They are emotional stories. They are mysterious stories. They are heartbreaking stories. They are people stories. Stories told about people who are lost, by those who are left behind, the people who knew them best.

STEPHEN, MICHELLE AND THE LIME GREEN VAN

FORTY years may have passed — but that won’t stop family, friends and investigators from searching for a young couple that vanished in the dead of night.

Stephen Lapthorne and Michelle Pope, then 21 and 18 respectively, disappeared while travelling from Stephen’s family home in West Pymble to Berowra on Friday, August 25, 1978.

The case, which rocked the upper north shore at the time, resulted in countless searches, pleas from family and friends to private investigators and, years later, an inquest that identified backpacker serial killer Ivan Milat as a person of interest in the couple’s disappearance.

Investigators, family and friends have vowed to continue the search for information into the young couple’s disappearance in a series of exclusive interviews with the Hornsby Advocate as part of Lost in Sydney.

The rally cry of those closest to the case comes just weeks before the 40th anniversary of the couple’s disappearance.

As part of the special investigation, which also coincides with National Missing Person’s Week, the Advocate sat down with family, friends, investigators and interest groups that continue to hold on to hope.

Mr Lapthorne’s father, Victor, confessed that he believes police investigations will never reveal what happened to the young couple the night they disappeared.

“This will be the mystery that dies with me,” he said.

“I have waited too long to know what happened to my son and I will probably never know.”

THE INITIAL SEARCHES

ANDREW and Shayne Tompkins were close friends of Stephen and Michelle, and were among the first people contacted by the Lapthorne family following their disappearance.

“Hardly a week goes by where we don’t think whatever happened to Steve,” Andrew said.

“I have a strong theory (about their death) that I don’t really waver from.

“They were probably surprised by someone … the person or persons took them with the van, hid it and murdered them.”

The Tompkins family revealed Stephen Lapthorne was loyal, caring and known to help those in need.

“He was the type of person that would help someone that flagged him down on the side of the road,” Shayne said.

“He would pick up stranded hitchhikers and always lend a hand to anyone that asked.

“He was someone that anyone could rely on and never kept his friends waiting.”

Stephen and Michelle had been dating for 12 months when they disappeared.

Andrew revealed his best mate Stephen was supportive of his girlfriend’s decision to complete her HSC, he said he understood the importance of that decision and respected the fact that she was three years younger than he was.

Searches for Stephen and Michelle started just hours after the alarm was raised by friends of Stephen, who were expecting to meet him before they embarked on a skiing trip in the early hours of the morning on August 26, 1978.

“We didn’t stop searching, for days, even months we searched the bush for any sign of them,” Andrew said.

“We started widening the search and even sought the help of crime journalists like Harry Potter, who had helicopters that could be used to locate them.

“We were desperate to keep them in the limelight so people would keep searching for them, so any publicity was good publicity.”

Family and friends said searches, which first started in the bushland surrounding The Comenarra Parkway at South Turramurra, were then widened over several months to as far as Glenorie and Galston.

Andrew confessed he had followed a car with the same numberplate as Stephen’s lime green CF Bedford van through Baulkham Hills 30 years after the couple’s disappearance.

“I was shocked and horrified to see that numberplate,” he said.

“I followed the car for as long as I can, I though the driver must have had something to do with Stephen and Michelle but I was stuck at a light and lost track of them.

“I came home in a panic and called the police, I didn’t know what to think.”

Andrew said police informed him they were able to reissue the numberplate after thirty years, ruling out the driver of the vehicle as a suspect.

A CALL FOR CLOSURE

STEPHEN was known for that striking 1977 lime green Bedford van, the same vehicle the couple was last seen in the night they disappeared.

For those involved in conducting the initial search, this van was a vital piece of evidence they were desperate to locate, and continues to be the missing piece of the puzzle for Hornsby detectives Greg Carrol and Peter Feuerstein today.

“Finding that car would have a significant effect in respect to the investigation,” Det-Insp Feuerstein said.

“It would potentially hold items of forensic evidence that we would focus our investigation on.”

