Disappearance of Michelle Lewis from Rockhampton in 1989 still haunts retired detective Ann Gumley

In 1989, Michelle Lewis rode away on her bike - and was never seen again. From sad beginnings to a tragic end, here's a look at a case one detective can't let go.

Anne Gumley worked the investigation into Michelle Lewis's disappearance and still wants to be the one to make the arrest if the case is ever solved.

THEY were the most unlikely of mates.

A motley crew of two. A pair of outcasts taunted and teased for their supposed shortcomings.

But for a few years, Kenny Harris and Michelle Lewis had each other. Then, one day, she didn't come home.

Michelle was a tomboy from a broken family. She loved to fix things. She was never without her BMX. It took her everywhere she needed to go.

Shuffled between relatives after her mother gave her up, Michelle was about 16 when her latest guardian, her grandmother, died.

Rockhampton in the late 1980s was small enough for townsfolk to know she had run out of relatives.

Missing girl case still haunts detective

Adeline Salhus or Dell to her friends, was selling seedlings and cut flowers from a trestle table at a Rockhampton market when she was approached by a friend.

"The girl's been moved from pillar to post," the friend told Adeline.

Surely there was someone who could take her in?

There was. Dell opened her door to the girl and for the first time in her life, Michelle had a home.

She had her own bedroom in Dell's lowset, suburban house. It had a big backyard. It was clean and neat and homely.

The divorcee with a heart as big as an ocean didn't have much but she made sure her teenage foundling had a room full of nice things.

Michelle was grateful. She kept that room in immaculate condition.

Dell's adult children lived in Tully, where the family had its roots but her grandson, Kenny, would come to occupy another bedroom in Dell's house. Kenny wanted to be a racing car driver.

"I think he set his heights too high," his mother Ruby Harris said. "Ken had cerebral palsy. He was paralysed in one arm and one leg, his right side. One leg was shorter than the other so he walked with a limp.

"He could ride a bike and eventually was able to drive. His independence was really important to him and we knew we wouldn't always be there to take care of him."

Life was cruel for Ken. He endured endless taunts in the schoolyard and it was just as bad when he eventually entered the workforce.

Michelle had been teased too. She was a shy tomboy with no real family. She didn't notice his disability and he didn't notice her background.

They watched movies together and toured the town's nightclubs. He was like her brother and they were fiercely protective of each other. Kenny was 19 when Michelle turned 21. It was a big day and Dell marked it by throwing a party at the house.

"She said to Mum, 'you know, this is the only birthday party I've ever had','' Dell's daughter Ruby said.

On January 14, 1989, Michelle got up and put on her pink tie-dyed singlet and a pair of shorts. That afternoon she rode her Malvern Star bike - a red and white BMX she rode everywhere - and pedalled to her friend's house on nearby Stenlake Ave.

"It was after 10pm and the friend wanted to watch one more movie but Michelle was worried that Mum would be worried," Ruby said.

The most direct route from Stenlake Ave to Dell's house on Alexandra St would have been no more than a kilometre and it would have taken her only a few minutes.

She should have made it home in no time at all but she didn't make it home at all.

Deceased serial killer Leonard John Fraser suspected in Michelle's disappearance

"If you find that bike, you'll find Michelle," said retired detective Ann Gumley, who led the investigation.

"To think that someone who had such a sad life in her younger years, who ended up with a foster family who did look after her - I mean, her room was beautiful, all her clothes were folded in her drawers - just disappeared"

Dell became frantic when Michelle didn't turn up. She searched endlessly. Kenny took off to look for her. He trawled nightclubs, searched the streets and kept turning up where police were searching. They wanted to know what he was doing. He told them: "She's my mate.''

Dell was convinced something terrible had happened to her foster daughter.

There was a man she knew who seemed to have been taking too keen an interest in Michelle and Dell began to suspect him. She voiced those suspicions to detectives, who grilled the man but found nothing.

"I spent a lot of time on that investigation," Ann said.

Police interviewed hundreds of people in their hunt.

Eventually, Ann was moved to another part of Queensland. After seven years she was asked to write a report for the coroner on Michelle's disappearance.

"It was probably one of the saddest things I've ever done," she said. "I'd worked on a lot of fairly big jobs up in Rocky but she was the one where I always said if it ever came to light what had happened, I wanted to be the one to arrest the person involved. I needed to have that closure myself."

Kenny eventually moved home to Tully and took a job with another man managing a rural property. He was beaten to death by that man, Shaun Dennis, after an argument over Dennis borrowing Kenny's car.

That made two lives needlessly lost. Dell died last year. And now there's just Ruby - and Ann the retired detective who cannot forget.

"It was just one of those jobs you can't walk away from,'' Ann said. "You just wonder what happened. I'd bet my life somebody killed her.

"I don't believe she left of her own accord. She was a girl who'd had such a sad life and met such a sad end.

"For years I'd see posters put up about missing persons. I always looked for her but her photo never came up."