COLD CASE REWARD: WHO KILLED OUR MOTHER?

CHRISTINE'S FAMILY HAVE LIVED THROUGH DECADES OF HEARTACHE. NOW THEY'RE BEGGING FOR CLOSURE

- Ruth McCarthy

For the past 24 years, Will Fenner and his family have been clinging to the hope that his missing mum, Christine, is still alive. All too often, his mind drifts back and he remembers treasured childhood memories, and the smiling face of the 48-year-old who simply vanished from her home in Booyal – between Childers and Gin Gin – in central Queensland.

“When we were young and living in Western Australia, Mum used to take me and my sister to the end of a little jetty at Freemantle Boat Harbour to eat fish and chips,” the 45-year-old, who lives in Beaconsfield, WA, recalls. “That was Mum’s favourite place.”

Sadly for the crane operator and his older sister, Cindy, 51, memories are all they have left of their beloved mother, who in February 1999 left the caravan where she lived on a rural property with her de facto husband, Mark, and never returned. Mysteriously disappearing without a trace, and after an extensive investigation that resulted in no leads or clues as to her fate, the case went cold.