Rhianna Brenda Ann BARREAU  

A member of the public posted this comment online in relation to the car Police were seeking and I feel this precise description is worth reprinting here -

"I still remember this case yet at the time of this crime police released a media request to the public in relation to a car seen in the area of Rhianna's home. The police were interested in speaking to the MALE driver of an early model 2 door Holden Torana (white) with possibly VICTORIAN number plates. A few months after, police released a statement stating they were still interested in speaking to the driver & locating this vehicle yet they were unable to trace this vehicle? Nothing more was ever mentioned in relation to the car or the driver? I can't see how hard it would be to trace this model with interstate plates? "

Rhianna Barreau - 18 years on

Rhianna was 12 years old when she vanished from her Morphett Vale home and left behind a mother, father and brother heartbroken by her disappearance. Police believe she was murdered shortly after she disappeared.

Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Kinsman, from the Major Crime Investigation Branch, said Rhianna's missing person case would remain open until someone was convicted of her abduction and murder.

"Police never give up. The lack of a body does not stop people from being charged with murder," Det-Sgt Kinsman said.

He urged who thought they knew something that could help to ring Crime Stoppers.

"Anything, any information no matter how trivial may assist us in any case," he said.

"If they're not sure if it will assist they should ring Crime Stoppers and let the investigators decide. No one knows, it could be something that links some pieces of information together and could assist the investigation."

Det-Sgt Kinsman could not reveal whether police had a suspect for Rhianna's abduction and murder.

What can be reported are the facts of her disappearance.

Rhianna's mother Paula last saw her on October 7, 1992, about 8.30am.

Ms Barreau was studying at TAFE and initially she planned to meet Rhianna later that day at Colonnades shopping centre, where Rhianna wanted to buy a Christmas card for her American pen friend.

However, Ms Barreau heard on radio that Wednesday morning that bus drivers planned a snap strike.

Ms Barreau suggested Rhianna, who was on school holidays, walk to a nearby newsagent instead.

Ms Barreau hugged and kissed her daughter goodbye and never saw her again.

When Ms Barreau returned home at 4.10pm, she found the front door locked, the television on and a vinyl record on the living room floor, as though Rhianna had been playing it.

The Christmas card, complete with its wrapper, was on the dining room table.

Witnesses told police they saw Rhianna walking towards a Reynella newsagency about 10.30am.

She was also sighted walking alone at Morphett Vale High School at 12.30pm.

Det-Sgt Kinsman said missing persons cases were always distressing for families.

"I can't speak for the family, they're all getting on with their lives as best as they can, but they would hope, as I do, that one day media publicity will prompt something to occur that will bring the investigation to a successful conclusion," he said.

"When there's a release in the media about a body or remains being located I would surmise that people who have lost loved ones, lost relatives, lost friends would immediately be thinking is that their loved one?"

However he warned parents should not be paranoid about letting their children play - Rhianna's abduction, though tragic, is rare.

"Stranger abductions are a very rare occurrence, and it is borne out in statistics that the victims of personal crimes such as sexual abuse and homicide, know the perpetrators in a high number of cases - in homicide it's more than 80 per cent.

"I think with a healthy family environment children should be encouraged to talk to mum and dad or a trusted adult about any worries."

A $200,000 reward is on offer for information about Rhianna.

Even someone who remained anonymous could collect some money, Det-Sgt Kinsman said.

"Everyone who rings Crime Stoppers is given a caller ID number, whether they want to remain anonymous or not. They can then use that number every time they ring.

"I think anybody that would assist the immediate victims of this, and that's the family and friends of Rhianna, anybody that could assist bringing this matter to closure would be helping them very much and also helping the general public of South Australia."

Anyone with information about Rhianna's disappearance or other crimes should phone BankSA Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit www.crimestoppers.com.au.

Seven news reported relatives of Rhianna - who went missing nearly 20 years ago from her Morphett Vale home on Wednesday October 7, 1992 - have been approached by Major Crime Detectives and asked again who they believe may have taken the 12-year-old schoolgirl.

The report also stated at least one person who knew Rhianna, but wasn't related to her, was being re-investigated.

But SA Police today issued a statement denying the claims.

"No person is being re-investigated and speculation such as this by the media is unhelpful and causes unncessary distress to the family," the statement read.

"Major Crime Detectives maintain a watching brief over all cold case matters and detectives allocated the watching brief on any of the unsolved cases do keep in contact with relatives and keep them informed of any developments."

