FACE OF THE EARTHQUAKE: Shane Tomlin's sister, Karen Franicevic, and mother Doreen Tomlin, inset, have been told to prepare for a funeral after the death of the man whose haunting image became the human face of Christchurch's earthquake.

The desperate search for Shane Tomlin, the man whose haunting image became the human face of Christchurch's earthquake, ended last night as the family were told to prepare for a funeral.

Mr Tomlin's rescue was captured by a Press photographer in the chaos after last Tuesday's 6.3 earthquake as he was pulled from the rubble of a Cashel Mall bakery.

What happened after that remained a mystery till his family were told to start preparing funeral arrangements last night.

KATE GERAGHTY/Sydney Morning Herald DREADFUL TASK: Shane Tomlin's sister, Karen Franicevic, and mother Doreen Tomlin, go through family photos after being told of his death.

His father, Bernie Tomlin, said the family planned to hold his funeral in Kaikoura next week.

Police have not officially confirmed his death.

Mr Tomlin, 42, was a quiet, simple man. He lived by himself in the Christchurch suburb of Waltham, opposite the Avon River. He had a pet turtle, some fish and a very impressive vegetable garden.

He didn't like a fuss and he certainly didn't like having his picture taken, his sister Karen Franicevic said.

Each morning Mr Tomlin, a pastry baker, would walk the hour-long route to his work, Trocadero Bakery in Cashel St. He didn't see the point in having a car when it was just as easy to walk.

His mother, Doreen Tomlin, 70, retired last year after 25 years arming the deep fry at Kaikoura's Caves Restaurant. His father, Bernie, is a lifetime member of the Kaikoura Volunteer Fire Brigade.

Mrs Tomlin was at home on her computer last Tuesday when she felt her desk move.

"I said to my husband, `Now that was an earthquake.' ... I thought of Shane and I kept texting him and he wouldn't answer."

At 10pm that night, Mrs Tomlin's daughter in Gore called her : "She said, `Mum, I've seen Shane. He is on the news.' Then I saw the photo.

"I thought, 'Oh great, he will have been taken to hospital. That means he is OK.' We thought, as a family, `Oh he's fine'."

She was worried, but managed to get some sleep knowing that her son would be getting the care he needed.

"The next morning, someone rung me and said, 'There's a big picture of Shane in the paper. Be prepared, you better be careful when you open it."'

So Mrs Tomlin drove to her old workplace and bought the newspaper. "I told my boss, `See this picture, that's my son'."

The family began ringing the hospitals, the police, their son's landlady – anybody who might know what happened to Shane. Days passed, but there was still no sign of Shane. "We were getting so frustrated we decided we would come to Christchurch."

Yesterday morning Mrs Tomlin and her daughter were staying in Shane's undamaged house while they waited for news.

Police contacted the family last night and told them to prepare for a funeral.

Before hearing that news, they described their desperate search.

On Saturday they had gone to Papanui police station. They were interviewed for four hours. They brought as many pictures of Shane as they could, and told the police all they could about his life. Police asked for a DNA sample, Mrs Tomlin said.

"But our DNA wouldn't have been much use because he was adopted as a baby."

Instead the police went to Shane's house and retrieved his toothbrush, hat and hairbrush and took fingerprint samples.

Throughout the week, the people who helped rescue Shane from the wreckage of the bakery have called the Tomlin family.

A workmate who was inside the bakery that day told Mrs Tomlin what happened to Shane when the quake struck.

"He said ... he looked around to see where Shane was and there was a poof of dust and Shane was going through the floor. I think he went through two floors." Rescuers found him in a women's dress shop.

"The amazing thing is, lots of ordinary people did incredible, extraordinary things," said Shane's sister Karen. "It sounds like an army of people got Shane out and took him to hospital."

Mr Tomlin had been pulled from the wreckage by passers-by and put on a board on top of a police car to be driven to hospital.

"A nurse was there and she helped him; she stayed with him the whole time. She said whenever he shut his eyes, she'd yell `Don't close your eyes!'. Shane told her: `Don't yell.' He doesn't like yelling," Mrs Tomlin said.

"Apparently he was most emphatic the whole time about what his name was. That's how she found us."

He was last seen at Christchurch Hospital. "The nurse, policeman and some doctors saw him going through the doors."