Posted: 2024-10-23 01:43:28

A hire car has been located in the search for an "avid photographer" who has been missing for more than a week in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.

A multi-agency search effort to find 48-year-old Lovisa "Kiki" Sjoberg in the Kosciuszko National Park has entered its third day.

The search began on Monday evening after the car hire company noticed the grey Mitsubishi Outlander had been due to be returned six days earlier.

The company tracked the car's location using GPS and notified police.

"The main concern is the vehicle being in situ, where it has been since the 15th [of October]," Monaro Police District Acting Inspector Andrew Woods said.

"She's had it in her possession for approximately 80 days … we know she's had some regular use of the vehicle.

"For it to then to be left stationary for six days doesn't appear to be regular."

An aerial shot of a pair of emergency vehicles parked in bushland near a country road.

The SES has been assisting NSW Police with the search. (Supplied: NSW SES)

The hire car was located by police near Kiandra Courthouse in the north-eastern section of Kosciuszko National Park on Monday evening.

Ms Sjoberg was last seen driving it in Kosciuszko National Park at about 7am on Tuesday October 15.

No-one has spoken with her for more than two weeks.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the temperatures in the area surrounding Kosciuszko National Park dropped as low as zero degrees Celsius overnight this week.

Police vehicles parked near a building amid rolling hills in a country area.

Emergency services searching for Lovisa Sjoberg in Kosciuszko National Park. (Supplied: Michelle Brown)

The search has included a Rural Fire Service helicopter, the State Emergency Service, four-wheel drive vehicles, trail bikes and police.

Ms Sjoberg is believed to have been living in the Jindabyne area and is known to frequent the Kiandra area and national parks around the Snowy Mountains.

Acting Inspector Woods said Ms Sjoberg was believed to be "a capable hiker" and "used to going into the Kosciuszko National Park," but the terrain was challenging to search.

"It's a big area," Acting Inspector Woods said.

"We still need to have assets on the ground – as in people walking – just to get to those places where other machines can't get to."

Police vehicles parked near a building amid rolling hills in the countryside.

Locals are expected to join the search for Lovisa Sjoberg. (Supplied: Michelle Brown)

A photograph Ms Sjoberg took during the 2019/20 Black Summer Bushfires titled “The Monaro or Mars” was featured in The Walkley Foundation's digital photojournalism exhibition in 2020.

Many have taken to social media to express concern for the woman, who has has been described as an experienced photographer of brumbies in Kosciuszko National Park.

"We believe that she's an avid photographer and our only assessment of her being there is for similar activities," Acting Inspector Woods said.

Search efforts for Ms Sjoberg will continue on Wednesday and a group of locals are reportedly set to join the search on horseback.

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