Into The Wild: Sam Thompson missing near Swan Hill
The search for missing Lysterfield South man Sam Thompson continues as the last people to see him speak about their bizarre encounter with the troubled teen.
South East
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“It’s heaps more fun walking.”
With that sentence, Sam Thomson, the young man missing along the Murray, explains why he ditched his Nissan Navara, 15km south east of Swan Hill.
Frustratingly, and worryingly, it’s the only answer we have about his disappearance that makes any semblance of sense.
It’s a bizarre story but one rooted in fact with a tragic ending.
It’s believed Sam is following the plot of Into The Wild, a book about a young a man who went off the grid, and tragically died after running out of supplies, isolated in an abandoned bus.
Sally Op’t Hoog and her husband Rick are the last people — that we know of — to have seen Sam.
Rick had picked up the 19-year-old, who left his Lysterfield South home on February 10, between noon and 1pm on Friday about 3km from Swan Hill on the Pental Island Rd.
“Sam asked if he (Rick) could take him to the nearest town, and Rick offered to show him the town,’’ Sally said.
“He just said he was going camping. Rick drove him around Swan Hill and showed him some sights.’’
Rick then asked Sam if he wanted to return to his place for a coffee, to which Sam agreed.
It’s not unusual for Sally and Rick to have strangers on their property.
“We’ve been on the couch-surfing app, so it’s not the first time we’ve picked someone up. We often have strangers stay at our house,” she said.
“It’s not abnormal for us to do that. My son and I have couch-surfed all over Europe. We’ve had couch-surfers from all over the world stay here.”
But while Sam was polite and friendly, though not overly talkative, Sally could tell something was not right.
“It was strange from the start because he didn’t have a plan,’’ she said.
“I’m a teacher, so I’m a talker. The couch-surfers that we’ve had in the house always tell us what they want to do. Anyone that comes they know if they want to work, they know where they want to go in Australia, they know what they want to do.”
But Sam didn’t have a plan.
“Every question I asked him, he looked at me like he really had to think about everything. ‘He basically had no plan apart from he wanted to travel the Murray. He said ‘I just want to travel along the Murray’.”
The “quiet” young man set up a tent at the couple’s property and stayed the night.
“He was a nice guy, a really nice guy. A quiet guy. I only felt uncomfortable because I didn’t know who he was. But by the end of the night it was fine, otherwise I wouldn’t have allowed him to stay here,’’ she said.
“He didn’t talk about anything unless we asked. I asked him all about his family, he told me where his dad worked, about his siblings. He signed our guest book — I made him sign it actually.
“It appeared like he just is looking to have an adventure. But he didn’t have a plan. He just said he was going to follow the river. So we sat down and told him about all the little towns between Swan Hill and Mildura. We told him about Wood Wood, Boundary Bend, Robinvale and Euston, we told him about all of those places along the way’’ Sally said.
“He must have mentioned that he had a car, a ute. And so I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you take that? And he said, ‘It’s heaps more fun walking’. I thought that was the weirdest thing. I don’t know if you realise how hot it is here. It envelopes you.
“He didn’t say anything about why he wanted to do this. The only conversation that happened was when we asked him questions. He was quite happy to just sit there with us.”
In the morning, Rick dropped Sam in Nyah, a small town about 20km northwest of Swan Hill.
Somewhere along the Murray, drifting along the back roads and parched fields of the state’s north is a young man whose family are desperate for him to come home.
“In my experience I haven’t met anyone that is so directionless in their travels,’’ Sally said.
With that sentence, you know why family and emergency services are so anxious to find Sam.
