Tiemuzhen "Tim" CHALAER
Missing since:
Circumstances
MEDICAL WARNING: Tiemuzhen suffers with a serious medical condition. He suffers from Type 1 Diabetes and did not have his insulin with him when he went missing.
About 4:30pm on Saturday 6 August 2016 Tiemuzhen Chalaer attended a party held in bushland at Wheelbarrow Ridge Trail, Lower Portland (33.3864°S 150.8919°E). Between 7:00am and 9:30am on Sunday 7 August 2016 Tiemuzhen has entered nearby bushland. He has not been seen since.
An extensive search of bush land located items belonging to Tiemuzhen. Unfortunately Police and volunteers have not been able to locate Tiemuzhen since his disappearance.
Police and the family of Tiemuzhen have grave concerns for his safety and welfare due to his medical needs and these actions are out of character.
If you have information that may assist police in the disappearance of Tiemuzhen please call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
https://podbay.fm/p/lost-in-sydney - PODCAST
Search for missing man Tiemuzhen Chalaer in bushland in Hawkesbury
By Kate Aubusson and Georgina Mitchell - Brisbane Times
Updatedfirst published at
Police hold grave concerns for a man who has been missing in dense bushland in the Hawkesbury area for more than 24 hours.
A search for Tiemuzhen Chalaer was suspended on Monday night, as temperatures were expected to dip to 4 degrees, and is due to resume at 9am on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old went missing from a campsite party at Lower Portland, near Wheelbarrow Ridge Road track and Greens Road, on Sunday morning.
He was last seen between 6.30am and 9am, when police believe he walked into bushland near the campsite.
Mr Chalaer was reported missing at 8pm on Sunday, when his friends returned to Sydney and realised the Chinese national wasn't with them.
Chief Inspector Garry Sims told ABC Radio that a misunderstanding led to the delay.
"It's one of those situations where everyone else was assuming he was with someone else, and it was only when people returned to their homes in Sydney they realised he hadn't returned," Inspector Sims said.
Dozens of police and volunteers launched a search for Mr Chalaer at daylight on Monday.
Local police joined officers from the Public Order and Riot Squad, Police Rescue, the dog squad, State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service to trek into the bushland to find the 24-year-old.
As well as the ground search, police used a helicopter and a drone to search from the air.
However, no trace of Mr Chalaer was found and the search was suspended at 5pm.
Friends and family took to Facebook to share a photo of the hotel management student, who was described as "the epitome of zen".
"I hope in God that he is safe. I'm praying for you my friend wherever you are. God be with you," one friend wrote.
His sister added: "Hello friends in Sydney, please keep an eye out for my brother."
Police hold grave concerns for Mr Chalaer's welfare as he has a condition that requires medication twice a day.
It is believed he did not take any supplies with him when he walked into the bushland, which was a chilly 8 degrees on Sunday night.
He was wearing a brown, chequered, button-up shirt, blue jeans, black adidas sneakers, a red scarf and a black leather jacket when he was last seen.
Police remain hopeful Mr Chalaer walked out of the bushland and is safe but hasn't managed to make contact.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to phone triple zero, or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Fears deepen for camper Tiemuzhen Chalaer, missing in Hawkesbury bush AUGUST 11 2016 - 9:04AM
An extensive search and rescue team has found no trace of a camper four days after he went missing from a campsite in the Hawkesbury area.
Chinese national Tiemuzhen Chalaer was last seen on Sunday morning, but his absence was not discovered until Sunday night when his friends returned home from the camping party. They then alerted police.
Their campsite at Lower Portland, near the intersection of the Wheelbarrow Ridge track and Greens Road, was surrounded by dense and hilly bushland, and close to the Colo and Hawkesbury rivers.
Mr Chalaer, 24, was last seen walking into the bushland between 6.30am and 9am.
Police and rescue officers have searched the bush surrounding the campsite and found no clues.
Officers from the Hawkesbury Local Command have been joined by police rescue, the State Emergency Service, Rural Fire Service and riot police.
Dogs have helped to search the ground, while drones and helicopters have searched from the air.
Detective Inspector Suzanne Rode-Sanders said the search was suspended at 4pm on Wednesday and would resume at 8.30am on Thursday, but a meeting would be held during the day to discuss what resources should continue to be invested.
"We've found a few bits and pieces but they've not turned out to be his, so at this stage we've been very unsuccessful," Inspector Rode-Sanders said.
"We're having a meeting with the rescue co-ordinator today [Thursday] to look at where we go to from here.
"Obviously the longer the search goes on, the less chance of finding him alive."
Mr Chalaer, who suffers from a condition that requires medication, was wearing a brown chequered button-up shirt, blue jeans, black adidas sneakers, a red scarf and a black leather jacket.
He is about 170 centimetres tall, of medium build and has a small moustache.
A prayer group that has been set up on Facebook has been praying for his safe return.
One member wrote: "It may sound naive of me but we believe he will be found."
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to phone triple zero, or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
What happened to Tim? Family of missing student Tiemuzhen Chalaer plead for help
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Rachel Olding SEPTEMBER 8 2016 SMH
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After a night enjoying music with friends at a camping festival, Tiemuzhen "Tim" Chalaer rose early on Sunday morning to go to the toilet.
Some time between 6.30am and 9am on August 7, he wandered a short distance from his tent into dense bushland in Sydney's Hawkesbury region.
