Ms. Bernard was last seen at Archer River on the 10th when it is believed she planned on travelling from Archer River to Kowanyama, although her travel movements have not been able to be confirmed.
Police coordinated an extensive land and air search which encompassed 800 square kilometres of bushland, in addition to roads and tracks leading away from the search area.
Police, SES, defence service personnel and locals, using helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, vehicles and quad bikes, failed to locate Ms. Bernard. Officers from the Police Dive Squad also searched several local dams.
Police continue to appeal to anyone who may have seen Ms Bernard from February 10 onwards, to contact them.
Police hold grave fears for the safety and well being of Ms Bernard as she is not from Archer River and would have limited knowledge of the local area.
Ms. Bernard is an Aboriginal woman, approximately 155cms tall, with a slim build and brown hair.
Anyone with information which could assist with this matter should contact Crime Stoppers anonymously via 1800 333 000 or crimestoppers.com.au 24hrs a day.
Missing person, Queensland: Allison Bernard missing since 2013 but police not actively investigating
A young mum leaves a Queensland pub with a man – and then vanishes. It’s been six years and nobody is looking for her. Nobody can – or will – answer her kids’ haunting question: “Do you know where my mummy is?” Tom Chamberlin reports
A YOUNG mum on a night out at a pub leaves with a man.
They go back to his home and she is never seen again.
Her heartbroken child still ask relatives: “Do you know where my mummy is?”
If Allison Bernard had vanished in suburban Brisbane, she would have become a tragic household name and her case received much more attention, her family say.
Answers would have been expected.
But six years on, police have concluded reports and are no longer actively investigating; the coroner has not decided if the court will hold an inquest; and her family, who believe she met with foul play, are haunted by both her disappearance and the lack of action in the time since.
This mother will never come home to her little boy.
HITCHED A RIDE
Allison did have form getting into trouble over the years.
She’d slip out of handcuffs, her wrists so small she’d have to clasp them together as police put a single cuff over them twice.
They suspect Allison – or Neeridine, as she was known to family – was murdered near Coen, in remote far north Queensland, after leaving the local pub with a man.
Police, who agree the 23-year-old died in 2013 after she was last seen near an old quarry, say they searched far and wide, but could not find a trace of her.
But was she murdered or did she get lost out in the country and perish?
Allison, from the small town Kowanyama on the Gulf of Carpentaria, had been visiting her boyfriend in Napranum further north, near Weipa.
She then hitched a ride to Coen on her way home to Kowanyama.
On the way home she’d touch base with Deanne Greenwool, her aunty who lives in Coen, with plans to stay at her home.
Ms Greenwool recalled their last interaction.
“She said, ‘Aunty, I’m going to the pub; I will be back’,” she said.
“I said: ‘OK, I’ll get dinner cooked’.”
Ms Greenwool said Allison left in the afternoon and walked to the pub, only a short distance away in the small town.
She never saw her again.
AGONISING WAIT
“I stayed up all night. Waiting, waiting, waiting,” Ms Greenwool said.
“Then it was the next day and I was asking around.”
At the pub, Allison saw another relative, but she later left with a local non-indigenous man.
“They were asking her to come home but she didn’t want to come home with them; she decided to stay,” Ms Greenwool said. “We’re still looking for answers, the family back in town.
“I’ve always thought it was foul play.”
Detectives have confirmed they investigated the mother’s disappearance.
But they say there is no proof she was murdered.
Allison went with the man to a quarry near Archer River, where he was staying, about an hour away from the tiny township.
He told investigators the pair had sex and then she left while it was still dark.
WITCH DOCTOR
After her disappearance, police and SES were involved in a massive land search as temperatures reached as high as 35C.
The search took a twist when a witch doctor had visions of the 23-year-old on sacred Aboriginal land.
A traditional owner nicknamed Dundee was called in to search on horseback to find the mother.
But eventually the search was scaled back.
Allison’s uncle Teddy Bernard, who works for the Kowanyama Shire Council, said family reported Allison as missing three days after she was last seen.
It was particularly difficult for the family as it was her son’s fifth birthday.
“I still think of that day,” he said. “She was loving, a caring mother for her two kids, always respected her grandmother ... and we miss her.
“I think my niece being indigenous, police in north Queensland did not prioritise her as a missing person.
“There was a person of interest that I don’t think the police investigated thoroughly. It still kind of haunts me today.”
PROPER BURIAL
Mr Bernard said the family wasn’t informed if there would be a cold-case investigation or another team of detectives tasked to Allison’s disappearance.
“The last time I spoke to detectives was five years ago,” he said.
“You are the first person calling me, after five years.
“She probably met foul play.”
Mr Bernard says he wants an inquest held into Allison’s disappearance.
“It’s just that if only someone did something to her, have some dignity and tell the police,” he said.
“Let us know where she is, if they’ve done something.
“Let us give her a proper burial.”
A spokesman for the Coroners Court of Queensland told The Sunday Mail: “The Northern Coroner, Ms Nerida Wilson, has received all investigation material and is reviewing the matter in order to determine whether an inquest is required.”
LAST TO SEE HER
Ms Greenwool says she thinks about her niece all the time. Allison’s children are now looked after by other family members.
“Even on her birthdays, it’s very sad,” she said.
“I know because when I went home last year, her little boy, he always speaks about it.
