ under his jacket reveals.
“I do not think there are enough words in any vocabulary to say thank you to the hundreds of volunteers that have given their weekend to find Gaz. The police have been unbelievably amazing and the Fairmont Resort could not have done more, it is truly breathtaking to see and experience all the help and support we are receiving.”

The original leaflet collected by the author in August 2013. Note his height, but NOT dark jeans that the police claim, but BLUE jeans.
”My best friend has been taken from me and it’s so hard. It’s horrible, I just miss him so much. My heart aches, it hurts, I didn’t even know I had these emotions. ‘He is one of the most kind, caring, loving, and passionate person that I know and he is extremely determined,” Ms Haigh said. “He is a very loved person and we are touched and overwhelmed by all the friends an family that have come and helped in this situation.”
In a post on Facebook written earlier, his father David Tweddle said the family had still not given up hope. He also thanked the hundreds of people involved in the search.
He wrote: “These people have risked their health to work on this, abseiling 200m (650ft) cliff faces, going places that no human has been for tens of years.” His father cited a previous case where bush walker Jamie Neale was found after being missing in the same region for 12 days. But he said that was in “very different” circumstances and his son did not have the same resources.
“The New South Wales police will continue to search forever if that is what it takes, we will never give up hope,” he added.
The NSW Police borrowed the relevant information on its own Facebook page some 12 days later, thus:
NSW Police Force Facebook Post:
It is noted in the above excerpt that Police still hadn’t verified Gary’s actual height at 170 cm. We also note again that when Gary was eventually found (by fluke after the search had been officially called off) he was not wearing a jacket.
We also note that some of our hyperlinks to websites that were provided are not reliable in perpetuity, and also that media links now tend to impose access fire walls, so denying access without re-paid subscription. That media news is now dated, and in any case we have obviated any need for readers to go source the old news, since in this article we have integrated much of the news articles into distinct thematic chapters with appropriate chapter headings and adding insightful critique and analysis.
Gary’s father David, a vice-president with the same company his son worked for, flew out to Australia from his home in Berkshire in England in the first week of Gary going missing to help with the search effort. Similarly Gary’s mother interstate, and his girlfriend working in Queensland. Gary’s family galvanised to help the search effort find him and to just be there.
David said the family was indebted to police and volunteers looking for his son. “I do not think there are enough words in any vocabulary to say thank you to the hundreds of volunteers that have given their weekend to find Gaz,” he said.
David:
“The police have been unbelievably amazing and the Fairmont Resort could not have done more, it is truly breathtaking to see and experience all the help and support we are receiving.”

David Tweddle, father of 23 year old Gary Tweddle from Reading, England. Whilst contributing as he could to the search effort, David stayed locally accessible to the search effort in the Blue Mountains.
A week after his disappearance from a Blue Mountains Resort his family is still holding out hope he will be found alive. Father David said the family, along with hundreds of SES volunteers and police, are still scouring more than 14 sq km of rugged bushland near the Fairmont Resort in Leura where the British-born IT salesman, 23, went missing.
David added saying to the media that the family was indebted to police and volunteers looking for his son.
But by 26th July, some ten days after Gary had gone missing in freezing conditions, and the NSW Police extensive search failing to find any trace, David admitted he believed that his son was dead.
The change of circumstances in the search means that rescuers were now looking for a body, rather than someone who might have been able to survive the unforgiving conditions during which temperatures have dropped below zero at night (down to minus 5 degrees Celsius factoring in wind chill).
Mr Tweddle compared Gary’s plight with that of British bushwalker Jamie Neale, who was found alive after going missing for 12 days in the Blue Mountains at the same time of year four years ago. Mr Neale was wearing warm clothes and had supplies in a backpack, whereas Gary, who had earlier been drinking with his friends before deciding to take a walk from the resort hotel, was wearing just a shirt and jeans.
David said in a farewell message to his son which he posted on Facebook that he loved him very much – but told followers that what had been a search and rescue operation conducted by police and fire service officials had now been re-classified as a ‘recovery operation’.
In an emotional message to his son, who moved to Australia four years ago to start a new life and had won a top job at the technology firm, Mr Tweddle wrote:
‘I miss and love you unconditionally, Gaz. ‘I am so proud of all you have achieved at Oracle’ – the technology company – ‘and with your private life. The depth of this pride is infinite. You are a true star in all our lives.
“We have had so many incredible times together in UK, ZA (South Africa) and Goa to name a few and there is nothing I would not give for 1 more second of time with you.
Money, possessions and material becomes irrelevant now. It’s all about time, so my closing message to you my friends is cherish every second you are fortunate enough to have with the people you love.
Waste not one moment, be available and show love at every opportunity. I love you so much son, so, so much. Dad X.”
Mr Tweddle and Gary’s stepmother were then expected to return to the UK at the weekend or early next week.
After ten straight days of extensively searching the surrounding area around the Fairmont Hotel and into thick bushland including by foot, vehicles and by helicopters, Police Senior Constable De Jong decided to transition the missing person search into a (body) recovery operation’ on Friday 26 July 2013.