One year anniversary for missing Magnetic Island man, Ben Chisholm

One year on, the case of Ben Chisholm is still shrouded in secrecy. Read what really went on in the week leading up to his disappearance as his family speak for the first time.

Ben Chisholm's sisters, Shiralee and Ellouize Rosario, are still searching for their brother's body, one year after his disappearance on Magnetic Island.

Magnetic Island’s missing man, 22-year-old Ben Chisholm, had a secret.

The First Nations man was last seen on July 13, 2022 in Nelly Bay, and one year on from his disappearance, his sisters Shiralee and Ellouize Rosario, and mother Jackie Burgess have revealed new details about their fight to “bring Ben home”.

Shiralee, who still lives on the island, says her brother rarely slept in his own bed in the week leading up to his disappearance.

Ben had been living at Amaroo on Mandalay, Nelly Bay, in a unit a couple hundred metres from her.

She says he would often spend his days with her and never left the house without telling her.

Ben Chisholm's sisters claim their brother kept to himself and spent most of his time gaming or with his sister, Shiralee Rosario.

But Ben had started leaving his home in secret while his sister was asleep, behaving “out of character” in the days leading up to his disappearance.

“He wasn’t much of a social person. He didn’t really like going out and doing adventurous things on the island,” Shiralee said, referring to claims her brother wandered off into the bush or took a boat off the island.

Police, SES and members of the Magnetic Island community searched for missing man, Ben Chisholm, for more than 15 days after he was last seen.

Ben wasn’t working and instead spent most of his time gaming or with his Shiralee. They were inseparable despite the six year age gap, and Shirelee said it would be a “rare occasion you’d see me without Ben.”

Ben’s final known movements

A day before his disappearance, Picnic Bay residents called police after Ben was spotted “door knocking on a random house” carrying a wooden Batman bat his aunty made for him when he was a child with his name inscribed on it, and crying out for help.

It was the second time he’d been door knocking that week.el

Ben was dropped off by the police, unbeknown to his sister, who came home from work to find him sleeping in her bed.

She claims she wasn’t informed about the incident until the search for Ben had already begun, days later.

When Shiralee confronted her brother, he avoided her questions in a conversation she will “never forget.”

“I do believe he was hiding a secret. There was something he wasn’t telling me.”

They planned to visit the local GP in the morning before Shiralee left for work.

At 10.30am, Wednesday July 13, when Ben arrived at his sister’s unit she noticed he was showered, fresh and wearing his “good clothes” usually reserved for going out on a Friday or Saturday night.

She told her brother she was running late to take him to the doctors and that he asked her for a cigarette and walked off, without saying goodbye.

It was the last time Shiralee saw him.

He had spent the night before that in a holiday house in Nelly Bay, and a cleaner had seen him smashing his phone claiming he “didn’t want trouble” at the holiday house.

Shiralee only found out about that incident after her brother was missing.

22-year-old Ben Chisholm went missing on Magnetic Island June 13, 2022.

She said if the police had told her they had picked up her brother the day before, she might not have let him walk away.

She claims Ben had no phone, no money, no shoes, phone or friends on the island who would have driven him anywhere.

Shiralee called the police and was told to ring back the following morning if she still hadn’t seen him.

To her knowledge, Shiralee reported Ben Chisholm missing to police at 11am, Wednesday July 13, 2022, but claims his name didn’t show up in the Australian Missing Persons Register until after his October memorial in Victoria.

According to the National Missing Persons Co-ordination centre, to register someone as missing family or friends are to contact the local police who will then provide the information to Missing Persons.

By July 14 the search had begun, coordinated by Kelly Goddard.

State Emergency Services were deployed along with Parks and Wildlife, and the QGAir Rescue 521 Helicopter.

Ben’s mother, Jackie Burgess arrived and the general public were also called on to help with the search which was scaled back by July 26 and terminated August 15.

All that was found were the dark green long sleeved pullover and shorts he was wearing on the day if his disappearance, found 150 metres away from Ben’s shirt and hat along a bush track 1.5km from Mandalay Ave.

