Siriyakorn ‘Bung’ Siriboon’s stepfather reveals heartache 10 years on after disappearance

It’s 10 years since Siriyakorn “Bung’’ Siriboon left her Boronia home to walk to school, vanishing without a trace. But her family still hope she’ll one day return.

A decade after she disappeared, the family of schoolgirl Siriyakorn “Bung’’ Siriboon still hope she will walk through the front door and embrace them.

“We’ve got to believe that she’s alive, we can’t believe otherwise,” stepfather Fred Pattison told the Sunday Herald Sun as he recalled the family’s grief 10 years on.

“We are all waiting for her to return, everyone misses her, and the door’s always open.

“It’s not an anniversary for me, this is every day for us. It’s 10 years, it doesn’t get any easier,” Mr Pattison, a devout Buddhist, said.

Siriyakorn ‘Bung’ Siriboon went missing from her Boronia home 10 years ago.

Bung’s stepdad Fred Pattison says he can’t give up hope she will return. Picture: Tim Carrafa

On June 2, 2011, 13-year-old Bung dressed in her blue and white striped school uniform in her Boronia home and ate breakfast with her mum Vanidda, or “Nid”.

“Bye, mum. See you later,” she said about 8.20am as she headed out the door to walk to her school, Boronia Heights College, which was only minutes away.

Between 8.30am and 8.35am, a neighbour spotted her walking on Elsie St.

It was the last confirmed sighting of Bung.

She never made it to school that day and hasn’t been seen since.

Mr Pattison, 50, vividly remembers the moment he realised Bung was in trouble on the day she went missing.

“She was always home on time by 3.40pm, and at 4pm the phone rang. It was her friend Dyamai, calling to remind Bung that they were playing football the next day.”

He asked Dyamai: “Why didn’t you tell her that at school today?”

She replied: “She wasn’t at school today.”

“That’s when we started to panic. Nid and I drove straight to the school and spoke to the principal who said Bung had been absent.”

Bung left for school on the morning of June 2, 2011, but never made it.

Bung with her mother Vanidda Pattison.

Mr Pattison said the days and weeks that followed were “frantic” and “chaotic”.

“The first month was just chaotic, I couldn’t work, I was running around everywhere, putting posters up — it was a bit of a haze.

He said he and Nid visited all of Bung’s friends, while members of the school community helped with the search.

They knocked on dozens of doors, searched parks, shopping centres and taped hundreds of posters of Bung in her school uniform around bus stops and the wider local area.

Despite their strong efforts, those of Knox police and later the Homicide Squad, who also doorknocked hundreds of homes, combed through the area and investigated hundreds of tip-offs, the family were still no closer to finding Bung.

Mr Pattison said he believes Bung met with foul play.

“I don’t believe she went on her own. I believe maybe someone’s taken her because she would never get into cars with strange people,” he said.

“Somebody knows where she is or what has happened to her. It’s getting harder and harder.”

A heartbroken Vanidda and Fred Pattison front a media conference to announce a $1 million reward for information about their daughter’s disappearance. Picture: Nicole Garmston

He said police believe Bung was abducted and killed.

“They’re pretty positive that she’s been killed or put somewhere, they keep saying it’s not a normal case as there’s no physical evidence that’s been found, there’s nothing.”

Mr Pattison said while he and Bung’s sister Pang, 30, don’t speak about Bung as often, the grief still remains.

Nid moved back to Thailand six months after Bung went missing.

“I miss her and it wasn’t so bad before because I could travel back to Thailand, but since the Covid restrictions it’s made it more difficult.”

Mr Pattison said he had been contacted by hundreds of people over the years who had offered to assist with the case or share support.

“I’ve had a few different people say they’ve been following the case from day one,” he said.

“There are people out there still very interested in what’s going on. Every now and again something will show up in the mail.

“We’ve also had a lot of theories including another schoolgirl in Bung’s year level claiming she was followed — the whole thing was made up.”

He said his family had been given “false hope” several times over the years.

“There was a possible sighting soon after of a man on Kelletts Rd with an Asian girl sitting at the front who looked like Bung.

“That was the closest report, but it was too late as she came forward more than three years later.”

In 2013, a 24-year-old man also claimed he hit and killed Bung while driving on the morning she disappeared, then panicked and disposed of her body at a local reserve.

