MISSING in THE HIGH COUNTRY

In the summer of 2002, Niamh Maye was just 18 years old and on a gap year when she went fruit picking in the apple orchards of Batlow, NSW. Niamh never returned, but her family still hopes to find a clue to the mysterious final days of her life.

- SUSAN CHENERY

The apple blossoms in the spring will always be a reminder of that more innocent time, of sweetness and optimism, of a time before the terrible, ugly loss. Before Niamh Maye went apple picking and never returned.

Niamh was the youngest of Brian and Anne Maye's seven children, who had grown up running wild across their seven-hectare hobby farm at Armidale. Both Anne and Brian had spent their working lives at the University of New England. Brian had a PhD in agricultural geography; Anne had a Master of Education. She won the university medal while she was pregnant with Niamh.

Their youngest daughter was creative. She read a lot and wrote short stories. She made a film – writing it and borrowing camera gear. Niamh went to France on exchange and was more fluent in French than her brother, who was living there.

Her father thought she would be a traveller. “She was interested in people who were different,” her sister, Fionnuala Hagerty, says. She loved the Stone Roses and Radiohead. She dyed her hair blue, went through a Goth phase. She was a little bit different.

And she was bright. “She wanted to succeed in life,” Fionnuala tells The Weekly. “She worked very hard at school. She was definitely one of the top students at her school. She'd been accepted into university. She had a couple of options to choose from - the College of Fine Arts or UTS in Sydney – but she wanted a year off to travel, earn some money and relax a bit.”

Like all the Mayes, Niamh was a stickler for social justice. She had empathy for others. She would speak out if she didn't think people were being treated fairly.

“She was really smart, really funny, really outgoing. I would have loved to see what she ended up doing,” adds Fionnuala. “She would have been a filmmaker.”