Mackay police explain the ‘72 hour window’ ahead of National Missing Persons Week

Police remind Mackay residents ‘the things you see and hear in movies may apply in the United States, but they don’t apply here in Queensland’.

Mackay police urge residents to dispel “movie” knowledge and act quickly when they believe someone has gone missing.

To launch National Missing Persons Week Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Tim Heller highlighted the importance of the first 72 hours of any missing person investigation.

“With investigations, evidence can have an expiry date, particularly forensically,” Sergeant Heller said.

“The sooner we can gather evidence the better, because there is the potential for a missing person to become a criminal investigation when things may turn sinister.”

He said when a report was lodged, police would assess key indicators to determine if the missing person was deemed “high, medium or low risk”.

Some indicators for high risk situations could include behavioural changes in the missing person, family dynamics and the lifestyle of the person.

Sergeant Heller said a Mackay detective would experience a “high risk” scenario about “two to three times every six months”.

He highlighted the important role family and friends played finding the missing person with their contact with police “crucial” in those first stages.

“They can give us the insight into the missing persons pattern of everyday life,” he said.

“We can learn as much about that person as quickly as possible and identify those movements to ultimately track them down.”

But Sergeant Heller said the ordeal, unsurprisingly, was taxing on those closest to the missing person.

“We deal with every single human emotion possible,” he said.

“Fear, anger resentment, worry all of those and sometimes together, that’s a big part of what we do as police officers we deal with emotions, sometimes that can form part of an investigation.

“That’s what we do.”

Senior Constable Steve Smith reminded people police could be contacted at any time and a report could be filed within hours.

“The things you see and hear in movies may apply in the United States, but they don’t apply here in Queensland,” Constable Smith said.

“There are no time factors involved, you don’t have to wait two days before you communicate with police.”

And for those who themselves may be considered a “missing person”, Constable Smith encouraged them to contact police without fear of their whereabouts being found.

“At the end of the day we are the conduit between the missing person and the person who reported them missing,” he said.

“If the person who is reported missing does not want their location to be provided to anyone else, we won’t do it.

“It is not our position to reveal the location of the person who does not want to be found.”