Anyone with information about the disappearance of Rhianna Barreau, or other missing persons, should contact BankSA Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

In the first, Rhianna answered the front door to someone she knew and went with them willingly. The second sees her answer the door, only to be taken against her will — ­silently and swiftly — from the house.

The third involves her simply leaving the house voluntarily for some reason, walking away from it — unseen by any witnesses — and being snatched at another location.

The second and third scenarios appear unlikely. Rhianna’s house in Wakefield Ave, Morphett Vale, was locked, there was no sign of a struggle and no one reported hearing any disturbance on the afternoon she vanished.

And Rhianna’s mother firmly believes she would not have left the house without asking her, a view shared by police. Reinforcing this belief is the total absence of any sighting after Rhianna returned home from a trip to the local shops.

That leaves the inescapable, unpalatable likelihood that Rhianna most likely knew the person who abducted and subsequently murdered her.

Statistically, child abductions are a rarity. There have been just a handful over the past few decades. They are also among the hardest for police to solve. Unless there are witnesses or forensic evidence, leads are few, mostly because the perpetrators act alone and tell no one of their crime.

In this respect the abduction and presumed murder of Rhianna Barreau remains one of South Australia’s most enduring mysteries. Despite thousands of hours of Major Crime investigations and the posting of a $1 million reward for information on the case, it remains unsolved.

It is highly likely that if ­Rhianna were snatched today, the result may be very different. Policing techniques and technology have both evolved considerably, tipping the balance against those who prey on children.

Major Crime case officer Brevet Sergeant Simon May said “every aspect’’ of the file was now under review and about 200 exhibits were being re-examined by forensic officers using new technology.

Despite its lapse in time, there are still regular calls to Crimestoppers by people who believe they have information about the case that could assist police.

After her mother left for work on October 7, 1992, it appears Rhianna remained at home until midmorning. There was a positive sighting of her at 10.30am walking towards a Reynella newsagency. The last sighting was at 12.30pm on Highway Dr, between the Morphett Vale High School and the Stanvac Primary School.

While Rhianna returned home after that sighting — the card she purchased was on a dining room table — precisely what time and what then occurred after that remains a mystery.

“A lot of people who were younger and lived in that area still remember the disappearance vividly. Some of the calls have been useful,’’ Detective Bvt Sgt May said.

The trail of Rhianna’s killer is certainly not cold. While detectives have no firm suspect, they do have several persons of interest they believe have information concerning her disappearance.

Detectives have closely considered the possibility the offender may have been a paedophile who was living in the area at the time and “a number’’ who were known to police have been scrutinised.

The lack of direct information in relation to an offender may well indicate it was someone who was acting alone and who has not shared their information with anyone else.

“It does make our job harder. If anyone had been told, you would hope with the passage of time allegiances have changed and they may need to get it off their chest,’’ Detective Bvt Sgt May said.

“She does appear to have left the house in an orderly manner. There was no break and enter, there wasn’t a struggle and the house wasn’t a mess.

“There is an absence of any neighbourhood disturbance, screams, anything like that in that vicinity that day.

“It certainly opens up the possibility she may have known the person or had some reason to be comfortable with that person maybe. That is one possibility we are looking at.’’ Another factor pointing in that direction is the fact no one has claimed the $1 million reward available for information that helps solve the case — simply because there are no witnesses.

In her only interview since Rhianna was abducted, conducted in 2015, her mother Paula told me her memories of the day her daughter vanished were still vivid.

“It is still there. I can still see myself walking into her room before I left for work,’’ she said.

“She was listening to music and told me: ‘shush mum, I’m listening to this.’ The song was The B-52’s hit Loveshack, one of Rhianna’s favourites.” Before going to work Paula had talked with Rhianna about her plan to go to the local shopping centre to buy a card for an American penfriend. Ironically, there was a bus strike that day, so she was going to walk.

Ms Barreau can remember the instant she walked into the house late that afternoon when she arrived home. It was 4.10pm. The television was still on and a record was on the floor. The card Rhianna had bought was still in its wrapper on the table. She looked for Rhianna inside and outside, but there was no sign.

Like his former wife, Rhianna’s father Leon Barreau has strong recollections of the day his daughter vanished. At the time he was living on the Gold Coast.