“He asked me, ‘So you know where my mummy is? Have you seen my mum? Has my mum been back?’,” she told The Sunday Mail.
“He has grown now. It’s so sad. I’m lost for words when he asks me that.
“I didn’t know what to say to the little boy.
‘“You’ve come from Coen, do you know where my mummy is? Has my mummy come back there?’
“I was one of the last one from Kowanyama that she saw,” she said.
Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000
Coronial inquest to held for missing mum Allison Bernard
A coronial inquest will finally be held for missing mother Allison Bernard who vanished in Far North Queensland in 2013. It comes after her family and advocates pleaded for answers.
A coronial inquest will be held for missing mother Allison Bernard who disappeared in Far North Queensland almost eight years ago.
Ms Bernard, a young mother from Kowanyama, 23, was last seen alive in February 2013 after leaving a pub in Coen with a local caucasian man who regularly drank there.
The man told investigators they travelled about an hour away to a quarry, where he was living at the time, and that she later left.
The decision to hold an inquest comes after The Sunday Mail and The Courier-Mail spoke to her disappointed family and highlighted the case in the last year, with her family calling for an inquest.
They believe Allison – or Neridine as she was known to family — is dead and may have been murdered.
Advocates who joined the call for an inquest included Sisters Inside CEO Debbie Kilroy; Bruce Morcombe, the father of murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe; and Vanessa Fowler, the sister of murdered Brisbane woman Allison Baden-Clay.
Ms Kilroy said she had received a letter today advising her that the Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson planned to hold an inquest into Allison’s death.
“Finally we’ve had some movement after nearly eight years,” Ms Kilroy said.
“It’s a long time it has taken for the family to get any sort of form of justice or find out what happened to her.
“It’s absolutely a step in the right direction and it’s a step in the right direction that should have been taken many years ago.
“To even find her body now may be impossible because of the time that has passed.”
Ms Bernard’s uncle Teddy Bernard said his niece was planning to travel home for her son’s birthday when she vanished. He called for an inquest with other family members.
“Why hasn’t more resources being put into this?” Mr Bernard said when previously interviewed in The Sunday Mail.
“I really want to see a miracle but I know that it might have been foul play.
“If she was (alive) there would have been some sort of contact.”
Mr Bernard said the family wasn’t informed if there would be a cold-case investigation or another team of detectives tasked to Allison’s disappearance.
“The last time I spoke to detectives was five years ago,” he said.
“You are the first person calling me, after five years. She probably met foul play.”
“It’s just that if only someone did something to her, have some dignity and tell the police,” he said.
“Let us know where she is, if they’ve done something. Let us give her a proper burial.”
Former Detective Greg Lamey who investigated the hauntingly similar but unrelated case of Theresa Binge, whose body was found in Boggabilla in northern NSW in 2003 after she left a Goondiwindi pub with a man, also called for an inquest into Ms Bernard’s disappearance.
According to media statements over the last 14 months the Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson had been determining whether to hold an inquest after receiving the investigation material from police.
Later she requested “additional investigation material in order to determine whether an inquest is required”.
Allison Baden-Clay’s sister fights for closure in the forgotten case of ‘the other Allison
Allison Baden-Clay’s sister has issued a heartfelt plea for an inquest into what happened to the “other Allison” – a missing woman who vanished after a night at the pub.
ALLISON Baden-Clay’s sister has issued a heartfelt plea for an inquest into what happened to the “other Allison” – a missing indigenous woman who vanished after a night at the pub in Far North Queensland.
Vanessa Fowler has joined a chorus of advocates demanding answers, after The Sunday Mail revealed the seven-year-old case of the forgotten young mum was gathering dust.
Allison Bernard, 23, was last seen alive in February 2013 after leaving a pub in Coen with a local caucasian man, who regularly drank there.
The man told investigators they travelled about an hour away to a quarry, where he was living at the time, and that she later left. Ms Bernard’s body has never been found and, despite her family believing she met with foul play, police say they have thoroughly investigated and there is no proof she was murdered.
High-profile Queenslanders have called for an inquest into the Kowanyama woman’s disappearance so the family can get answers.
Ms Fowler, the sister of Allison Baden-Clay, told The Sunday Mail having a family member missing was an “indescribable feeling”.
Ms Baden-Clay disappeared from the Brookfield home she shared with her husband Gerard Baden-Clay in April 2012. Her body was found 10 days later under the Kholo Creek Bridge at Anstead and Baden-Clay was later convicted over her murder.
“It’s the not knowing that truly plays on your mind,” Ms Fowler said. “Closure is such an important step for families who are missing loved ones and if an inquest is a way to receive closure, then it would be something you support.”
Justice crusader Bruce Morcombe, whose son Daniel was murdered, advocacy group Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy, and Ms Bernard’s family have all called for an inquest into her disappearance.
Former detective Greg Lamey, who investigated the hauntingly similar case of Theresa Binge, whose body was found in Boggabilla in northern NSW in 2003 after she left a Goondiwindi pub with a man, has also called for an inquest.
Last year The Sunday Mail confirmed Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson was determining whether to hold an inquest after receiving investigation material. This week a spokeswoman for Ms Wilson said she was still pursuing the matter.
Missing woman: Inquest delayed due to major new development
A long-awaited inquest into the mysterious disappearance of a Far North mum of two has been delayed after a court hearing heard of a major new step in the investigation.