Road trips gone wrong: Tromp family, Ronald McMaster and Otto and Gerda

From a family suffering a bizarre version of ‘folie a deux’ to elderly couples found hundreds of kilometres from home, here are some of the baffling road mysteries.

An elderly couple who sparked a two-day manhunt when they disappeared after dining out in Southbank were found about 400km from their Bentleigh home.

It’s one of several baffling cases where a road trip has sparked a missing persons case.

OTTO AND GERDA’S 400KM JOURNEY

Otto and Gerda were found about 400km from their Bentleigh home.

The 87-year-old couple were missing for two days after family members reported their disappearance on March 30.

Otto and Gerda, from Bentleigh, were last seen leaving a carpark on Kings Way about 6.30pm after dining out in Southbank.

About 5pm on March 31, police received information that the couple’s car had been seen bogged near a lake north of Rainbow — about 400km from Melbourne.

There was also a further sighting of the pair near the Birchip-Sea Lake Rd about 9pm that night.

Following their disappearance, the couple’s distressed daughter made a tearful plea to the public to help track them down.

Sylvie, surname withheld, urged anyone with information about the Bentleigh couple’s disappearance to come forward.

“They’re loving, caring, strong and fiercely independent,” Sylvie said.

“We love them and we’re very worried.”

The Sandringham woman had last heard from her parents during a phone call on Sunday.

She tried to contact the couple on Tuesday night but the call went unanswered.

Sylvie said her parents had started to show signs of short-term memory loss but remained independent and enjoyed going out for dinner most weeks.

“They’re getting old, they’re slowing down … but they enjoy their time at restaurants and the casino once a week and watching the footy,” Sylvie’s husband Chris said.

They were found inside their gold Lexus sedan in the township of Woomelang about 8am on April 1 but mystery still surrounds their spontaneous road trip.

THE TROMP FAMILY’S MYSTERIOUS TECH-FREE TRIP

Riana, Mark, Jacoba, Mitchell and Ella Tromp.

It was a bizarre road trip which led to a Yarra Ranges family of five becoming national sensations and fuelled a massive manhunt.

Mark Tromp fled his home in Silvan on August 29, 2016, with his wife and three adult children, taking them on a baffling 1500km drive across two states.

When police arrived at the family’s home the next day, they found it in chaos with doors unlocked, car keys hanging in ignitions and credit cards, passports and mobile phones strewn around the property.

By then Mark, his wife Jacoba and their children Riana, Mitchell and Ella were already hundreds of kilometres into a journey that would spark one the most bizarre missing persons cases Melbourne — and Australia — had ever seen.

The five family members turned up one by one after their week-long odyssey.

A phone belonging to the middle child, Mitchell, was found near Warburton after it had been tossed from the car window, reportedly amid fears it could be tracked.

Around 7am on August 30, Mitchell abandoned the trip near the regional NSW town of Bathurst and started his journey back home via Sydney.

A short time later, the rest of the family was spotted in Jenolan Caves, near the Blue Mountains, where the two sisters allegedly stole a car and drove to Goulburn. From there, they went their separate ways.

Ella continued the drive on to Silvan, while Riana was found later that day in the back of a stranger’s ute, trying to hitch a ride.

The driver of the ute described her as being in a “catatonic” state and unable to provide any personal details or identify where she was.

Riana was taken to Goulburn Hospital, where she was treated for stress-related issues.

Mitchell arrived home on August 31, having caught the overnight train from Sydney, while his parents were spotted driving back over the Victorian border to Wangaratta.

From there, Mrs Tromp took public transport to Yass, while Mr Tromp stayed behind where it’s alleged he broke into a motel room to use the bathroom and have a nap before fleeing again.

In an appeal to the public to help find his father, Mitchell said Mr Tromp had been “scared that people are after him”.

“He’s not in a good state of mind,” Mitchell said.