When his former wife rang him several hours after she ­arrived home, his first thought was to get to Adelaide to help find her. He arrived with his wife, Sandra, the next morning.

While Mr Barreau has accepted his daughter is dead, he still gets angry when he thinks about the circumstances of his loss and simply not knowing what took place.

“I have been totally denied the knowledge of what happened to Rhianna and being able to deal with her remains respectfully,’’ he said.

“I am hoping there will be a resolution, but I seriously doubt it will be in our favour, to be honest. I am convinced she is deceased, it is just a matter of where she is and what happened to her.”

Sadly, Mr Barreau’s father, Rex, passed away in 2012, aged 88, still grieving over the loss of his granddaughter.

His mother, Muriel, who “just worshipped” Rhianna, also passed away in late 2016 without seeing a resolution in the case.

In a heartfelt letter she wrote me in 2015 after I interviewed Rhianna’s parents, ­Murial “Midge’’ Barreau said she hoped the “public will understand we were just a normal, caring family’’.

“… the last years since ’92 have always been clouded in a veil of sadness so one would never enjoy life’s special moments in complete happiness,’’ she wrote.

“On Rhianna’s 13th birthday some of the family planted 13 wattle trees with the help of Friends of Morialta at Morialta. Sadly I have never been able to return.

“Perhaps one day you would write an article on what a wonderful gift life is?

“I try to pass on the message to young people I meet.

“My last image of the beautiful, clever Rhianna is in my house wrapped in a pink dressing gown looking in the mirror.

“When I asked ‘why?’, her reply was ‘just planning my future gma!’.”

Detective can’t help but keep looking, and wonder

VETERAN homicide detective Allen Arthur retired just over 23 years ago, but there is still one job that haunts him.

Each time he drives through the southern suburbs on the way to his South Coast home, his memory is flooded with thoughts of Rhianna ­Barreau.

Mr Arthur spent much of the last two years of his distinguished policing career investigating her abduction and murder and is still troubled by it. He is optimistic the case will be solved.

“You look across the open ground and always wonder if she is out there. she has to be somewhere,’’ he said.

He recalls the first few months of the investigation, which was conducted from an incident room that had been established at Christies Beach police station.

“The media interest was intense and we finished up with hundreds and hundreds of calls from people wanting to assist with any information they thought might be valuable,’’ he said.

“Some was helpful, but most were not, but people were very keen to help find Rhianna.

“It was an atrocious incident. People responded because a young girl had disappeared off the face of the earth and they were concerned.’’

Mr Arthur said that within several weeks it became clear young Rhianna had been ­abducted and most likely murdered.

“It was just too clean cut,’’ he said.

“We looked into her background in the initial stages and found she was not an adventurous girl, she was a family girl and could be trusted. She didn’t have a boyfriend, would not have run away, so the more we learned of her family history I was convinced she had met a terrible fate.’’

He said the lack of positive leads and sightings after Rhianna returned home from the shops had left him with a “clear belief’’ as to what happened.

“I think the perpetrator lives closer to her home address than perhaps further out,’’ he said.

“But I still look at those paddocks around Morphett Vale and Christies and ask myself the question: ‘I wonder where she is?’

“I think that until someone who knows what happened — and there always is someone — comes forward, then I think this will remain unresolved.’’

Twenty-six-years later, SA girl Rhianna Barreau remains missing

WHEN Rhianna Barreau left her South Australia home to buy a card for an overseas penpal 26 years ago, it would be the last time her mother ever saw her.

She had built up quite a bond with her American correspondent, and wanted to buy her a Christmas card.

It was only October, but this was 1992, and international post was slower in those days. Her mother Paula had to work that day, but Rhianna was on school holidays, and so the pair arranged for Rhianna to walk to a nearby newsagency to buy the card. There was a bus strike that day, so walking was her only option.

Rhianna’s mother left the house at 8:30am that morning.

It was the last time she would see her daughter alive.

In the 26 years that have passed, Rhianna’s whereabouts have remained unknown, despite extensive search efforts and public pleas.

Rhianna Barreau lived in Morphett Vale, South Australia.

Her home, on Wakefield Avenue, was roughly 250 metres from the Southern Expressway, which cut through the suburb, parallel to her street.

Morphett Vale is a busy suburb, but a suburb all the same, so Rhianna’s mother wasn’t too concerned about her walking alone to the nearby shopping centre.

