Keith Robert Nixon

 

 

   

 

            Above - Age enhanced image of Keith

 

  Keith Robert Nixon, pictured with his daughter Tricia, at their family farm in Sea Lake, Victoria. Mr Nixon went missing 18 years ago from the West Beach Caravan Park. Supplied: Tricia NixonMay be an image of 1 person

 

 

Born  1942/43?

Last seen at the West Beach Caravan Park, SA at about midday on 30 May 1996.

Description

Caucasian, 170 cm tall, average build, olive complexion, short dark but greying hair and green eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he had a close trimmed full facial beard. Mr Nixon sometimes wore a beard and moustache and other times he was clean shaven.



Circumstances:
Keith Nixon was last seen walking along a footpath carrying a black bag at midday on Thursday May 30, 1996, at the West Beach Caravan Park, South Australia.
Mr Nixon was last seen walking along the foot trail at the rear of the Caravan Park at 12:45pm.
Mr Nixon and his wife had been happily married for almost 30 years and had just completed a trip around Australia. They had been living in the caravan park for about six months and planned to settle back in Adelaide. The couple was familiar with the area as they had taken their family holidays at the part for more than 20 years.
On the morning he disappeared, Mr Nixon did nothing out of the ordinary. He washed the breakfast dishes and tidied the caravan as he always did, walked to the park's kiosk and bought a paper. His wife went to work.
On that day cash was withdrawn from a bank account but other personal items were left behind.
The police were called in and started a search that night.
Police conducted a land, air and sea search but were unable to locate Mr Nixon. He was financially secure, had no marital concerns, and was in good health. Despite extensive enquiries by police and his family, his whereabouts still remain a mystery.
 

If anyone has seen this man, or has information regarding his whereabouts, please contact:

BankSA Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000.

18 years since Keith Robert Nixon went missing from an Adelaide beach, his daughter makes a final plea to find her dad

DOTTED around Tricia Nixon’s apartment are reminders- and memories - of her father.

Visitors to her West Beach unit are greeted by a framed collection of images of Keith Robert Nixon, pictured smiling with family and friends.

On a table are glass bottles which Ms Nixon and her father collected from the family farm they once owned in at Sea Lake, Victoria, and in her small backyard is birdcage her father built for her.

But it’s an ordinary calico shopping bag, jammed with folders and pieces of paper, that represents Ms Nixon’s struggle to answer a question that has tormented her for nearly two decades – what happened to dad?

The bag contains receipts, telephone numbers, news clippings, letters of appeal, letters from authorities and a diary in which Ms Nixon has jotted down important dates, events and her thoughts since her dad went missing on Thursday, May 30, 1996.

“Why? How? Where has be gone? What happened? Are phrases that go over in my head day after day, I always try and think have we missed something?” Ms Nixon, 41, said.

“I just don’t know and am I ever going to know?”

Ms Nixon was 23 when her dad, disappeared without a trace, after he wandered from the West Beach Caravan Park carrying a black zip-up bag and wearing green jeans and green jumper.

Last month Ms Nixon created the “Keith Robert Nixon” Facebook page to try and raise greater awareness in a final crusade to find out what happened to her father.

If no new evidence comes to light she intends to apply to the Supreme Court Probate registry for a “letters of administration” which, if granted, would legally declare her father dead allowing the family to finalise outstanding matters of his estate.

Mr Nixon and wife Lynette, who had sold their sheep and wheat farm in Victoria, had travelled around Australia for 18 months ending the holiday in SA in November 1995 where they intended to retire and be close to Tricia who was working in Adelaide.

The caravan park was special to the family as they had holidayed there for three weeks, every January and always in the same cabin, for 21 years.

The night before he disappeared the family had looked at a house at Lockleys with the intention of signing papers for the property on the Saturday.

“Dad was suggesting ideas that we could do to renovate the house, he talked about where the spa would go, where the bird aviaries would go that he had built while on the farm and where mum and I would park our cars,” Ms Nixon said.

Her mother now lives three streets away from that house.

On the day he disappeared Mr Nixon had washed the breakfast dishes, tidied the caravan and withdrew $250 from the bank as he did each fortnight.

Tricia arrived at the caravan park at 12.45pm to find her parents 4WD parked out the front, the key to the caravan in its hiding spot but no evidence of her dad. His wallet, reading glasses and keys were there and Ms Nixon thought that her father must have been visiting someone.

It was that night when Lynette returned home from work and noticed washing was still on the line outside the toilet block and that her husband’s wallet and credit card were untouched that panic began to set in.

At 9pm they rang all their friends in Adelaide to no avail and at 9.30pm Ms Nixon called the Glenelg Police Station to report her dad missing sparking a swift and air, land and sea search.

The last person to see Mr Nixon was the caravan park’s gardener, Mark who chatted to Mr Nixon as he walked along an old trail at the back of the caravan park, overlooking the beach.

Ms Nixon last month set up a Facebook page “Keith Robert Nixon” in a bid to reach to a bigger audience in the search for her father and the grandfather her four-year-old son, Ky, never met.

“To me I don’t understand that he could go and live another life, if you knew him, he was a family man, he wouldn’t do that,” she said.

“But then, how could he just go, or did he not want to be found? Well if he’s gone and taken his own life, where has he gone? Why don’t you want to be found?

“I know hope that between family, friends and the public that like and share dad’s page one day we may know the whereabouts dad.

“Every time I tell people the story it’s like I’m telling them about a movie – it doesn’t feel real.”

Anyone with information contact regarding Mr Robert’s whereabouts contact CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 000.

 

It is 20 years since Keith Nixon disappeared while staying with family at West Beach Caravan Park in Adelaide – do you have any information that could help police and his family find out what happened?
It is believed the 54-year-old was planning to walk from Glenelg to Henley Beach on Thursday 30 May 1996. On that day cash was withdrawn from a bank account but other personal items were left behind.
Police conducted extensive searches of the area but Keith has never been heard from or seen since. His family still live in hope that one day he will contact them.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
This week – National Missing Persons Week - spare a thought for the families of the people left behind with unanswered questions, and help families with loved ones at risk of going missing #NMPW2016#stayconnected.