Tongan pastor

This comes after a blue and white T-shirt was found during the search for a missing Tongan pastor who went missing at a South Canterbury river mouth on December 30.

Lionati Fotofili was reported missing at the mouth of the Ōpihi River after he did not return home from a fishing trip the night before reports Kaniva News.

The family of the 44-year-old father of two are launching their own intensive search party, about more than a week after he was last seen. 

Lionati Fotofili, 44, of Timaru, known as Lio, has been described as a “very loving man’’ with a beautiful singing voice reports Stuff.

Born in Tonga, he is the father of two boys – a 14-year-old and 14-month-old – and his wife and other family members also live in Timaru, family spokesperson Anna Leger said.

Fotofili works at Alliance Smithfield and was ordained as a church minister at the age of 29.

“Lio has been in Timaru for almost 30 years, and he started the branch of the church [of Tonga] here,’’ she said.