Colleen SOUTH
Colleen SOUTH
13 Jul 2022 - SA Police
Police continue to seek information from the public to help locate missing woman Colleen Mary South.
Colleen South, 58, was last seen at Renown Park on Friday 1 July around 3.30pm when she drove off in a 2006 silver Hyundai Getz sedan - S479BMI.
Colleen is described as 154cm tall with a heavy build, green eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, black and white striped shirt.
Prior to her being reported missing, Colleen was captured on CCTV at Liquorland St Agnes about 11.50am on 2 July.
It is believed that shortly after this, Colleen made her way to rural northern Victoria in her Hyundai Getz as sighted by a witness in the town of Ninyeunook between 3pm and 3.30pm on Sunday 3 July. The description of the driver obtained by the witness matches that of Colleen South, and she was the only occupant of the vehicle.
A farmer in the Wycheproof area saw Colleen’s car, which he assumed was abandoned, around 4pm the same day. The car had pulled off the road and was parked under a tree. The abandoned car was subsequently reported to local police.
On Tuesday morning, 5 July, the farmer went back out to inspect the car and located belongings, believed to be Colleen’s, placed on the ground not far from the vehicle. It was also noted that the vehicle had in fact collided with a ditch and sustained some damage, with the front airbags deployed. Victoria Police subsequently alerted SAPOL of the finding.
South Australia Police have been working with Victoria Police to locate Colleen South.
South Australia Police believe Colleen travelled on her own to rural Victoria and at this time, believe that no other person is involved in her disappearance.
Anyone with information on Colleen Souths whereabouts is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Police are searching for an Adelaide woman who has been missing for more than two weeks in what they say is a "baffling" case.
Police do not believe anyone else was involved in Colleen South's disappearance, but her family is sceptical of their theory.
Ms South's car was found damaged and abandoned in western Victoria on July 3.
The 58-year-old grandmother was last seen in the Adelaide suburb of Renown Park on July 1 and was captured on CCTV at the Liquorland store in St Agnes on July 2.
A witness then saw her by herself in her car in the Victorian Mallee town of Ninyeunook between 3pm and 3:30pm the next day.
A farmer then found her 2006 Hyundai Getz hatchback at Bunguluke, near Wycheproof, at 4pm the same day.
Police say the car had hit a ditch and sustained some damage, and the front airbags had deployed.
A journal found along with other belongings near the car had the words "help me please" written on its last page.
Inspector Gerry de Vries, from Victoria Police, said a search in the area last week did not find any more evidence or an explanation of where Ms South was headed.
"We've scoured that area," he said.
"We've had horses, our Air Wing, dog squad, a number of police out on foot and assistance from the SES and we haven't been able to find any evidence other than what's in the immediate vicinity of that car."
He said the car was locked and driveable and the keys were in Ms South's handbag, along with her bank and identification cards.
He said Ms South's family had told him she was a friendly person.
"She's a very sociable person around other people, so it may well be that she's made friends with somebody and she's left that location and that's the thing that is baffling because there's nothing," he said.
Ms South's daughter, Veronica, said her mother had been planning to move to Queenstown, within Adelaide, on the day she was last seen but, instead, she left her furniture in the removalists' truck and disappeared.
While police do not believe anyone else was involved in her mother's disappearance, her daughter does.
"We believe that someone has picked her up because it is so out of the ordinary for her to leave her belongings there with no traces of her," Veronica South said.
"She could have been writing and she wrote 'please help me' on the back of her notebook.
"She could have been writing and someone pulled up beside her and she could have gone in the car because whenever she goes on holidays she's very friendly and very vulnerable and that's what we're concerned about."
While her mother "tends to go on holidays when she gets overwhelmed", Ms South, 21, said it was unusual for her not to contact her family for so long.
"We just want her to be safe," she said.
"We're just hoping she is safe and we haven't lost hope in finding her."
Ms South is described as 154 centimetres tall, with a heavy build, green eyes and brown hair.
Relatives have joined the search for missing Adelaide woman Colleen South, whose abandoned car was last seen in rural Victoria last week.
Victorian police have renewed calls for public help to find the 58-year-old grandmother, but say her disappearance is not being treated as suspicious.
However, her family disagrees and is now looking for new evidence.
Ms South was last seen in her car in the Mallee town of Ninyeunook, south west of Kerang in northern Victoria, between 3pm and 3:30pm on July 3.
A farmer found Ms South's 2006 Hyundai Getz hatchback in a ditch at Bunguluke, near Wycheproof, at 4pm the same day.
"I need her and my family do too. She's the grandmother to a two-year-old. I know she's out there and wants to be found," daughter Veronica South said.
"My mum is resilient, she's a fighter. She's a friendly person but she's strong."
A journal in her handbag found near the locked car had the words "help me please" written on its last page.
"The note forms part of a larger number of pages that have been written in a personal diary, we're unsure of the date in that diary. It does appear to be Colleen's diary," Mildura Superintendent Rebecca Olsen said.
"Her diary certainly gives some indication of her travel ... the locations and the people, some personal issues that she was experiencing."
Ms South's abandoned car had some damage to the front and the airbags had been deployed.
Some of her other belongings were found near the car.
Before arriving in Victoria, Ms South was seen on CCTV at the Liquorland store in the Adelaide suburb of St Agnes on July 2.
Victoria Police and the SES have searched dense bushland in an 18-kilometre radius of the surrounding area.
The Air Wing, Mounted Branch and Canine Unit have also been involved but have found no trace of her.
Local farmers are now being asked to check buildings and sheds on their properties. Police are also appealing to service stations in the Mallee to check CCTV.