“It’s really hard to explain or put a word on it … They were just fearing for their lives and they just decided to flee.”

That afternoon, Mrs Tromp was admitted to hospital in Yass after a passer-by spotted her wandering around the town in an agitated state.

Mr Tromp was found three days later running along a street on the outskirts of Wangaratta.

He was picked up by police and released to a relative several hours later. He gave waiting media the middle finger as he was driven away.

In a statement the following week, he expressed his regret over the ordeal but didn’t elaborate on what had caused his distress: “Without reservation, I apologise for the hurt and concern caused by these events,” he said.

In an interview the next year, oldest daughter Riana said a build up of stress had led to her father suffering a mental breakdown which caused paranoia and prompted him to flee.

UNPLANNED DETOUR AFTER AIRPORT DROP-OFF

Wantirna South couple Ivan and Catherine Fry gave their family a fright when they got lost on the way home from the airport and ended up in Bairnsdale.

An elderly couple who got lost on the way home from dropping their son at the airport ended in a 644km round trip — and a frantic police search.

Wantirna South couple Ivan and Catherine Fry were missing for almost 24 hours after they took several wrong turns on their way home from Tullamarine in 2011.

The couple, who were in their 80s at the time, drove as far as Bairnsdale in East Gippsland while trying to find their way home.

After police made appeals for the public to help find the couple, and eagle-eyed driver reported seeing them near the corner of Highbury and Blackburn roads in Glen Waverley a day after they were reported missing.

The pair were intercepted with the help of the police helicopter and escorted home.

The incident sparked a warning from police to “carefully consider” if elderly relatives should get behind the wheel and consult a doctor if in doubt.

Police at the time recommended to VicRoads that Mr Fry’s licence be reviewed.

CAR RALLY TRIP ENDS IN TRAGEDY

The search for “fiercely independent” great-grandfather Ronald McMaster ended in tragedy.

Devoted great-grandfather Ronald McMaster set out for a drive from his Toorak home in May 2019, with plans to attend a car club rally in Bermagui, NSW.

The 95-year-old’s family became concerned when he failed to arrive.

Police spent 12 days searching for the “fiercely independent” man, before finding his car in Moornapa, near Bairnsdale.

Passers-by had spotted the vehicle down an embankment and Mr McMasters’ body was found nearby.

It was fairly common for Mr McMaster to do things like making an eight-hour drive on his own, with family members describing him as “ageless”.

“Our family calls him Peter Pan because he seems so ageless, he was still playing tennis at 92,” they said in a statement before he was found.

McMaster’s death was not treated as suspicious.

SAD END TO FISHING TRIP

Dane Kowalski.

SES volunteers searching for missing man Dane Kowalski near where his car was found 95km’s southwest of Coober Pedy. Picture: Tom Huntley

The disappearance of a plumber who set out from Diamond Creek on his way to Darwin for a fishing trip gripped the nation.

Dane Kowalski took off on his solo trip in his white Holden Rodeo 4WD on December 13, 2014 but was reported missing when his family and friends lost touch with him near Christmas.

His vehicle was found in remote desert scrubland about 95km south west of Coober Pedy in South Australia three months after he vanished.

Two days later, searchers found his body about 340m away from where the vehicle had been.

His mother, Vera, told media that police had found a note near the 27-year-old’s ute which read: “I’ve been bitten by a snake”.

She said the note, written in pencil on a piece of cardboard, was found on a tree near the vehicle. She said early investigations appeared to suggest that her son had become bogged on a sandy desert track 95km south of Coober Pedy.

“There were sticks under the tyres and on the track,’’ Ms Kowalski said. “He had been trying to turn the car around and it got stuck.” It’s thought that Mr Kowalski was bitten as he was trying to gather sticks to put under the wheels for traction. His body was discovered 340m from his ute.

Police would not confirm if Mr Kowalski was bitten by a snake or if his vehicle had become bogged.

Police ruled out foul play.