He hasn't been seen since.
On Thursday, more than a month after their son vanished, Mr Chalaer's family made a desperate plea for help.
Police wrapped up the search operation for the hotel management student and avid music lover in August and will only conduct sporadic searches in the future.
They found Mr Chalaer's shoes, with the socks tucked inside, about 400 metres from the campsite.
But Mr Chalaer's mother and father, who have travelled from China to find their son, believe he has been kidnapped and is still alive.
"From the first day, as parents, our feelings told us our son was not dead," father Hakki Caglar, a Chinese industrial businessman, told Fairfax Media on Thursday.
"Parents sometimes have these feelings. The police said there was no evidence to divert them away from their search but we think he might be taken away. By who, we don't know. "
If someone does have their son, they have appealed to them to give Mr Chalaer insulin as he suffers from Type 1 Diabetes and will die without it.
When Mr Chalaer left his campsite, he didn't have his insulin.
His family believes he wouldn't have been able to wander far without it. The fact police found no trace of him within a six square-kilometre search area indicates to them that something else has happened to their son.
"The only explanation to us is he's not there, he's out of the area," Mr Caglar said.
Hawkesbury crime manager Detective Chief Inspector Paul McHugh said the area he disappeared in is extremely dense, rough terrain and there is no evidence to suggest foul play.
"We're reassessing at the moment as to what we can do with the search and there are investigations going on in the background. We're gathering all the information we possibly can about family, background, work, study, any links with associates, friends," he said.
Mr Chalaer had been in Australia for 18 months studying a masters in hospitality at the Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School.
Classmates, friends and fellow festival-goers have shared his image on social media, desperate to find the man they described as the "epitome of zen".
He attended the bush "doof" festival with three friends on August 6 and didn't know the other 300-or-so guests, his family said.
A photo of him taken the day before he disappeared shows him enjoying himself, smiling and wearing a multi-coloured scarf with his head shaved.
Search efforts were initially hindered because no one realised Mr Chalaer was missing until the Sunday evening, more than 12 hours after he disappeared.
"It's one of those situations where everyone else was assuming he was with someone else, and it was only when people returned to their homes in Sydney they realised he hadn't returned," Chief Inspector Garry Sims said at the time.
Temperatures dipped to 4 degrees during the following nights.
His family are thankful for the huge search effort that involved police, SES, Dog Unit and PolAir but they are heartbroken that resources have been scaled back.
His parents, who raced to Sydney the day their son went missing, have vowed to stay until they find him.
They have spent each day since then going to the area where he went missing, talking to his friends to see if they noticed anything and printing and distributing missing person posters.
At the bottom of the poster, it says: "his family is anxiously waiting for him".
Student, 24, who took a cocktail of drugs before disappearing at a 'bush doof' could have been saved - but his friends were too scared to report him missing, inquest hears
- The inquest into the death of a 24-year-old reveller who vanished is underway
- Tiemuzhen Chalaer, known to his friends as Tim, consumed a cocktail of drugs
- He and his friends were at an unregistered bushlands music festival in 2016
- Friends never reported him missing as didn't want the party to be shut down
The friends of a diabetic reveller who disappeared after consuming a cocktail of drugs could have saved his life, but they didn't want their festival to be shut down.
Chinese student Tiemuzhen Chalaer, known to his friends as Tim, was last seen alive at the unregistered GEOHectic music festival in regional New South Wales on August 6, 2016.
A three-day inquest before the NSW Coroners Court is currently underway, examining the true cause behind the 24-year-old's death.
On its first day, the court heard that Tim's friends waited more than 12 hours before reporting the diabetic, who wandered off without his insulin, as missing.
Fellow revellers watched on as the international student consumed acid, magic mushrooms, MDMA, cannabis and alcohol during the music festival.
The next morning, he got up at about 6:30am to urinate in a bush and was never seen again.
Friends who quickly realised he was missing chose not to report it to event organisers or police out of fear their party would be shut down - as it was unregistered and revellers were openly taking drugs, the inquest heard.
'Unfortunately they were more worried about their own self interest,' Detective Senior Constable Myles Oxford told the inquest
'They were more concerned about the party getting closed down.'
Mr Chalaer's friends scoured the campsite on their own for a while, before leaving without him.
The last person who saw the young man alive said he thought his mate had caught a ride with someone else, but suspected something was awry when his insulin lay unclaimed in the back seat of their car.
His flatmate immediately called the police when he found he was missing, more than 12 hours after he wandered into the bush.
The next morning police began a desperate search through bushland using helicopters, dogs, drones and hundreds of volunteers.
They only found a pair of shoes and socks 200 metres from the campsite, the court heard.
'If we had got down there earlier, if we had called out he might have been able to respond,' Det Oxford said.
One of Mr Chalaer's friends, who was given the court-appointed pseudonym Benjamin Casey, said he didn't want to play the 'drug blame game'.
He said the diabetic had smoked marijuana, making him paranoid that 'everyone was against him'.
He wandered off to urinate because he said he couldn't go with people nearby.
But doctors believe Mr Chalaer's diabetes caused acute urinary retention, meaning he may have died of a ruptured bladder.
The three-day inquest will determine whether Mr Chalaer died from a diabetes-related illness, exposure, a fall, foul play or suicide.