Legacy of Tony Jones starts national movement to solve missing persons cases
The unanswered disappearance of Tony Jones in Townsville instigated an annual National Missing Persons Week to bring to light hundreds of unsolved missing persons cases each year.
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THE unanswered disappearance of Tony John Jones in Townsville instigated an annual National Missing Persons Week to bring to light hundreds of unsolved missing persons cases each year.
Mr Jones disappeared near Townsville in November 1982.
The inaugural week took place with a memorial service in Townsville in 1988, when former mayor Dan Gleeson planted a tree in commemoration of Mr Jones.
Western patrol group Inspector Roger Whyte said the purpose of the event was to “raise awareness on the significant issues associated with missing persons and to help reduce the incidence and impact of missing persons in Australia”.
He said there was only one way to describe the raw emotion families and friends felt around the disappearance of a loved one.
“I think if you can use the word traumatic, I will apply that infinite amount of times,” he said. “I couldn’t think of anything more traumatic than to have a loved one disappear and to not know what happened.”
To this day, Mr Jones’s family have no clear idea of how or why he vanished 37 years ago.
A Supreme Court ruling quashed the hopes of his family looking for answers to his disappearance.
A coronial inquest in 2002 found Mr Jones was killed, although it is not known who he was killed by.
Then in 2010 a second inquest was held but was adjourned after lawyers found it was being heard under the 1958 Coroners’ Act and not the amended 2013 legislation, which could jeopardise criminal prosecutions. Insp Whyte said police worked tirelessly for years to solve missing person mysteries, saying families were “deserving of finding out what’s happened”.
“Any serious crime, particularly murder, is never closed,” he said.
“There’s a lot of reasons why people go missing. Hopefully a lot of those reasons aren’t sinister.”
Insp Whyte said major developments in modern technology could help answer unexplained disappearances, providing closure to family and friends.
“New technology has identified an offender … with new evidence and new technological advancements allowed for that solving of crime that occurred many, many years beforehand,” he said.
This year’s National Missing Persons Week is themed around “individuals not statistics”, focusing on eight individuals to personalise the 2600 long-term missing persons in Australia. In Queensland, the focus was placed on Michael Adrian Lorenz-Schrader, reported missing on September 20, 1996.
Mr Lorenz-Schrader lived in Cairns for a few months and was last seen by family on August 21, 1996.
They believe he was last seen travelling to the Northern Territory, through western Queensland, in a Ford Falcon station wagon with the registration 374AEY.
Leslie Ralph Ball
Last seen at a house in Yolanda Drive, Murray, on the outskirts of Townsville on April 18, 1993.
Frederick Donald Bamboo
Mr Bamboo, a Mossman resident, was last seen on Palm Island when he attended a funeral in June 1995.
Jay Anthony Brogden
Mr Brogden was last seen at Cannonvale on April 21, 2007 after a domestic disturbance with his girlfriend. He has not been in contact with family and friends since.
Michael James Isles
Police Senior Sergeant Isles was last seen in Ayr on September 23, 2009.
An unmarked police vehicle, believed to be driven by Sen-Sgt Isles, was found about 80km northwest of Ayr in bushland off an unsealed road on the way to Ravenswood.
Tony John Jones
Mr Jones left Townsville to hitchhike to Mount Isa and has not been seen since November 3, 1982.
Paul Laba
Mr Laba was last seen in Woodstock in late 2005 at his mining lease campsite. His vehicle was found in poor condition in remote country nearby.
Rosemary Gwendoline McLean
Ms McLean was last seen standing with her green 1999 Toyota LandCruiser near Lake Moondarra outside Mount Isa on January 14, 2017. She had two dogs with her.
J ohn Frederick James Trace
Mr Trace was last seen by family in 1973 in the Brisbane area. It is believed he travelled to North Queensland.
Originally published as Legacy of Tony Jones starts national movement to solve missing persons cases
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