The search for missing central coast woman Leisl Smith has taken a dramatic turn with police searching a property located less than a kilometre from her family home.

Ms Smith, 23, was last seen on August 19 when she left her home at Wallarah on the central coast and drove to Tuggerah train station around 1pm.

Security camera footage at the station showed her getting out of her Honda Accord, locking it, and then walking away from the station and not boarding a train.

Eight months on and in a major development in the investigation, police spent Thursday searching the property in the same street where Leisl had been living with her father, Storm Smith.

The property is owned by a local farrier who is understood to have known the missing 23-year-old, who also worked with horses.

A second property at Clarence Town, just north of Newcastle, that is linked to the same man was also searched.

Police on Thursday night refused to say if they were looking for a body or if anything had been found at either property.

Ms Smith's family, who had hoped the 23-year-old may have run away, have been told to prepare themselves for the worst.

The property searches come two days after Ms Smith's 24th birthday.

Fairfax Media revealed in February that, two days after Leisl was last seen alive, her father received a mysterious text message from her mobile phone.

It read: ''F--- you. I can't do this and I'm not going to keep your secret any more.''

Storm Smith, who is close to his daughter, said he had no idea what she could have been talking about. He immediately called her but her phone had already been switched off. The next day he received another text message, again sent from his daughter's mobile number.

''I'm really sorry dad. Please don't be angry,'' it read. He has not received any messages from the phone since.

Although initially concerned when she did not return that day, Mr Smith said he knew something had gone astray when he received the text messages on the Tuesday.

''I thought, 'Oh my god,' '' he said. ''That was when I started to think, 'What the hell is going on?'''

More worrying for the family was that Ms Smith, a devout animal lover who was ''bloody exceptional with horses'', missed the birth of a foal in late August. That was an event that anyone who knew Leisl said she would not have missed for the world.

On a Facebook page set up to help find Leisl, her parents on Thursday urged everyone to share their daughter’s story.

"Please, Leisl has been gone from our midst for so long, SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE MUST KNOW SOMETHING," they wrote.

"WE MUST FIND LEISL."

Police on Friday morning could not say whether officers had discovered anything of interest at the properties searched on Thursday.

A source has told The Daily Telegraph several properties in the Tuggerah area and also further north in Gloucester were scoured.

A person is believed to have been interviewed at length by detectives at Wyong Police Station. Ms Smith went missing on August 19 last year after leaving her Wallarah home by car at 1pm.

Concerned family members informed police of Ms Smith's disappearance when she failed to return home and police have been involved in an extensive search ever since.

Her car, a silver Honda Accord, was found abandoned at Tuggerah train station on September 26. Initial investigations revealed Ms Smith's mobile phone was used in the days after her disappearance but it appears she did not access her bank account or seek medical assistance.

Police are treating the disappearance as suspicious.

At the time, Ms Smith's parents expressed disbelief that their daughter would leave her horse Molly who was due to give birth to a foal.

The latest development in the investigation comes just hours after Ms Smith's parents posted on a Facebook page devoted to her: "My friends, we need you, now more than ever, someone must know something."

Their daughter would have turned 24 on Tuesday.

Friends again took to social media to send her birthday greetings over the weekend.

Jenni Lind wrote: "Happy birthday Leisl. May you be safe wherever you are."

Donella Waters said: "Happy Birthday Leisl. My wish is that you are safe and you can somehow get a message to your loved ones to put them at ease."

Friends and family have posted photos of Ms Smith, painting her as a friendly family-orientated young woman who loved animals.

Strike Force WEHL was set up late last year to investigate her disappearance. Tuggerah Lakes Local Area Command crime manager Detective Inspector Dave Waddell said the disappearance was "very out of character".

"Leisl is an animal lover and her horse gave birth in late August. The fact she missed the event is worrying."