Sunday Telegraph Australia August 1, 1999

By Sarah Harris

Tracey Valesini's solemn, freckled face stares down from bar-room walls and shops windows along the eastern

seaboard. Although she's one of Australia's most wanted, she has committed no crime; except, perhaps, against the hearts of her family.

Tracey Leanne Valesini is one of the 28,000 people who go missing in Australia every year. Most of them will return home

within 48 hours, and 98 per cent are found within a year. But some, like Tracey, will join the legion of the long term lost.

George Valesini last saw his youngest child in December 1992.

Tracey then 20, was living with a couple at Green Valley, in south-western Sydney, when he went to visit her. Mr Valesini

recalls that Tracey seemed in good spirits and was looking forward to being reunited with her much-loved daughter

Crystal, then aged two.

"When I last saw her, she seemed fine," he says. "She didn't show any sign to me that anything was wrong?"

It had, however, been a blow to Tracey when Crystal was temporarily removed from her care after an anonymous phone

call to welfare authorities. She loved her child and was so determined she would retain custody of Crystal that she

attended Campbelltown Court every time the matter was even listed for mention.

It was on such a day at Campbelltown Court, January 8th, 1993 that Tracey was last seen. Inexplicably, she failed to turn up at court on January 21, the appointed hearing date.

Because the matter was not contested, custody of Crystal was awarded to the child's father. None of Tracey's extended family have seen or heard from her since.

Inquiries by the NSW Missing Persons Unit have established that she has not claimed any welfare payments since December, 1992.

Just over a year after the last confirmed sighting of Tracey, however, a cheque for $500 was deposited in her St George bank account in Liverpool. Five days later, $490.00 was withdrawn from the same account in the Blue Mountains.

Investigating police agree Tracey's disappearance is suspicious. Inquiries haven't been helped by the apparent reluctance of potential witnesses to co-operate with police.

George Valesini hasn't given up the hope of finding his daughter alive. In the years since Tracey disappeared, he has covered thousands of kilometres putting up posters from Southport, Queensland to Sydney.

Father and daughter had always enjoyed a close relationship despite Tracey's mercurial existence.

"She moved around a bit, but she always knew the door was open here at home for her," Mr Valesini says.

In a bid to help families like the Valesini's, the National Missing Persons Unit has produced a guide called Search Options and Support (SOS) for the families and friends of missing people.

The guide will be launched today to mark the beginning of Missing Persons Week and of the NSW Police annual Operation Safe and Well phone-in tomorrow.

NSW Missing Persons Unit co-ordinator Acting Senior Sergeant Jeff Emery says that of the estimated 8000 people who go missing in NSW each year, 99 per cent are located.

"It's important to keep in perspective that most people go missing of their own accord and will be located within a relatively short time," Sgt Emery says.

Family fear and distressed can be greatly allayed,  not to mention considerable community resources saved by contact from the missing person.