Det-Insp Feuerstein issued a call for information from the public, convinced someone “must know something about the couple’s disappearance”.

“Police aren’t going to stop looking for Michelle Pope and Stephen Lapthorne,” he said.

“They are not going to stop.”

But police aren't the only ones looking for the couple — some have been searching their entire lives.

Michelle Laws, who was born after the disappearance, is a distant relative of Michelle Pope and was even named after her long-lost cousin.

“After she disappeared my father had a fascination with the case and for as long as I can remember, our entire family have been looking for her,” she said.

Michelle revealed she and her father would search through dense bushland, including the Galston Gorge, regularly when they would search for any signs of the missing couple.

“Dad always said that I should never give up looking for her, so a few years ago I set up a Facebook group dedicated to their case and we have had so much interest,” she said.

“I then opened the group up to all missing person case, we use the page to communicate and share stories, in the hope someone will, one day, come forward with information.”

PERSON OF INTEREST

FORMER NSW Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich identified backpacker killer Ivan Milat as a person of interest in the disappearance of Stephen and Michelle during an inquest in 2005.

Information handed over to investigators identified similarities to the circumstances surrounding the couple’s case and highlighted timelines where Milat was known to be working in the Hornsby Shire — particularly on the F3 freeway construction when the Dept. of Main Roads, now known as RMS employed him.

Andrew and Shane Tompkins said Milat was “on top of their list” when it came to suspects and supported the coroner’s findings of the serial killer being identified as a person of interest.

“Stephen was someone that, if someone flagged him down in the street, he would definitely stop and help,” Andrew said.

“Others would keep driving, but he would have stopped. If someone was convincing enough and faked a breakdown, Stephen would have stopped to help them and this is where they may have been ambushed.”

Former teammates from the Turramurra Football Club, known locally as the Turramurra Old Boys, have also continued the search for Stephen and Michelle.

Craig Foskett leads the groups’ investigations and said recent searches of bushland surrounding the Mt Ku-ring-gai Industrial Estate recovered several burnt out vehicles.

“The most surprising aspect of the case is the lack of evidence an indication of

what happened to the couple,” Craig said.

“There is a plethora of theories circulating in the media and the general public.

“Most of our research has been with newspapers and magazine articles that give them

some indication of theories that were held at the time by the investigating police.”

Craig said his group of dedicated former teammates and high school friends of Stephen and Michelle decided to raise funds to support police investigations, and brought in former deputy police commissioner Clive Small to assist in the case.

Mr Small revealed Milat was already established as a criminal by 1978 after an incident in which he picked up two women near Liverpool and raped one before they escaped.

Milat was convicted of murdering seven backpackers between 1989 and 1992.

“All of those cases involved Milat picking up hitchhikers in the Liverpool area, who were heading down towards the Belanglo State Forest or towards Canberra,’’ Mr Small said.

However, Mr Small said that though timelines of Milat’s time working in Hornsby may correlate with the disappearance of the couple he was “99 per cent certain” he was not involved.

“Ivan acted alone, he had the vehicle and he used his car to pick up his victims,” Mr Small said.

“Being alone places a series of limitations on what you can and can’t do in many ways.

“In this case, the two people who are missing, suspected of having been murdered, were in a large van, driving a short distance, about 20 minutes late in the night.

“Ivan has never exhibited the capacity to obtain or hold of these victims in those circumstances.”

Mr Small, like investigators, family and friends, has not given up on finding the crucial piece of evidence that could lead to closure of Stephen and Michelle’s case.

He and police investigators encouraged resident and community groups to come forward with any evidence, echoing remarks from Det-Insp Feuerstein.

“Someone knows what happened to Michelle Pope and Stephen Lapthorne,” Det-Insp Feuerstein said.

“And someone knows what happened to that van.

“We would encourage that person to come forward to the police.”

Lost in Sydney: The Series

Episode one — The Lime Green Van

Produced and presented by Jake McCallum - jake.mccallum@news.com.au

Audio and editorial consultant - David Wood

Artwork by Daniel Murphy