"She certainly was behaving erratically in the lead-up to her disappearance, and she was on medication," Superintendent Olsen said.
"There may have been someone who gave her a lift, picked up a traveller on the way, and was unaware that it was Colleen."
Colleen's daughter Veronica South has been staying in Wycheproof with her uncle in the hope of finding new evidence.
"We've had a few witnesses that may have seen her on the road, but no one has seen her after that," she said.
"Mum was so stressed out because she was moving houses and suburbs in Adelaide, she was so anxious and stressed, so she usually goes on a holiday when she's overwhelmed."
Veronica South said she believed her mother was still alive.
"I believe when she crashed [the car] she went to find help, because she had all her bags lined up,” she said.
“So maybe someone turned up and tried to help her. I believe someone's picked her up.
"I'm feeling determined to find her, I haven't been very emotional because I believe she's out there.”
A Wycheproof business owner, who did not wish to be named, said dozens of police and SES crews had been searching for Ms South.
"We are all good people around here. We've all got to get on with our lives, [but] if we're out there, we're looking," she said.
"I'm going to look at the CCTV footage I have again, police have already been through it, and farmers have looked in their sheds."
The woman said the area in which the car was found was near the dry bed of the Avoca River through the town, and was near dense bushland.
Colleen South is about 154cm tall, of solid build, and has brown hair and green eyes.
She was last seen wearing a black and white striped shirt with blue jeans.
Family members of missing Adelaide woman Colleen South say her phone has been found in Port Noarlunga — more than 570 kilometres from where she was last seen across the border in Victoria.
It comes as Victoria Police scale back the search for the 58 year old, who was last seen on the side of the road in the Victorian Mallee town of Ninyeunook on July 3 before her car was found abandoned in a ditch by a farmer.
The Adelaide woman's possessions were found about 20 metres away and the car was locked.
More than 30 specialist search and rescue police along with dozens of volunteers scoured the Ninyeunook area last week but found no trace of her.
The woman's daughter, Veronica South, has revealed Colleen's Samsung phone was found on Thursday south of Adelaide but it was missing its SIM card.
"Someone handed it in from a playground in Port Noarlunga," she said.
"Someone handed it in and contacted my cousin Farah because he saw she'd been missing.
"We're assuming she may have thrown it out the window when she was driving but we're not sure why her SIM card is missing.
"It's good the police are looking into it. Hopefully, they might find some leads from there."
Before travelling to Victoria, Ms South was captured on CCTV at the Liquorland store in the Adelaide suburb of St Agnes on July 2.
She is known to have left Renown Park, in Adelaide's north, the previous day in her silver Hyundai Getz hatchback.
Friends and family members of Ms South are fundraising for a private investigator to help with their search.
"We still believe there is a high potential someone else is involved and she could be in harm's way," Ms South's niece, Farah Mak, said.
"But to rule out that possibility, or find out that is correct, we need a private investigator to follow all leads and be very detailed in it.
"For us, we're coming into week four of Colleen being missing and we really need action at this time.
"It's all-consuming. We're constantly worrying, thinking, 'What if?'."
Ms Mak described the missing woman as a gentle, loving, "kind and generous person".
"She was quite a hands-on mum and grandmother," she said.
"It's a very difficult time right now, for Veronica in particular, because Colleen was her world.
"She lost her father when she was only 15 years old."
Veronica has returned home to SA after spending nearly a fortnight in Wycheproof, near Ninyeunook, looking for her mother.
"We're feeling exhausted from it all," Veronica said.
"We're getting more anxious, because we were really happy that police were going on with the search, but now it's scaled back, we're wondering, we did all this for what?
"We are hoping a private investigator will look thoroughly into the
case, and find what the police may have missed."
Veronica is planning to return to Wycheproof in two weeks to continue to search for her mother if she is still missing.
"Now that I'm back home, it's really starting to hit me that my mum's been missing for almost a month," she said.
"I just want to get back up there as soon as I can."
August 7 2022
A new photo has emerged of missing South Australian woman Colleen South at a petrol station on the day she was last seen.
The 58-year-old was captured on CCTV at Sunraysia Petroleum at Berriwillock, in Victoria's Mallee region, on Sunday, July 3, about midday.
Ms South tried to purchase fuel at the unattended petrol station on the Calder Highway but had trouble using the self-service machine.
According to a member of Ms South's family who has seen the footage, another person who was also paying for petrol at that time noticed her struggling and kindly paid the $10 amount Ms South owed.
Victoria Police has confirmed the CCTV footage forms part of their investigation into the disappearance of Ms South, who had left her Adelaide home the day before, on July 2.
Witnesses have reported last seeing Ms South driving her 2006 Hyundai Getz towards Wycheproof, in Victoria's Mallee.
The photo at the service station was taken four hours before Ms South's car was spotted by a farmer, crashed into a ditch just outside of Bunguluke, 15 kilometres east of Wycheproof, and about 40 minutes away from the petrol station.
Ms South's possessions were found laid out 20 metres away from her car, which was locked. The items included bedding and other personal effects, as Ms South had been in the process of moving house between two Adelaide suburbs at the time of her disappearance.
Her Samsung phone, however, was found three weeks later in a playground in Port Noarlunga, south of Adelaide, with its SIM card missing.
Family members have said the bright coloured jacket Ms South was wearing at the petrol station, was not uncovered in items found near her car.
The jacket is different to the description of a black and white jumper that a witness had previously reported seeing her in.
In a statement, Victoria Police said the physical search for Ms South had been scaled back.
"However we continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding her disappearance including any reported sightings and or new information that comes to light," the statement said.
Ms South's family has not ruled out foul play and is planning to return to the Wycheproof area this week to continue searching for her.