Police investigated the claim, but Mr Pattison said the man’s claims “didn’t add up”.

“You get your hopes up, then there’s all the theories on social media,” he said.

Mr Pattison also recalled the moment police turned their attention on him and others close to Bung as suspects.

“I was the number one suspect, the father is always the first suspect” he said.

“They searched my cars, the house, computers, they found nothing and it didn’t really bother me because I had nothing to hide.”

He said a suspicious neighbour had also called the police after they spotted him “digging”.

“I was just gardening, police came here, put overalls on, searched the house and got in the roof … there was nothing up there.”

Mr Pattison said he believes Bung, who would now be 23, would have become a doctor, nurse or veterinarian because of her “caring” and “warm” nature.

“She didn’t really like to study, but she had such a caring nature.

“She always liked helping people. If someone was an outsider, or if someone hurt themselves she’d want to help even with little things like putting a bandaid on my finger if I cut it.

“She was very caring.”

Mr Pattison has created a memorial to Bung in his home.

Throughout his Boronia home, Fred pays tribute to his missing daughter, with photos showing a smiling Bung on family holidays and other cherished occasions.

“I still say come back, I still talk to her pictures and say come back.

“It’s one of the reasons I’m still here.”

He said he had consulted hundreds of mediums and monks, who also say Bung is still alive.

“We haven’t been able to say that’s good news yet because of what we’ve gone through. We won’t get our hopes up until the day we see her.”

He revealed, Bung, who loved dancing, was also learning Korean.

“She loved K-pop, she was trying to learn Korean online and at the time she was excited about being a part of Rock Eisteddfod, she was practising for that.”

Mr Pattison also shared moments of Bung he held close to his heart.

“There are too many memories, I remember the simple things such as picking her up and taking her home from school in Thailand.

“I remember taking her to dancing and when she was getting into sport, she would have loved women’s football.”

Police and SES crews searched Old Joe's Creek Reserve for clues in Bung’s disappearance.

He said his family desperately needed answers after all this time.

“My mum’s died since she’s gone missing, there’s good friends that have gone since she’s been gone and they will never know what’s happened,” he said.

“I don’t want to be 70 or 80 years old and still not have answers.

“Sometimes I might get teary about something. I might watch a movie or show and something reminds me of her.

“All my friends that have kids tell stories about them and have photos of their graduations, it’s the sort of thing that’s hard to know about because I’ve missed out on that.”

He made a public appeal urging people to come forward with information about Bung’s disappearance.

“Somebody’s carrying around the knowledge of what happened that day. Somebody knows something.

“All of these cold cases, they’re just a phone call away from someone being caught. Someone being found out. Someone being returned.

“Please grow a conscience and fess up. I believe somebody knows of something.

“There’s a $1 million dollar reward out there, how much loyalty or fear do you have to have, please come forward, we deserve answers after all this time.”

‘IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANYONE’

A new podcast retraces Bung’s last known steps on the morning of her disappearance.

US-based Mike King, whose career in law enforcement spans across decades including solving some of the world’s most baffling cold cases by using geospatial analysis, has launched an Australian true crime podcast series called Mapping Evil.

In his podcast, which is hosted by journalist Tory Shepherd, King reviews aerial imagery to understand the geography of the area and proposes his theory that what happened to Bung was an opportunistic crime of a violent predator.

He challenges the claims suggesting contacts close to home were responsible for Bung’s disappearance, instead exploring the theory that between 8 and 8.30am on June 2, 2011, Bung came face-to-face with a predator along Harcourt Rd, Boronia.

“This is a case that has certainly captured the attention of people in Melbourne and across Australia,” Mr King told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“If it happens to Bung, it could happen to anyone including your family or neighbours. That’s why it’s important that it remains in the public’s eye.”

He said if Bung’s case doesn’t get solved, it allows a potential predator to continue to walk the streets.

“Sometimes it takes a person a lifetime to get enough courage to step forward and say my father did that, my brother did that,” he said.

“Some people don’t have the courage or they push off what they saw … and it takes them longer to step up and call the police and say, ‘you know what this has been bugging me for 10 years’.”

Mr King said Bung’s family should never give up hope for some answers.

“For the law enforcement reader, geography is a huge untapped resource that we could do better … for the family they need to continue hope and that she’ll be repatriated back to them.”

Details: esriaustralia.com.au/mapping-evil-podcast