Independent candidate Kate Hulett’s husband went missing on holiday, never to be seen again

Independent candidate Kate Hulett has shared how her husband went missing, never to be seen again — and the sad reason she didn’t tell police for eight days.

A Teal-backed candidate has recalled the “horrific time” her late husband stormed out during a family holiday almost a decade ago, went missing and was eventually declared dead, but never found.

Kate Hulett, independent candidate for Fremantle in the upcoming federal election, told the shocking story of Matt Bale’s death at the famed holiday hotspot Rottnest Island, off Perth in Western Australia, in her campaign podcast, A Piece of Kate.

Mr Bale, 38, was last seen on March 21, 2016, but Ms Hulett did not report her husband missing until eight days later when she returned home from the holiday because she was convinced he had just gone home early after an argument.

Ms Hulett described her husband as “wild [and] fun” and an “incredibly compassionate” and “funny man,” but he was also an alcoholic and drug addict who had gone missing before.

Independent Kate Hulett lost her husband in 2016 after he went missing during a holiday at Rottnest Island. Picture: Colin Murty

“His mum and dad were over one time from the UK and we were in Rotto and basically he went missing one night,” Ms Hulett said on the podcast episode intended to help voters get to know her on a personal level.

“There was this kind of big blow up where he was kind of like trying to poke his mum and dad [to] snapping at him and saying ‘you’re a horrible son’. He was just trying to get something, you know, don’t know what.

“And he just stormed off and didn’t come home and I was like it’s fine, he’ll just be sleeping on the beach or something.”

Rottnest Island is a popular tourist spot about 25 minutes by ferry from Fremantle, Perth Picture: iStock

When he did not come back, Ms Hulett assumed he had got on the ferry to return home.

She and her in-laws continued with their trip in Geordie Bay.

It wasn’t until they got home on March 24 that they realised something was wrong, and with no sign of Mr Bale they reported him missing to police on March 29.

“Because he had gone missing and he was an alcoholic, initially the police were like we are not going to spend a second on this,” Ms Hulett claimed.

Police and Rottnest rangers searched the island on April 7 and 8. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services did not conduct a search because of the time that had passed.

Ms Hulett organised her own search of the island with volunteers in May.

“Like a hundred people came over, literally walked the island looking for a dead body or a body or him or anything,” she said, but Mr Bale was not found.

Kate Hulett has spoken about her personal life in a podcast to help voters get to know her. Picture: NewsWire / Sharon Smith

About a year on, two women came forward after seeing Mr Bale’s missing person photo. They were on Rottnest Island the night he went missing and had a drink with him on the beach.

“He said he was going to swim back,” Ms Hulett recalled.

“I mean that’s classic Matt. He would just be like ‘I’m going to swim back to Freo, no worries’. He always wanted to Rottnest [Channel] Swim so he would have gone ‘no worries, night time, I’ll just swim over.’”

A missing person’s poster for Matthew Bale. Picture: WA Police

A colonial inquest eventually found in 2019 that he had entered the water and died, and “death occurred by way of misadventure”.

Mr Bale had no contact with banks, phone companies or government agencies, according to the report from the Deputy State Coroner.

Ms Hulett said she was sharing her personal life with voters to show she knows what death and addiction is like.

“All of those things are very helpful when you’re talking to people just like you,” she said.

Ms Hulett told news.com.au on Monday: “Since releasing the podcast, a lot of people have been in touch to say how helpful it was for them to hear me talking about this experience.

“This also included messages from a number of workers in the sector, who emphasised how good it is to talk openly and not to talk about this stuff with shame.”

Ms Hulett met Mr Bale, an editor of TV shows and movies, while she was living in the UK in 2008. They started a business together and moved to Australia in 2013.

He had spent time in drug and alcohol rehabilitation the year prior to going missing, but had continued to use methylamphetamine and had developed a drug-induced psychosis, according to a psychiatrist who last saw Mr Bale ten days before he went missing.

In a sad detail, the coroner’s report noted that the night he went missing Mr Bale had booked and paid to do a Certificate IV Mental Health course “with view to working in the mental health area, especially with young men”.

The report said Ms Hulett had smelled alcohol on Mr Bale’s breath that night and confronted him about it, leading to the argument.

Mr Bale left their unit “through the back door after punching the screen door”.

He went on to buy a cask of wine and joined two women, who were working as housekeepers on the island, to watch the sunset — where they discussed his addiction and family.

When finding out no other ferries were leaving that day back to Perth, he said he would swim back, but the women ”thought he was kidding”.

Mr Bale’s dad went to look for him and found him, but Mr Bale told him to “p*ss off” and was not seen again.

Deputy State Coroner Barry Paul King wrote: “Unfortunately, the deceased was afflicted with depression and alcohol and drug addiction. Despite the opportunity afforded by extended rehabilitation and the ongoing support of his wife and family, he was unable to beat that addiction entirely and, as a result, made apparently impulsive choices which cost him his life.”