Ref. 28389-69A VOLUNTEER search organisation that was involved in the hunt for Amanda Edwards is desperate for new members.

Wiltshire Search and Rescue (WILSAR) spent more than 300 man-hours combing West Swindon for the 21-year-old murdered Purton woman in the early stages of the search, after her Rover Metro was discovered in the car park at Asda.

Chairman Steve Upton said the bank holiday meant several of the small group of around 30 qualified searchers on the callout list were out of the country and more volunteers from Dorset, Hampshire and Berkshire were drafted in to help with the hunt.

More than 60 hours of the search were carried out by three new members, who had only just finished their training.

"They did three days each and that is 60 hours of searching that would not have happened if we didn't have them," he said.

Sadly WILSAR's bank holiday weekend search didn't result in a find and Amanda's body was finally discovered by a specialist body recovery dog and forensic archaeologists at a building site 15 miles away in Malmesbury last Friday.

The county-wide registered charity, which is also called upon to train search teams in other parts of the country, has launched a recruiting drive to try and attract more volunteers from the Swindon area, which, even though it is a large town, is badly under-represented in the group's ranks.

"The more volunteers we have available, the more people we can send out searching," said Mr Upton.

Mr Upton explained that while the members did not do forensic searching, they were trained to look for evidence and not to disturb anything they found. As a result, their work freed police officers to concentrate on other aspects of missing person cases.

"They generally trust us to get on with it," said Mr Upton.

"We will have an officer with us to help with co-ordinating the search and to provide a link to their communication system, but they accept that we know what we are doing."

So far this year the group, which was also involved in the early days of the hunt for Linda Razzell, has been called out six times, not including the three days spent looking for Amanda. It was put on standby on another three occasions.

The voluntary organisation relies on donations and fundraising activities to buy its equipment, including a new mobile communications unit and specialist search gear and it makes no charge for its services.

Recently it has developed a new kayak search team, to improve waterside searches.

Anyone who wants more information about the group can visit the website at www.wilsar.org.uk, email chairman@wilsar.org.uk or call 07799 066486.

Tina Clarke