Without a trace: SA’s most baffling missing persons cases

More than 2500 people are among the long-term missing cases in Australia. Read more about South Australians who remain unaccounted for.

Tens of thousands of people are reported missing in Australia every year.

According to the Australian Federal Police, more than 53,000 people were reported missing to authorities in 2021 - more than half of them children aged 13-17.

Thankfully, over 98 per cent people are found within hours or a few days of authorities being notified by desperately worried family members, friends or colleagues.

But about 2600 people are among the long-term missing cases in Australia, classified as those who have been gone for more than three months and, sadly, remain unaccounted for.

In South Australia, 70 people are on the AFP’s long-term missing persons list.

Many of them were engaged in the stuff of every day life.

Visiting family, dropping the kids off at school, driving their partners to work, catching the train, taking a trip to the beach, the doctor, enjoying a few drinks at the pub.

Then, they simply disappeared, in most cases without a trace, or at least with scant few clues that might help authorities and those who desperately miss them understand exactly what happened to them and why.

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The cases listed here compiled from records published on the AFP’s Missing Persons website.

Several other South Australian cases are listed on the Australian Missing Persons Register, a website set up by Queensland mum Nicole Morris.

Some of the people on the register have been missing for less than a year, while others haven’t been seen since the late 1960s.

The oldest unsolved case on the list is that of Alan Ivor Edmonds who disappeared one day in 1959.

Edmonds was an English journalist who was travelling across Australia in the late 1950s, working a variety of jobs to support his adventures.

Edmonds sent his family a post card from Alice Springs on September 7, 1959, telling them he was headed to Adelaide that day. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

In several cases, rewards up to $1m remain on offer for information that can help authorities determine the whereabouts of a missing person.

If you have information about any of the people mentioned here, call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report it through theCrime Stoppers website.