Statement from Mr David Millane, Father of Grace Millane:

As you all know, Grace has been missing for several days.

We last had contact with Grace on Saturday the first of December and as a family we have been extremely concerned for her welfare.

Grace is a lovely, outgoing, fun-loving, family-orientated daughter.

Grace has never been out of contact for this amount of time and is usually in daily contact with either her mother, myself or her two brothers.

Grace is on a year-long worldwide overseas experience.

Grace started this travel journey in Peru in South America and was really looking forward to the second leg in New Zealand.

She arrived here on the 20th of November and has bombarded us with numerous photographs and messages of her adventures.

We are all extremely upset and it is very difficult at this time to fully describe the range of emotions we are all going through.

While we are very grateful for the media coverage both here and back home, we are finding this situation quite upsetting and would sincerely hope that media continue to respect our privacy.

Finally, I would just like to take this opportunity to appeal to anybody who has seen, spoken to, or come into contact with Grace over the last few days, to come forward with any detail, no matter how small, and contact the investigation team.

Thank you.

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