A NEW area is being searched this week for the remains of a cold-case murder victim who vanished 21 years ago.
Gregory Armstrong, a painter from Maryborough, disappeared in 1997, with police fearing he was murdered by someone from the region’s underworld over a drug debt.
He was last seen at a Commonwealth Bank ATM on Adelaide St, Maryborough, on the morning of May 7.
A search this week of Tuan Forest, southeast of Maryborough, comes after detectives received new information in the past two weeks about his likely murder.
It is the third search of the area, although the current search is taking place in a new location between Poona and Tuan.
The last search was in 2006.
The new section of the forest was yesterday scoured in a grid search by 20 State Emergency Service personnel, along with local police with hi-tech equipment that wasn’t available 12 years ago.
Divers and cadaver dogs were also used.
“There’s obviously been some new people who have come forward with information in the last couple of weeks,” Acting Detective Senior Sergeant David Guild said.
“In many cases they don’t realise the information they hold could be utilised in some way.
“As the links come together, people sort of realise that ‘I was there on that day’ or ‘I heard this conversation’.”
Police have been inundated with calls about the crime since making a fresh appeal for information earlier this month.
The search is expected to continue for at least another day, but could be extended if other people come forward.
In 2005, state coroner Michael Barnes said: “Sworn evidence has been obtained by police indicating that (Mr Armstrong) was in dispute with a number of other people involved in (drugs).
“One of those criminals assaulted one of (Mr Armstrong’s) associates and was subsequently convicted of murdering another person involved in a dispute over drugs.”
Mr Armstrong had moved to Maryborough from Beaufort in Victoria about a year before he disappeared, working as a painter by day.
He was reported missing two weeks after he vanished.
Mr Armstrong had a slight intellectual impairment that saw him easily taken advantage of, his family has acknowledged in the past.
Police believe his trusting nature saw him easily tricked into giving away drugs for free, racking up a large debt, and possibly a bounty on his head.
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