Throughout that day, Rhianna’s movements were clocked by a number of individuals. According to eye witness reports, she was seen leaving her home at 10:30am, presumably to walk to the newsagency.

Records show that she bought the card at 11:19am at the Reynella Shopping Centre, and was later spotted cutting through both Morphett Vale High School and Stanvac Primary School during a half-hour window shortly after noon.

In both instances, she was seen carrying a small bag, which detectives assumed contained the Christmas card for her penpal.

Her mother arrived home from work at 4:10pm to a normal scene: a locked door, the television blasting afternoon programming, a record sitting on the living room floor as if it had been played and then carelessly discarded.

Most tellingly, the Christmas card Rhianna had been so eager to buy was sitting on the table, meaning that she had returned home at some point in the afternoon.

Only Rhianna was nowhere to be seen.

None of her personal belongings were missing.

If she had left of her own accord, she didn’t expect to be gone for long.

Police surmised that it was more likely that she didn’t.

Panicked, Paula Barreau called her daughter’s friends, knocked on neighbours door, and by 6pm was panicked enough to file a missing person’s report.

“I was hoping she was just at a friend’s place and had forgotten what the time was — but that’s not like her,” Paula Barreau told Adelaide Now in 2015, the first time she had spoken publicly about her daughter’s disappearance since the abduction, and the only interview either parent has conducted to date.

More details of Rhianna’s movements that day emerged.

Just ten minutes before her mother returned home, Rhianna was spotted near a junction roughly 500 metres from her house.

She was alone, but — according to her official Missing Persons report — “Suspicious activities occurred at Acre Avenue, David Terrace, Highwray Avenue, and Crittenden Avenue Morphett Vale.”

Just what these suspicious activities were has never been revealed by the police, but they all involved a white Holden Torana with Victorian registration plates.

Despite a widespread search, neither this vehicle nor its owner was ever located.

A one million dollar reward for information and thousands of hours of investigations have turned over nothing substantial in the past 26 years.

Paula accepts her daughter is most likely dead, although she spent years refusing to move house in the vein hope that Rhianna may one day return.

She has since moved — “it got to the stage I just couldn’t stand living there and had to move away” — but still holds out hope for some form of closure.

“It is the just not knowing, because it is just ongoing”, she said in 2015.

“I don’t know if it’s ever going to come about in my lifetime, that’s what I am scared of.”

Her theory is that Rhianna knew her killer, claiming her daughter would have screamed “blue murder” had the abduction been at the hands of a stranger.

“I would assume if she was on the street there would have been someone in the vicinity who would have heard that. My feeling is it was somebody she knew. That’s what I can’t understand.”

Last August, as part of National Missing Persons Week, the South Australian Police again highlighted Rhianna’s case, which was 25 years old at that point.

This time around, anyone with information was offered not just the million-dollar reward, but immunity.

Major Crime Detective Superintendent Des Bray is hopeful these twin incentives will help with provide the family with closure.

“It is time for those with information to come forward and do the right thing,” he said.

“More importantly, information provided may enable us to find Rhianna and return her to her family, and make the person responsible pay for the terrible crime they have committed.

“Do not let those responsible continue to walk free among us.”

Disappearance of Adelaide schoolgirl Rhianna Barreau 'a mystery that may never be solved'

Almost three decades after a 12-year-old schoolgirl went missing in broad daylight — her disappearance remains a mystery. To this day the case is still open, and authorities believe her killer may be "closer than people think".

By Rebecca Brice ABC

It was an ominous prophesy which remains true today.

"Without their assistance this case will flounder and it may well become another Beaumont mystery, Adelaide Oval abduction mystery, that we may never solve."

When homicide detective Allen Arthur spoke these words in October 1992, he was calling for information from the public to find missing girl Rhianna Barreau.

At the time the 12-year-old had been missing for two weeks.

Almost three decades later, after what would have been her 40th birthday, what happened to the Morphett Vale schoolgirl is still a mystery.

And Mr Arthur believes the only real chance of solving that mystery is through information from the public.

"My theory today is [and] has been since within weeks of the enquiry and certainly by the time I retired, that I think her abductor, and I will say killer, lives closer than a lot of people think," he said.

I would suspect that her remains are closer to where she lived than most people think.

'She's disappeared without a trace'

It was a terrible twist of fate that set in motion the events that would lead to Rhianna's disappearance.

