It was one of the saddest things she’d ever done. She’d never met Michelle Lewis — she’d never even seen her.

But over the years, she’d gotten to know her anyway. Michelle was the tomboyish girl who’d been given a second chance at life — only to have it snatched away.

She was the girl who hadn’t celebrated her birthday until the age of 21, the girl who treasured her pretty room so much that she kept it immaculate, her clothes folded neatly in their drawers.

She was the girl who never went anywhere without her trusty red and white BMX — so much so, that when she disappeared, her bike did too.

But now, seven years on, Ann had to let it all go — admit defeat. They’d tried, tried so hard. But they’d never found out what had happened to Michelle Coral Lewis.

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ROCKHAMPTON in the 1980s was still a small enough town for word to spread via the local grapevine when someone was in need.

Sixteen-year-old Michelle had been given up by her mother and passed between relatives throughout her childhood. Her most recent guardian, her grandmother, had passed away. Now there was nobody else to take her on.

Local woman Adeline “Dell” Salhus was known for her habit of taking injured birds under her wing.

She was a mother, not only to her own children, but to anyone who needed it.

She was selling seedlings one day at the local markets when a friend approached.

“The girl’s been moved from pillar to post,” the friend told Dell. Did she know anyone who might take her on?

“She always felt there were people out there that needed help,” Dell’s daughter Ruby told The Courier-Mail in a recent interview.

“That mothering instinct in her was very strong.”

Dell took Michelle in. For the first time in her life, the teenager had a place that felt like home.

They quickly became close. Michelle cherished everything about her new home: the bedroom that was just for her, the clothes she was given, the friendship they shared.

“Mum looked on her as a second daughter,” Ruby said.

“Michelle could always go to her and talk.”

There were things that Michelle shared with Dell that she’d never told anybody.

But Michelle wasn’t the only one Dell took in.

Ruby’s son Kenny — Dell’s grandson — had decided it was time to get out of Tully, the small Queensland town where his family lived.

The town had little in the way of nightlife and Kenny wanted to be closer to the action. The ever generous Dell welcomed him with open arms.

Kenny had fought his own battles in life. Born with cerebral palsy, he was a target for bullies.

He was paralysed in both right limbs and had one leg shorter than the other. It made walking difficult. He managed, but with a pronounced limp.

Kenny wanted to be a race car driver. He loved to tinker with engines and learnt to drive despite the difficulties.

“I think he set his sights too high,” Ruby said.

“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.”

Michelle and Kenny hit it off — a motley crew of two. He couldn’t care less about her past and she couldn’t care less about his disability.

They did everything together. They were like brother and sister and Dell cared for them like her own children.

They were an unlikely family but they’d made it work.

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WHEN Michelle turned 21, Dell threw her a huge party. They held it at the house and Dell stretched her budget to make it a night to remember.

“You know, this is the only birthday party I’ve ever had!” Michelle told Dell excitedly.

When the guests cleared out, Kenny took Michelle out nightclubbing in town.

“She was a lovely girl, a friendly, outgoing girl,” Ruby recalled.

“I got the impression of a loving girl who’d just had a raw deal in life. I think she’d been told too often she wasn’t good enough.”

Michelle had tried her hand at a few different jobs, but, like Kenny, loved to dabble in mechanics.

By 1989, she’d landed a job that she loved. Her colleagues were surprised by her work ethic. Nothing was too much trouble.

On January 14, Michelle dressed in a pink tie-dyed singlet and a pair of shorts and got out her trusty Malvern Star — the BMX that took her everywhere.

She had a friend who lived nearby, only a few minutes ride.

The pair sat down to watch movies. At 10pm, as the credit rolled across the screen, the friend suggested they put on one more.

But Michelle did not want to worry Dell by arriving home late. The friend waved goodbye as Michelle pedalled away on her BMX.

The ride from the friend’s Stenlake Ave home to Dell’s place on Alexandra St was no more than a kilometre. Michelle was fit and strong. It would have taken her just minutes to pedal soundlessly past a few blocks of Queenslanders and single storey brick homes, past a small park ringed by squat wooden railings.

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

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DELL was frantic.

She searched the streets of Rockhampton for her lost daughter. A devastated Kenny trawled local nightspots in case she’d decided to go out.

He became obsessed with finding her, turning up at search sites to watch police at work.

They became suspicious. Perhaps his disability drew his attention.

“What are you doing here?” they’d ask him.

“She’s my mate,” he’d say. They didn’t know she was like a sister to him. The one who’d accepted him, protected him.

Dell became convinced something terrible had happened.

“My mother was most certain in her own mind that (Michelle) had been murdered and probably buried somewhere,” Ruby said.

“Mum never really got over the loss of Michelle and neither did Kenny.”

Dell became convinced that a man she knew was behind Michelle’s disappearance. The man, she believed, had been taking a little too much interest in the young woman.

Ann, who spent years investigating Michelle’s disappearance, recalls that police were aware of the suspicions — but were never able to prove he was involved.

“She had such a sad life as a young girl growing up,” the retired detective said.

“She was lucky she survived as long as she did. She was a fairly well-adjusted girl by all accounts.”

Some detectives would come to believe serial killer and rapist Leonard John Fraser could be responsible for Michelle’s disappearance.

In 1998 and 1999, Fraser killed three women and a nine-year-old girl. Before that, he’d spent 20 of the preceding 22 years behind bars for raping women.

When police raided his house in Rockhampton, they found several ponytails, severed from their owners. None of them matched his known victims.

He may have been a good fit — he was even known to have frequented the very road where Michelle was last seen — but prison records showed Fraser was behind bars when Michelle disappeared.

Ann said Fraser had not crossed their radar at the time.

She said the investigation was intense — but sadly fruitless.

“There are certain investigations you always remember,” she said.

“I still remember her full name. Michelle Coral Lewis.

“I remember the house. I could drive you there. It wasn’t extravagant. It was a homely place. Dell was probably the closest thing to a mother Michelle had ever had.

“I don’t think people realise it, but police officers do have feelings.

“You always think about the ones you didn’t get.

“I always said, after I was moved on to other areas, if you ever find who killed her, I want to be the one to arrest him.”

DELL would go to her grave still grieving for the daughter she’d taken in.

When she developed emphysema, she vowed to write Michelle’s story. She wanted to write a book about the lost girl and the life she’d found.

But she went downhill quickly and died before she had the chance.

Kenny, who never got over losing his best mate, would also die too young.

Broken-hearted, he eventually moved home to Tully, taking a job with another man managing a rural property.

In 2003, he was beaten to death by that man. Shaun Dennis had borrowed Kenny’s car and the pair argued about it. It should have ended with an argument — but instead the argument ended Kenny’s life when Dennis beat him to death.

There are few people left to remember Michelle’s short and sad life: Ruby — and Ann, the detective who will never forget.