Missing Vandepeer family likely died at sea, inquest hears

Four years ago, the Vandepeers vanished with their boat off the South-East coast. Now an inquest has heard it shouldn’t have sunk.

The brother of a man who went missing at sea with his wife and son has told an inquest into their deaths the 7m boat they were in “shouldn’t have sunk”.

Angus Vandepeer told Deputy State Coroner Anthony Schapel he appreciated the efforts of those involved in the December 2016 search for his missing brother Len Vandepeer, Len’s wife Annette, both 56, and their son Douglas, 27.

“They put in what I thought was a pretty good search,” he said.

He said officers later conducting a sonar search of waters in an attempt to locate the missing 1992 Quintrex aluminium boat in January 2017, about two weeks after they went missing spent an extra day looking for signs of the vessel because the weather “was just too perfect”.

When asked if he was satisfied that his family members had died, Angus replied “yes”.

“It’s a pretty big boat, it shouldn’t have sunk,” he said.

The Cape Jaffa family went missing on December 12, 2016, after borrowing Angus’ boat for a rare sightseeing trip to survey recent weather damage to a nearby reef and coastline and fish for snapper.

Douglas, Annette and Len Vandepeer, who disappeared off South East coast in December 2016. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe.

Angus had planned to sell the boat, which he used to dive for crayfish. It had not been used since about April that year and had not been insured for three or four years.

In a statement tendered to the court, Angus said his brother had a boat licence but “I wouldn’t say he has a huge amount of experience”.

“It was a rare thing that Len and Annette would go out on the boat. I can’t remember the last time they had done that,” he said in the statement.

“There had been lots of changes to the beach recently so I think they wanted to have a look at that.”

The trio collected the boat from a shed in Kingston before CCTV footage shows the boat launching at Cape Jaffa about 10.30am.

Angus, who lived on the same property but in a separate house to his brother at Keilira where they farmed cattle, reported them missing the following morning when Len failed to join him to load cattle on to a truck as planned.

He rode a motorbike to his brother’s house and noticed his car was missing.

“I yelled out and opened the front door and then went to their phone and started making some calls,” he said in a statement.

Angus Vandepeer outside court after an inquest into the death of his brother Len Vandepeer, Len’s wife and their son Doug. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

He contacted Doug’s partner Rachel, who had stayed with her mother in Naracoorte the night they disappeared.

“We were starting to look for them 12 hours too late because she was not home that night,” he said.

He said there was no financial issues at the farm, which had expanded in the years before and the family were “well liked” in the community.

The families bank accounts had not been accessed by the trio.

Marine, air and land searches using local, police and Fisheries SA vessels, Polair, and State Emergency Services volunteers continued until December 19.

Part of a seat was found near 32 Mile Crossing, Tilley Swamp, on December 13, while a grey plastic bucket and tub from the boat were found nearby on December 14.

At the time, Len and Angus’ sister Sarah Vandepeer spoke publicly on behalf of the family saying they were “praying for a miracle” and that the missing trio would be found.

Mr Schapel foreshadowed his findings, to be published at a later date, would most likely say the Vandepeers each died on December 12, 2016.

“The causes of death in each case being exposure to the sea,” he said.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Stephen Plummer, said it was unlikely the trio would have been unlikely to survive longer than 24 hours in the water, which was about 15C at the time.

In a statement, Water Operations Brevet Sergeant Mark Lee Jacobs said he believed the Vanderpeers had drowned at sea, after the boat “sank in its entirety” or “capsized quickly”.

“It is not known what time the Vandepeer boat sank or capsized, but they were due home in the afternoon/evening and they had no nightime boating experience,” he said in the statement.

“I believe that during the day of Monday, 12 December 2016, Lennel, Annette and Douglas Vandepeer drowned at sea after their boat suddenly or unexpectedly sank or capsized due to reasons unknown.”

The court heard mobile phone reception was available at all times during the search area but none of the Vandepeers, who likely had their mobile phones with them, had attempted to call for help.