Hope for clues into mother’s disappearance after Crimestoppers visit
A Crimestoppers team sent into far north Queensland communities to find out new information about a missing mother is hopeful of a breakthrough.
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A Crimestoppers team sent into far north Queensland communities on a quest to find out new information about missing mother Allison Bernard are hopeful their visit will lead to anonymous tip-offs.
Ms Bernard, a young mother from Kowanyama, 23, was last seen alive in February 2013 after leaving a pub in Coen with a local caucasian man who regularly drank there.
Mladen Bosnic, the chair of the far north Queensland volunteer committee of Crimestoppers, travelled to the town and nearby communities, handing out flyers about the missing mother.
The former Australian Federal Police officer said he and another volunteer also travelled to the Lockhart area, Archer River and Laura. They also travelled to the quarry near Archer River where she was on the night she was last seen.
At Coen, they set up outside the Exchange Hotel – the pub where she was drinking before leaving with the local man.
“There is no doubt that us sitting outside the Exchange Hotel would have created gossip,” Mr Bosnic said.
“It would have encouraged discussion about what it is about, and people I think would have then in their own time read the flyers and probably discussed it within themselves, groups or with their families.
“We didn’t expect anyone to come up to us to talk about it.”
Mr Bosnic said he hoped the offer of anonymity would bring out more people wanting to help.
“It’s highly unlikely to get anything in person because I think people do want to hide behind that anonymity,” he said.
“I think if anyone in those small communities approach us and talk I don’t know whether they feel there might be some stigma attached.”
The man last seen with the mother had a sexual encounter with Ms Bernard but she left during the night and was never seen again, the Cairns Coroner’s Court heard earlier this year.
A decision to hold an inquest came after The Sunday Mail spoke to her disappointed family and highlighted the case over the last two years, with her family calling for an inquest.
Information to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000
Originally published as Hope for clues into mother’s disappearance after Crimestoppers visit
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