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Police wind up ground-based search for Melbourne mother of three

After six days of intensive searching for missing Melbourne mother Elisa Curry, police are winding up their ground-based efforts as her family anxiously await answers.

“The likelihood of finding a missing person alive, especially out in the bush, is very remote,” Inspector Peter Seel told reporters on Friday.

He said Friday’s windy weather prevented divers and rope teams from searching the nearby cliffs and ocean. Instead, an information caravan would be set up at the Aireys Inlet general store over the weekend.

“At this stage it’s really about supplying answers to the family, giving them some closure,”  he said.

Inspector Seel said Friday would be the final day of searching to find the 43-year-old mother of three, who vanished last Saturday from Aireys Inlet, a small town on the Great Ocean Road in southwest Victoria.

But Inspector Seel said those crews might return in the future, depending on the weather, new information and resources.

For the past six days, scores of police and volunteers have scoured bushland, vacant properties, homes and caravans in the coastal town trying to find her.

Ms Curry’s mobile phone, which has not pinged a reception tower since Saturday night, is the only item of interest not yet found.

Investigators do not know what she was wearing, what time between 10.30pm on Saturday and 9am on Sunday she left the family’s holiday home, or what direction she took.

The avid runner stopped using her fitness tracker in the days before her disappearance.

Ms Curry’s neighbours visited her on Saturday and another friend had been at her house earlier in the day to watch the AFL grand final.

A female neighbour later returned to have a “personal” conversation with Ms Curry and watched her go to bed.

David Curry

David Curry pleads for information on his missing wife, Elisa Curry, on Thursday.

Her husband David Curry and their children watched the AFL grand final in Melbourne then returned to the holiday house on Sunday to find her missing.

Text messages on Saturday night between the couple showed no reason for concern, Inspector Seel said previously.

Initially, the family’s black labrador was also missing but it was soon found in a neighbouring yard.

He said police had not found anything to suggest the disappearance was suspicious but they were not ruling it out.

—with AAP

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