On the day Judith Young separated from her husband, she left their rural property and disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a vehicle, horses, and the country music artists she managed.

No one reported her missing for more than 18 months and now, nine years after she disappeared, police have launched a fresh appeal for information about her whereabouts.

Mrs Young, also known by her maiden name Judith Henry, was last seen by her husband after leaving their home at Gunningbland, near Parkes, in mid-December 1999. She would now be 48.

"The situation was that, in December 1999, she left the family property ... she left there after she and her husband separated," Inspector Steve Howard, from Parkes police, said.

"She left on that day ... and, we believe, to go to Queensland.

"A missing person report was not made until August 2001, when her brother rang to indicate he hadn't heard from her in two years and didn't know where she was."

The information that Mrs Young was leaving for Queensland had come "primarily from her husband'', said Detective Senior Constable Michael Maloney.

Left behind car and horses

At the Gunningbland property she had left her car, a Valiant, and two or three horses.

"She travelled quite extensively and even up to Queensland to purchase ... Andalucian horses.''

Mrs Young had also bought and sold second-hand wares from around the Parkes area, he said.

Phil Young, Mrs Young's estranged husband, said it was "rubbish'' that Judith's last contact with any family members was the day they separated, in December 1999.

He said Mrs Young had called both him and her sister-in-law in late 2000.

"There was contact made with her sister-in-law ... Judith was abusing her over the phone.

"I spoke to her probably a couple of months after that. She wouldn't [say where she was], I assumed she was in Queensland.''

He said Mrs Young had been "under pressure'' from her brother and his wife around the time she disappeared.

Reluctant

However, he would not elaborate, and said he was reluctant to discuss the case any further ahead of a likely coronial inquest.

He was unaware police had launched an appeal, and said he did not believe Mrs Young had met any harm. He did not believe her disappearance was out of character.

"Before I met her she lived in 16 places in four years - in Queensland, she lived everywhere.

"I'm hoping [any inquest] doesn't uncover anything - the last thing I want to find out is that something happened to her.''

Asked if he thought she was OK and living elsewhere, he said: ``I hope so.''

 Bill Henry, Mrs Young's brother, said her disappearance was out of character. He feared she had been murdered.

Attached

"She was very attached to our three daughters ... and there's no way she'd go so long without making some form of contact.

"[Since disappearing] she's never used her Medicare card [despite having ongoing medical problems], and she left money in the bank which if you know Judy was completely unnatural - she had to spend it as soon as she got it.

"She was a happy-go-lucky person, used to sing country and western music.

"But she didn't seem to have a purpose in life - she didn't want kids - but she was very generous to people.''

Mr Henry said his last contact with Mrs Young was in late 1999, when he and his wife had asked Judith to visit him after he had a quadruple bypass. She had been unable to come.

A former employee also said he worked for a business run by Mrs Young, collecting discarded railway sleepers around Parkes, which Mrs Young would then sell to others.

Country music

Police also described Mrs Young as a "country music identity".

"She wasn't huge, she was tied up with some bands out here and used to go to Tamworth and manage a few bands as a booking agent," Inspector Howard said.

"A lot of people in the industry would have known her."

The Country Music Association of Australia said it had not heard of a Judith Young, or a Judith Henry.

But Cheryl Chamberlain, from Parkes and District Country Music Association, said Mrs Young had also been an accomplished musician, in addition to managing bands.

"She did sing and play guitar. She sang quite well. She started managing a few bands [booking them at venues] in the Central West."

Mrs Chamberlain said she did not know Mrs Young personally, but said she often left town as part of her work as a band manager.

"Judy used to go away and you wouldn't see here around town for months," she said.

"[When she disappeared] people just thought she was just gone and would turn up again."

She was a strange girl: friend

A friend, who wished only to be known as "Lindy", described Mrs Young as "strange", but someone she got on well with. Lindy had known Mrs Young for about eight years before she disappeared.

"She was a strange girl, a lot of people had problems with her but I got on quite well with her, I took her at face value," she said.

"It's hard to put in words, unless you knew Judy.

"She was just different, she had some weird friends. There was one lady that was the fortune telling type, things like that.

"She did some funny things. She told me at one stage that she'd tell [her husband] Phil she was going to Orange and little did he know she'd go to Sydney and back - I don't know what that was about.

"She had a finger in every pie, she always tried to make a dollar.

"She used to get into men's work. She used to buy sleepers from the railways and saw them up for wood and sell them.

"She'd pick up the sleepers and go into town [to drop them off in her truck] wearing high heel shoes and short skirts."

Lindy and her husband met Mrs Young through their common love of country music, and had also attended her wedding to Phil about a year or two before she went missing, Lindy said.

She did not know much about Phil, whom she described as a "very quiet sort of fellow".

Lindy had also worked for Mrs Young's company, Billabong Music, as a typist, she said.

"A lot of people say she did not pay them, or gave them a valueless cheque, but she always paid us.

"We're always looking, you never stop looking," she said. "We were at a country music festival in June, and saw someone and thought 'That looks a bit like Jude', and of course you walk closer and it looks nothing like her."

Anyone with information can phone Parkes Police on 6862 9977 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Police said she was last seen on the property.

As the disappearance of Mrs Young was not reported until some two years after her disappearance, certainly processes and checks had to be carried out before any formal inquiries could be conducted.

Lachlan Detective, Senior Constable Scott Baker said last weekend’s search of the properties (two of them covering 2,500 acres) was initiated by the Deputy State Coroner McPherson who issued a Coronial Investigation Scene order.

He said it had taken this long for the search to be carried out because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the disappearance.

Det Baker said while the weekend search failed to find any remains, certain documents and some firearms were seized on Friday and again on Sunday, from a residence on the property.

He said police were now preparing a a brief of evidence for the Coroner which would include details of the search, statements gathered over the years of investigation and other items.

The Coroner will examine the brief in Glebe Coroners Court on May 21, and it is likely an inquest into the disappearance of Judith Young will then be conducted.