On school holidays, she should have been 5 kilometres away at the Colonnades Shopping Centre, having lunch with her mother who was studying at the adjacent TAFE.

However, when the public bus drivers called a snap strike, she had no way to get there.

Instead, she walked to her local newsagent in Reynella — about a kilometre away — where she bought a Christmas card for her penpal in the United States.

She returned home to 47 Wakefield Avenue, Morphett Vale, and was never seen again.

When her mother arrived home just after 4:00pm, the house was empty.

The television was on, there were records on the floor and the Christmas card was still in the newsagent's bag on the kitchen table.

There is a tinge of sadness in the eyes of now-retired detective Allen Arthur when he thinks back to that time.

"There's a terrible thing that happens with crimes against the person … for those that are dead and the body is found, there is some sort of closure that can be made, but in the case of Rhianna Barreau and others like her, she's disappeared without trace," he said.

Now we know that people don't disappear but that's how it appears and it's without trace and it's terrible.

The last confirmed sighting of Rhianna Barreau was about 12:30pm on October 7, 1992, as she walked home from the newsagent.

Two days later Mr Arthur was called in to lead the investigation.

"From the time I went through the preliminary statements gathered by the two detectives from Major Crime and read all the additional information that was being gathered, I knew something was wrong, I knew she was in trouble," he said.

"At the time we established that she'd been seen at the shopping centre … that she was seen walking through the Morphett Vale school and we can only assume that she was on her way home with the cards from the shop. After that there is very, very little."

Police were flooded with tip-offs

Distraught, Rhianna's family and friends made numerous public pleas for help.

"Please come forward. I just want my daughter back. It's not the same at home," her mother Paula Barreau urged at the time.

Rhianna's father Leon Barreau flew in from his home in Queensland to help in the search.

"Well I would really like to have a policeman knock on our door tomorrow morning and say that, "Here's your little girl back in one piece", but the reality of that I think as everybody knows is fairly insignificant," he told the ABC at the time.

I would say it's life's worst nightmare. It's waking up in the morning and walking past Rhianna's bedroom door and bursting into tears. It's standing in the shower and howling.

"It's walking into the kitchen and opening the kitchen cupboard and seeing Rhianna's favourite cereal there in the cupboard and bursting into tears. It's smelling her presence in the house and bursting into tears. It's just a continuous flow of emotional highs and lows."

At the same time, police were being flooded with tip-offs.

"Every day I gave an interview and I was trying to encourage people to call and I think by the 25th of November there were 1,600 calls and on one day we received 140," Mr Arthur said.

"There were a couple of reported sightings in Acre Avenue and we spent a lot of time establishing whether they were legitimate and accurate and we came to the conclusion they most likely weren't associated with Rhianna Barreau."

That led to the theory that she was somewhere close by.

"I would have thought if she was walking down her street, Wakefield Street, into Acre Avenue, someone would have seen her positively or seen someone at least in a motor vehicle approach her or at least see something which is suspicious and might give us a call," Mr Arthur said.

There were searches of rubbish dumps and bushland around the Onkaparinga Gorge.

A lot of police time was wasted on false leads and hoaxes.

'No one saw nothing, heard nothing'

One tip-off claimed Rhianna was being held hostage in apartments on Anzac Highway in Kurralta Park.

Police raided the building but there was no sign of her.

Police thought they had a breakthrough and went public with a sighting of a suspicious white Torana with Victorian number plates.

Steve Fallen still lives in the house next door to where Rhianna Barreau was abducted almost 28 years ago, but was not home at the time.

Back then his housemate was one of the witnesses.

"He said he was sitting out at the front of the deli and saw suspicious people in a Torana but they could have just been suspicious people and might have had nothing to do with it," he said.

"[I] didn't really know her a lot. [I] wasn't here, didn't see anything and couldn't protect her so it's just happened.

I think they probably just got lucky. No one saw nothing, heard nothing. Very bizarre.

The sightings of the Torana led police nowhere.

"I have some doubts whether it was a white Torana and with Victorian number plates, only because we hadn't found it and we spent a lot of time looking at white Toranas," Mr Arthur said.

"One poor gentleman got reported to the police.

"We had to give him a letter to say, 'Hey, we've checked you out'.

"We were in contact with Victorian authorities to try and assist us, but the job was quite extensive and on an importance basis you've got to decide what is more important.

