Russell Jenkin left his home in Werribee Victoria at about 9.15pm in his silver 2006 Toyota Yaris. His car was found at the Lara Football Ground on 23 September 2006. He was last seen wearing blue/grey track pants, grey polo with a Toyota logo, red polar fleece windcheater and work boots.

 

Family despair as search continues

Posted on 07 June 2011.

By Alesha Capone - Star Community
 

WHILE 35,000 people are reported as missing in Australia every year, most are found very quickly.
However, when people truly disappear and end up on the National Missing Persons Co-ordination Centre list, their families are left waiting for news, sometimes for years or even indefinitely.
Sandie Gillette is one such person, along with her young sons Ethan and Charlie.
Ms Gillette’s partner and father of her two children, Russell Jenkin, left their Werribee home on 22 September 2006 in his silver Toyota Yaris.
The car was found at the Lara Football Ground, containing Mr Jenkin’s wallet, ID and cash, the next day.
“It’s been nearly five years this September, it has become emotionally easier for me to handle but it’s still something you think about all the time and it’s always in the back of my mind,” Ms Gillette said.
Her sons are now aged five and eight, and often ask about their Dad.
“I always say, ‘Wherever he is, I’m sure he’s thinking of you and loves you’,” she said.
Before his disappearance, Mr Jenkin was employed by Toyota manufacturing plant in Altona.
Ms Gillette said she wanted to find her partner for Ethan and Charlie’s sake, as well for his other relatives and her own peace of mind.
“He doesn’t have to call us, as long as he calls the police or someone to let them know he’s okay,” she said.
Detective Sergeant Dennis Williams, from the Wyndham CIU, has been investigating Mr Jenkin’s disappearance for years.
He said Ms Gillette prepared and distributed flyers, canvassed witnesses and conducted a door-knock in Lara after her partner disappeared in a “resolute and persistent” attempt to find him.
Det Sgt Williams also said Mr Jenkin’s mother has been a long-time resident of Lara. “As an investigator it is vexing that Russell remains missing, and it leaves a sense of unfinished business,” he said.
“For Russell’s family the consequences are immeasurably greater: the heartbreak and emptiness at not knowing what has become of a cherished son, brother, partner and father.
“It would be the most magnificent gift, if someone where to provide the information which might give them an answer and some closure to what has become of Russell.”
Anyone with information about Mr Jenkin’s whereabouts can contact Det Sgt Williams on 9742 9439 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Russell Jenkin was last seen leaving his Werribee home after a heated argument with his partner Sandie Gillette on September 22, 2006.

He’s been an official missing person ever since.

Mr Jenkin was also featured in a National Missing Person’s Week story in the Geelong Advertiser just three weeks ago.

Now Ms Gillette, mother of the couple’s two sons, has shared the story of her possible sighting of him at a Sunshine Coast shopping centre with hopes he will come forward and confirm his whereabouts to his family.

“I always sort of believed he was out there somewhere. But it was a bit of a shock seeing him. I don’t know how to explain it — it was numbing,” Ms Gillette said.

The 44-year-old was with her eldest son Ethan, now 15, and a daughter she had from another relationship, walking out of the Caloundra Stockland shopping centre on January 27, when she saw the man she believes was Mr Jenkin was coming right towards her.

When Ms Gillette and her children got into their car she kept watching. And he was watching them.

“He was very observant of us. By that time he had taken off his sunglasses and I realised that was definitely Russell,” she said. The only photo the family has of Mr Jenkin is the one that features on his missing persons page, which is now almost 15 years old. All the others of him were lost during the Queensland floods in 2011.

“Once (Ethan) checked the picture he realised it was him as well. He’s older, obviously, more heavy-set, but I’m positive it was him,” she said.

Ms Gillette has spent a decade trying to move on from a chapter of her life with no definitive end but it was her sons who encouraged her to go to the police and report the sighting.

Ms Gillette wants Mr Jenkin to go to a police station and tell them he is OK but is unsure what she would want to happen next.

“Me, personally, I don’t expect Russell would come back into the picture. But that doesn’t mean his sons can’t know him,” she said.

“They had asked about him many time over the years, especially Ethan as he was getting older. “There is always this not knowing — there is a gap there that needs to be filled in.”