Missing Vic millionaire's car found

Herman Rockefeller was supposed to spend his 52nd birthday picking out a new video
camera, but instead his very private family was forced to go public with their grief
over his unexplained disappearance.
The multimillionaire's 2007 Toyota Prius was found near an abandoned country
homestead nestled next to a riverbank northwest of Melbourne on Monday afternoon.
Its discovery, however, only led to more questions.
The car was last seen leaving Melbourne Airport about 9.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday
after Mr Rockefeller returned from an interstate business trip with his brother.
Friends said Mr Rockefeller, a Harvard graduate and property investor, did not have
any business dealings in the township of Ballan, where his car was found parked on
the roadside.
His family released a statement saying they only hoped the car's discovery would
help in the continuing search.
His wife, Vicky, said Mr Rockefeller had been in great spirits, and there were no
disputes, conflicts or hints of a secret life to arouse suspicion.
"We really need the help of the public because we've just reached a dead end so to
speak," Mrs Rockefeller told ABC Radio on Monday.
"There's just nothing from 9.35(pm). We've been through the phone records, credit
cards, banks, tollways, everything. I mean everything possible has been checked and
there's just nothing."
Police say they are still treating the case as a missing persons investigation, one
that lead-detective Peter Towner said was the most baffling in his three decades on
the job.
"I'm just at a loss. I don't know why or what has happened," he said.
Mr Rockefeller's past business dealings have seen him invest in properties across
Australia.
In New Zealand, he survived three restructurings at Brierley Investments Limited
during his more than 14 years as a senior executive until the company failed to
deliver value for its shareholders.
"The company obviously damaged a lot of relationships ... both in terms of the
banking community and among equity investors," he told a New Zealand newspaper in
2000 as he left the country to take a job with the Pratt Group in Melbourne.
But his most recent business investments garnered high praise from community leaders
who viewed him as an honest, friendly and trustworthy man.
Peter Blackmore, mayor of Maitland in NSW, had met Mr Rockefeller and his brother
for the first time on the day he disappeared.
The three had a meeting about the Pender Place shopping complex the brothers had
purchased. Mr Rockefeller introduced himself as a "long-term" community investor.
"Honestly, there was nothing that would have indicated that there was a problem," Mr
Blackmore told AAP on Monday.
"They were both very buoyant and happy and in fact they talked about coming back in
three weeks with their father."
He said he left the meeting inviting the brothers to a Maitland business luncheon.
"You could just tell they were a very strong family, very happy," he said.
Mr Rockefeller's wife was last contacted by him around 6pm on Thursday, while she
was attending the Australian Open tennis tournament.
She had her phone on silent and missed the call, but sent him a text message and
later received a message back, in which her husband spoke excitedly about their
daughter's university offers last week to study medicine.
On Monday Mr Rockefeller would have celebrated his birthday with his wife and two
teenage children by going out to dinner.
Mrs Rockefeller said they were going to get him a video camera but he insisted that
he wanted to pick the right one so they hadn't bought the gift yet.
He was last seen on CCTV footage at the airport wearing a white shirt and
pin-striped suit pants and was carrying a plastic shopping bag with about four
grapefruit in it.