"In those early days we were trying to find her and also work on the car but the important issue was trying to find her alive."

Interstate link to a Victorian predator

The interstate link and the timing of the disappearance led to speculation the notorious Victorian predator "Mr Cruel" might be responsible.

He brazenly abducted and sexually assaulted at least three young girls between 1987 and 1991.

Ten-year-old Sharon Wills and 13-year-old Nicola Lynas were both abducted from their homes in Melbourne and held at secret locations where they were molested.

They were later released.

But not 13-year-old Karmein Chan who was abducted from home in front of her siblings in 1991 and found murdered months later.

But a connection between the cases was never made and like Rhianna's suspected murder, these cases have never been solved either.

Police were warning they could not say for sure that there would not be other abductions.

"We don't know what we've got on our plate. I can't guarantee that this is a one-off situation," Mr Arthur told reporters at the time.

A few weeks later an unusual development was reported in local newspaper The Advertiser.

A man had found a set of keys in Highwray Drive, just a few hundred metres from Rhianna's home, matching a description of keys Rhianna was thought to have on her.

He called police from a payphone across the road, but said when he returned to the location the keys were gone.

Police told the paper the man had come to the location — more than a month after Rhianna's disappearance — because his "conscience was bothering him".

On the afternoon she went missing, he said he had seen a girl matching Rhianna's description near a white Torana in the same location.

It was another strange lead that led nowhere and Mr Arthur had to face the inevitable.

"I was hesitant to say to her mother that I think she's been abducted, kidnapped and taken but within a couple of weeks I had to be blunt and say, 'I think she's gone'," he said.

Million dollar reward for unsolved case

Bruce Williams was Rhianna's principal at Reynella South Primary School.

He recalls meeting with her parents, Paula and Leon, soon after she disappeared.

"Rhianna's father came to the school in that week and spoke with me and we just shared some positive memories, and thoughts and concerns, with each other," he said.

"Paula found it very difficult to come to the school.

"She expressed that she just wanted to be removed from the school because it was all just too raw for her.

She came a few weeks later to pick up Rhianna's books and other things that were there.

"That was quite a significant event I think, that Paula had come in to gather up those things and perhaps had left them there for different reasons for several weeks.

"It was sort of a symbolic event I think."

Mr Williams remembers Rhianna fondly.

"She was a student who just got on with the job … she was cooperative, she was friendly, she had a really nice smile," he said.

"She had a close group of friends, but she enjoyed the respect of her classmates and certainly the respect of her class teacher.

"She just seemed to be a good, solid, quite high-achieving student with a lot of potential and so she was a real asset to the school."

With no solid leads a reward of $100,000 was offered about a month after the disappearance.

That reward has since been increased to $1 million, but even so the case remains unsolved.

'Pick the damn phone up and give us a call'

Today in Morphett Vale the shockwaves of Rhianna's disappearance are still being felt.

Leslie and Dean Howard have lived in Highwray Drive for more than 50 years.

"Our son's not very keen for us to let our granddaughter walk, not very far, but and she's nine and I don't know whether that impacted on him at the time," she said.

"Whereas our boys used to go around to my sister's and go off … they rode their bikes here, there. Doesn't mean that we knew.

"They might have gone to someone's place and then taken off but they used to wander around when they were not that young but you know high school ages, you didn't take any notice."

Currently the South Australian Police Operation Persist, which investigates cold cases, is in charge of the disappearance and suspected murder of Rhianna Barreau.

Operation Persist has had some big breakthroughs recently with high profile arrests over cold cases including the manslaughter of Robert Sabeckis and the alleged murder of Suzanne Poll.

"The case remains open and police would urge anyone with information about her disappearance … to contact Crime Stoppers," SA Police said in a statement.

"Police have no significant details to add at this time, but know that even a small piece of information can be of great assistance in cases such as these."

Twenty-five years after he retired from police life, Mr Arthur is still haunted by the case.

With no physical evidence, he believes a breakthrough depends on someone coming forward and the only way that will happen is to keep bringing up the disappearance in the media.

"Someone out there has some knowledge that could be very, very helpful to the police and that's why I say, 'pick the damn phone up and give us a call', I mean give Major Crime a call," he said.

It's never too late for someone who's been sitting on some information, but just doesn't want to get involved with the police.

"You don't have to fear the police if you haven't done anything wrong.

"Anyone that feels they've got something, even now … pick that phone up please."