Ben’s family were asked to hand over his belongings to the police, including his X-Box and social media passwords, who said they wanted to investigate the possible involvement of a third party.

It’s a theory Shiralee supports. She told the Bulletin of a night she visited her brother’s room to ask him to wake her for work the next morning after losing her phone at the Island Bar, Nomads Backpackers.

Shiralee says Ben seemed startled and angry, claiming that she “could have been anyone” coming into his room.

Ben’s secret

Ben had a Grindr account and Shiralee knew he often met up with older men on the island.

“At the end of the day, yes I feel like he was keeping a secret from me but that doesn’t mean I don’t know my brother, that mum doesn’t know her son,” Shiralee said.

“I believe the reason my brother died out in the bush of Magnetic Island is because he f--ked up. Something went on and he was probably running for his life.”

The family enlisted the help of a medium and psychic to reach their brother beyond the grave, claiming they were able to speak to Ben and accepted the fact he had passed away.

The encounter also led them to search around the old water tank in Nelly Bay where they found duct tape and sent it off to police as potential evidence.

“We were told it was going to be sent somewhere else because they founded traces on it but didn’t know what those traces were.”

But it confirmed a gut feeling Ben’s mother had that “Ben didn’t run out in the bush. He was taken.”

The family feel communication with the police was poor from the moment they failed to inform them that Ben had been picked up the day before his disappearance.

They say they were never offered a liaison officer, a counsellor or anyone to help “hold our brains together,” and that the person in charge of Ben’s case changed multiple times.

Police were also unaware the family were visited by a coroner two weeks after Ben’s disappearance when his body was yet to be found.

Shiralee feels there was a big push to put Ben’s disappearance down as suicide, but believes he was not suicidal and mental health was something they discussed often and openly.

She went as far as to say she didn’t believe police wanted to find her brother, telling her mother “it’s been too long. They know he’s dead.”

“If they find a dead body they have way more to answer for,” Shiralee said.

“They don’t want to solve this case, they want it to rot, because Magnetic Island is a tourist destination,” Ellouize Rosario said.

“I’m not saying all the volunteers and the SES workers and the police on ground searching and parks and wildlife didn’t care. I’m saying the people in charge didn’t,” Shiralee concluded.

Queensland Police Acting Inspector Graeme Paterson said he knew some members of the family were not happy.

“They feel like they’ve been failed by the police,” he said.

Insp Paterson has requested monthly updates from Magnetic Island police to the family, who have grown tired of waiting for answers.

Keeping the search alive

Shiralee, her mother and sister have raised funds with the help of the local community to hire private cadaver dogs to search for Ben’s remains which they believe are still on the island.

But police have since announced they will be sending out their own cadaver dogs.

When asked why they are being deployed one year after Ben’s disappearance, the inspector said “the date chosen for their deployment was influenced by operational advice regarding snake-risk mitigations to ensure both operational outcomes and animal welfare strategies were met”.

“I hope would hope that something happens with this further search,” Insp Paterson said.

“It would bring a lot of answers and peace to at least that part of the story.”

Queensland Police were sent a list of questions, including whether they knew Ben was on Grindr, why Ben was banned from a bar on the island two months before his disappearance, whether the family was informed Ben was picked up by police earlier that week, whether his social media accounts were checked, and what happened with the duct tape sent off for examination.

In a statement, Inspector Peterson said all investigative leads were, and continue to be explored, and will form part of the overall investigation.

“Exhaustive Land Search and Rescue (LANDSAR) was conducted with search parameters continually adjusted in response to intelligence received including alleged sightings, CCTV results,” Inspector Peterson said.

Those resources included a dog squad, rescue helicopter, emergency response team, ADF personnel with unmanned aerial vehicles, and the rural fire service, among others, he said.

Anyone with further information about Ben Chisholm’s disappearance is encouraged to contact police.

“My poor beautiful son, my world, waiting for me to get him,” Ben’s mum Jackie said.

“His spirit needs to come home.”

Originally published as One year anniversary for missing Magnetic Island man, Ben Chisholm