“Where is Jayo?”
This is the question that haunts the family of Jeremiah “Jayo” Rivers, who went missing from a remote campsite in south-western Queensland in October 2021.
The darkness of not knowing is almost all consuming.
And something possibly far more sinister lingers around the family when they ask themselves: “What happened to him out there?”
In the days after Rivers, 27, was reported missing, his family, from the Northern Territory and Western Australia, made their way to Wippo Creek, about 150 kilometres west of Thargomindah.
Their sole goal was to find Rivers.
Some family slept on the floor of a shed with no air-conditioning. Others rested in vehicles when no accommodation was available.
The search was exhausting, yet the family were determined.
Jeremiah Rivers pictured with niece Zyesha.Credit: Facebook
But Rivers was never found. And soon, Christmas came and went, with children and grandchildren left behind at home in other states unable to celebrate the holidays with half their family still searching the dry Queensland land for Rivers.
The family believe they’ve spent at least $100,000 in their personal search for the 27-year-old, with some dipping into their superannuation to pay for flights. Others lost their jobs, after uprooting their lives to search the remote Wippo Creek for several months.
The family’s efforts to search by themselves, canvassing vast areas of the tough terrain in soaring temperatures, has raised questions about the adequacy of the police investigation.
But not knowing what happened to Rivers, and not being able to bring him back to his home country for burial, alongside a scam which claimed Rivers was held hostage and still alive, has turned the family inside out.
There is, as the Rivers family described to the Coroners Court on Friday, no greater pain.
Jeremiah Rivers (pictured in centre) was last seen at Wippo Creek in south-western Queensland in October 2021.Credit: Queensland Police
“We, the family of Jayo, know he did not voluntarily walk away from his camping companions,” relative Brenda Garstone said through tears, flanked by several of Rivers’ family and friends who crowded into the witness stand behind her.
She, and the rest of Rivers’ family and friends, know he had skills to navigate the bush.
Coroner Donald MacKenzie is currently examining how Rivers, who was travelling with six other men from Victoria, through NSW and Queensland, towards the Northern Territory, on a pig-hunting trip, went missing without a trace.
“After going through what we’ve been through, we do not have faith in the justice system, of which we had to jump in our vehicles, book flights, go out with limited resources and funds and search for our Jayo.”
Brenda Garstone
The group broke a lock on a gate as they travelled into Queensland from NSW during the height of COVID-19 restrictions. Despite fearing huge fines, they crossed state lines – the border forming a large part of the investigation between Rivers’ life and possible death.
The court this week heard evidence before he went missing Rivers had made a frantic phone call to his cousin in the Northern Territory asking to come pick him up. His cousin, Matthew Perris, said Rivers had an argument, a punch up, with his long-time friend Joe Joe Kantilla-Gaden.
Kantilla-Gaden, who denied the claim, also gave evidence, explaining how he told police he found out at Wippo Creek others in the group were planning to sell cannabis in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, potentially making thousands of dollars. This was denied by other members of the group during questioning.
Before he disappeared, Jeremiah “Jayo” Rivers moved from the Northern Territory to Balranald in Victoria and played AFL with Joe Joe Kantilla-Gaden.
Rivers and Kantilla-Gaden, who played AFL together for a local club in Balranald, were on the trip with Victorian men Travis Clare, Dylan Thomas, Joel McMaster, Kane Toohey and Matthew Moore.
There was a suggestion by lawyer Stewart Levitt, acting for the Rivers’ family, that the 27-year-old could have been grabbed, driven away, and shot. This theory was also denied by other members of the group.
Several police officers were questioned over their investigation into Rivers’ disappearance, with Levitt suggesting police had cherry-picked information to produce a conclusion that Rivers “was a serious drug user, a hard drug user, and he was involved in a scheme to export drugs to the Northern Territory”.
Detective Sergeant Kane Hildebrand told the inquest on its final day on Friday, that on the balance of probabilities, police believed there was drug use from all members of the group.
The court heard in a police report, investigators said there was “nothing to suggest any signs of life or any evidence of foul play” involving the disappearance of Rivers.
MacKenzie said there was a “relevant, admissible, body of evidence coming directly from the mouth of the deceased, potentially hours before he disappeared, which suggests foul play”, referencing the frantic call Rivers made.
“Which makes [Hildebrand’s] statement in relation to no evidence of foul play questionable,” MacKenzie said.
Hildebrand explained they did not have enough evidence to meet that allegation in court.
Levitt also alleged there was bias by police in that they were “discrediting the Indigenous members” of the group – Rivers, Kantilla-Gaden and Moore.
“You know full well, don’t you, that the drugs were being supplied and this scheme was hatched by Travis Clare with Kane Toohey and the trip was being paid for by [their] concreting business in exchange for them...introducing the white guys into the communities, so the white men could profit from distributing the drugs into the communities,” Levitt suggested.
Hildebrand answered: “We can’t prove any of this, Mr Levitt.”
Hildebrand told the court police were still following up leads, as recently as two weeks ago.
Levitt earlier suggested to the court that gunshots were heard at the sight, but there were no traces of blood. During his evidence, Clare denied the theory, saying he would be “shocked” if Rivers was dead.
McMaster, who owned two rifles, gave evidence he left his rifle bolts in the NSW town of White Cliffs, a few hours drive from the Queensland border, when changing the guns and ammunition over between vehicles.
Body-worn footage of when police first intercepted Moore and Kantilla-Gaden after Rivers went missing was also played to the court, with the pair explaining Rivers was “a bit drunk” and they were “worried about him” being on foot.
“We were trying to see if he was walking on the road, he wouldn’t go into the bush, he’d stick to the road, you’d think,” Moore told the officer.
On Friday, the court also heard from renowned and now retired QPS search and rescue coordinator Jim Whitehead, who explained how authorities searched through the day and night with the use of thermal imaging, a jet, and police divers. Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski ultimately signed off on the call to end the search once no evidence of Rivers could be found.
The Rivers family told the court they wanted the “truth to be told” and they wanted justice.
“At the moment, our family is unable to grieve until we get closure,” Garstone said.
MacKenzie, who will hand down his findings next year, said in closing the inquest he hoped the court would give the family some answers.