Twin searches for answers 30 years after Daniel Sheppard disappeared on New Year’s Day

It should have been a 10 minute walk from the train station but Daniel Sheppard never made it home on New Year’s Day. Now his twin brother is seeking the truth.

Michael Sheppard is the twin brother of Daniel Sheppard, who went missing almost 30 years ago. Picture Dean Martin

• SA’s forgotten cold cases

Twin brothers spent New Year’s Eve partying together but only one of the teens made it home, the other vanished without a trace.

Daniel Sheppard will always be a “childlike” 19 year old “party guy” remembered for his “happy-go-lucky character and freewheeling attitude” after he disappeared in the early hours of New Year’s Day in 1995.

His brother Michael is now a 49-year-old married father of two who had to grow up without his twin.

As the 30th anniversary approaches, Michael told The Sunday Mail he had accepted Daniel’s disappearance from their childhood neighbourhood involved “foul play”.

Michael Sheppard, the twin brother of Daniel Sheppard at Port Adelaide Railway Station. Picture Dean Martin

“I always want to remain hopeful about Daniel but it’s been 30 years and there’s been no breakthrough as to what happened that night,” Michael said.

“Over the years, I feel like I’ve had to face the reality that Daniel was probably a victim to an organised, predatory, possibly even pedophile-type circle, akin to the Family.

“They must have been waiting for someone like my brother to cross their path before they jumped on him – and they did everything very professionally – they didn’t leave behind any evidence for the police.

Michael and Daniel Sheppard on the 1st birthday. Picture: File

“I wonder if things would have been different if I was with him.”

Michael said he believed an organised group was to blame as opposed to “a bunch of thugs” entirely because there was no evidence left behind.

READ THE FILES ON 15 OF SA’S UNSOLVED COLD CASES

Daniel Sheppard went missing on New Year’s Day 1995 and has not been seen since he got of a train at Port Adelaide to walk the 10 minute trip home. Picture: File

The tragedy unfolded after the twins celebrated New Year’s Eve at Lennies Tavern in Glenelg and Daniel left with some of his friends to continue the party on Hindley St.

Sometime after the clock struck midnight on January 1, he walked to the Adelaide Railway Station and boarded a train heading towards Outer Harbour to go home.

On the train, Daniel ran into two girls he knew and told them “I’m partied out … I’m going home to crash”.

The girls would later tell police they thought he was moderately drunk but believed him to still be in control of his faculties.

It was 4.35am when he got off the train at Port Adelaide and was seen walking on the southern pedestrian ramp towards Baynes Place.

Michael and Daniel Sheppard on their 6th birthday. Picture: File

Daniel Sheppard never returned home after celebrating New Year’s Eve on Hindley St. Picture: File

Daniel hopped off a train after a big night of partying and was never seen again. Picture: Australian Federal Police

From there it should have taken him 10 minutes to get home but the teen never made it to his destination.

Michael said he raised the alarm and contacted the police on January 2 after realising Daniel hadn’t returned home or wasn’t with any of their friends.

“I didn’t know what to think at first and back then it was hard to understand the extent of what happened,” Michael said.

“You got to remember this was a time without phones and it was a strange time.

“We really couldn’t grasp how our lives would be changed.”

Daniel's sisters Denise Scarborough and Jenny Smitham. Picture: Tom Huntley

In the early days of the investigation a number of people stepped forward claiming to have seen Daniel on different sides of town including a close friend who said they spotted him at Rosewater.

Neighbours also reported hearing distressing cries at night in West Lakes.

South Australian coroner Mark Johns ruled Daniel was most likely dead in 2005.

Almost 30 years on Michael wants answers and said as time passed the unknowns had become harder to face.

Their mum Pat Sheppard died last June not knowing what happened to her son.

Michael said even at 92 she “never gave up hope there would be a breakthrough” and “they would learn happened to Daniel” until the last of her days.

Pat Sheppard with her then 18 year old son Daniel before he went missing. Picture: File

“This is a case without a trace,” he said.

“It’s harder not knowing and being left to wonder everything.

“But it’s more than that, Daniel has basically missed his life. I’m married and I’ve got kids and I think what would Daniel’s life had looked like if he was here with us.”

Michael and their five sisters – who had already left home by the time twins were born – want the truth of what happened to their brother uncovered.

But without answers they hold onto memories and the few personal possessions Daniel left behind – like a pushbike or come clothes.

South Australian Police is continuing to investigate the missing person case with a reward of up to $200,000 on offer to anyone who provides information that leads to a conviction or the recovery of Daniel’s remains.

A spokesperson said no evidence had been found to support the theory the teen was abducted by an organised, pedophile group.

“Suggestions that Daniel Sheppard was the victim of an organised abduction were raised in the media in 2015 and have been the subject of extensive investigations,” they said.

“While Daniel’s abduction remains unsolved, when any information concerning the case becomes available it is thoroughly investigated.

“His case file remains open and active.”

Originally published as Twin searches for answers 30 years after Daniel Sheppard disappeared on New Year’s Day