Missing Persons Australia

Providing families with persistent hope and actionable insights

Last week was National Missing Persons Week here in Australia. If you happened to have scrolled through Leave A Light On Inc’s or Australian Missing Persons Register newsfeeds during that unholy time, you would have gained a scant insight into the numbers of long-term missing cases there are in Australia, and the subsequent prolonged turmoil of families and friends of those loved ones unfound. This year’s NMPW ‘Always Searching’ AFP campaign focused on “the continuing efforts of police to solve missing persons investigations.”
I’d like to now add a secondary, and in our regard proven more appropriate promotion: a heartfelt thanks to “members of the public” – private companies and individuals – who go to extraordinary lengths in continual searches where police have long stopped. Having spoken and messaged with family members of other missing persons cases these last many years, I know only too well that these sentiments are widely shared in our misfortunate community.
So, I am honoured to be able to share and promote a personally very special update of one such member of the public who offers their services to anyone in need. 

Do you recall that magnificent bloke who graciously donated his time and wealth of experience, undertaking a month-long search of the WA Outback for our family last March-April, culminating in descending the same abandoned mine shaft where Ray was found then unearthing ‘items of interest’ that subsequently led to police reexamining that outback murder scene eight years after the event?
I affectionately call him Ricky Balboa, my brother-from-another-mother, due to his unearthly ability to identify, bag and tag evidentiary ‘rocks’. Balboa had graciously spent nearly a full month isolated in that stark desert landscape, at the whims of my family, searching for answers – of which he found many – before Mal and I broke the outback silence. “I’m just a bloke with an asset police do not have: Time.” he had said while we sat around the campfire last Easter. That fire was built high enough to announce those findings of the day to anyone within hundreds of miles. “I’ve remained undetected for weeks,” Rick shook his head, flames reflecting on his righteous smile. “Then the brothers arrive and illuminate a f—king grid square…”
A few moons thereafter, ‘Rick’, as he is otherwise known, woke one morning (last June) with, in his words, "The kind of news that makes my work feel not just necessary, but deeply fulfilling. It’s a testament that Time, patience, and relentless pursuit of the truth can lead to potentially game-changing discoveries.” That was of course when police announced the reexamination of Ray’s abandoned mine shaft, following forensic testing of the items of interest Rick had delivered to them. 

Rick has been a busy man this last year since. I’ve been vicariously following his searches for other missing persons all across our wide and sparse state. Rick has now founded his own organisation: Missing Persons Australia.

MPA’s website just came online. In the meantime, Rick has allowed me to share a few key insights.
MPA’s mission is to “provide families with persistent hope and actionable insights, leveraging on [Rick’s] veteran expertise in Intelligence gathering as well as maven knowledge of Search and Rescue to keep the search for Missing Persons in Australia moving forward,” offering a fresh perspective to cold cases.

Missing Persons Australia’s Vision: Empowering families with a veteran’s dedication into the awareness and prevention methods of vulnerable persons, whilst transforming the search for Missing Persons in Australia into a journey of hope for resolution.

With 10 years of service in the Australian Army as a Joint Fires Observer, Rick's specialties included intelligence gathering and target acquisition, with a keen focus on surveillance and reconnaissance. His meticulous attention to detail and analytical skills and intuitive thinking allows him to uncover facts and clues often overlooked.

After leaving the Army, Rick joined the Queensland SES, where he honed his expertise in conducting Search and Rescue missions. His leadership in these high-stakes operations was admired by his peers and members of his teams. He adopts a positive approach and attitude to any mission he undertakes, which gives you the hope for answers.

Today, Rick is volunteering his unique skills to the public, utilizing his years of expertise and valuable time to help find your missing loved ones. Whether you're struggling with a current search or looking for new leads in a cold case, Rick could be the game-changing resource you need.

Rick is focusing on missing persons not deemed to have met with foul play now, due to resistance encountered in our case, not the least of which a warning that doing so could see himself paradoxically “fall foul of the law”.
It is people like Rick, and others so far unnamed who have continued searching and offering their own individual expertise, and only—trust me on this—only these magnificent “members of the public”, that have allowed us to NEVER give up hope that one day answers will be found in Ray and Jennie’s prolonged Outback Mystery.
So, if you have a long lost loved one, and are in need of assistance, I could not recommend highly enough that you reach out to Rick.

With a clenched fist thumped against my heart I say, thank you, little brother.
Rock on 🤘🙏

Missing Persons Australia
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