Missing person Leslie Keating: Storm Keating speaks about her Ramornie father

It has been almost three months since Storm Keating’s father went missing from northern NSW. Here she describes her beloved father and what it is like to live not knowing what has happened to him.

Leslie Keating

Ever since Storm Keating’s dad went missing, her life has felt like “a bad TV movie”.

Her father, Leslie Keating, 63, was last seen at a rural property on Ramornie Station Rd, Ramornie — about 25km northwest of Grafton, on October 20.

“I’ve thought of every possibility … I just want some news (because) he deserved so much better,” Ms Keating said.

Ms Keating was in Ireland where she has lived for roughly three years when her sister, Bri, called on November 12 and said she had not been able to contact their dad.

“I woke up the next morning to a missed call … and that’s when I found out he was gone,” Ms Keating said.

“(I felt) shock, frustration that I was so far away (and) guilty … I felt like my heart was falling out of my stomach”.

Storm Keating is looking for her missing father, Leslie Keating.

She flew back home to help find him immediately.

In the last call Ms Keating had with her dad, she had told him she was returning to Australia in January and knew he was “so excited” to see her.

“My dad always wanted kids … and he was the best dad, he taught me so much,” she said.

“I can lay a floor, we renovated houses together, if I called him in the middle of the night he would be there for me.”

Leslie Keating.

She described her dad as a tough, strong person who also had a sensitive side — she remembers him calling her in tears when her flying fish died while she was away.

“We would just talk for hours at a time,” she said.

“At one point we watched every documentary on animals or nature on Netflix together … he loved David Attenborough, absolutely loved it.”

Ms Keating said her dad’s disappearance “really hit home” when police finished scouring his property.

Since Mr Keating disappeared, police have conducted a full search of his 110 acre property, where he lived alone, using dogs and a helicopter. They have also searched the surrounding waterways and roads.

Now police have told Ms Keating they cannot physically search for him anymore and are relying on people to come forward.

“A police officer said something along the lines of, ‘I have 30 other cases open at moment. Your dad is not at the bottom of the list but he’s not at the top of the list’,” she said.

Storm and Leslie Keating.

She thinks her dad’s disappearance could be suspicious, adding she does not have much hope of finding him alive.

“There are still no answers,” she said.

“We’re no closer to finding him than when I moved back and I’m stuck in limbo.”

Ms Keating said she is unsure what to do and spends much of her time going to the South Grafton shopping centre, watching people walk past and hoping that “by some miracle” she will see her dad.

“My heart goes out to anyone who has had someone go missing because it’s all you think about,” she said.

“When I go to sleep, when I wake up … I have nightmares about my dad and sometimes I have dreams about my dad and (when) I wake up I’m sadder because that could be the last time that I get to see him.

“It’s just all consuming and I don’t know what to do with my days.”

Leslie Keating, missing from Ramornie since October 20, 2023.

In a statement, Coffs-Clarence police said they “hold serious concerns for … (Mr Keating’s) welfare”.

“Police are appealing to anyone who may have seen Leslie in the vicinity of Ramornie Station Rd or the Gwydir Hwy around 2.30pm on Friday (October 20),” the statement read.

Mr Keating is described as caucasian in appearance, with brown eyes, 160 to 170cm tall, with a thin build.

He had scruffy brown hair and a beard when he was last seen.

Know something? Contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.