Vanished

In 2005 Nicole Morris founded the Australian Missing Persons register, an internet resource to help find missing people in Australia.

www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ (your browser may come up with a security alert because the site is missing the encryption layer).

A valuable part of that website is the FAQ - www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/FAQ.htm which provides important information if you have somebody who is missing.

The book, VANISHED, came from the stories of people included on the site - although the statement:

“Around 52,000 people go missing each year in Australia, and there are 52,000 reasons why.”

does make you wonder how difficult the process must have been to select the cases that are highlighted here.

Released in June 2023 by Big Sky Publishing, the book tells the story, in Nicole's words, of the impact of the disappearances, as well as the known details. It describes the consequences of people simply vanishing for, in particular, the parents, siblings, children and extended family. From questioning their failure to find their loved ones, to what they believe they didn't see / do / understand in the lead up to and post the disappearance there is so much sadness, regret and guilt - a lot of which isn't mitigated by their overwhelming lack of responsibility. In some cases the disappearances were instantaneous, a brother that was there one minute, vanished the next. Two teenage girls doing what all teenage girls do, who disappeared in an instance.

All of these stories are compassionately told by Morris, taking care with relatives feelings and sensitivities, pointing out frustrations and doubts, without heading into sensationalist territory. It was, although, very sobering to see the lack of police action, time and time again. From the old "well teenagers will be teenagers" (inexcusable) to the difficulties of dealing with mentally ill, uncooperative adults (understandable but nonetheless very difficult to process), that's the message that really slated home to this reader in particular. In the years where we know killers like Ivan Milat and others were active, to think that perhaps a bit of digging around in some missing teenager cases, might have found something that could have prevented even more loss, well it's tricky to deal with, easy to question.

Needless to say, this is difficult reading and will be particularly difficult for people with disappearance in their own lives. Morris is careful in the way she treats people's stories though - there's nothing in here that feels exploitative or as already said, sensationalist. It's a telling of the outcomes, and a plea for awareness - of the cases she's highlighted and so many more into the bargain. It was particularly pleasing to see that police attitudes and procedures seem to have improved somewhat in recent years, although there is always more that could be done to support families, right down to listening to those that know when they say something is wrong - this is out of character.

A rating from this reader doesn't feel at all appropriate. It's a book worth reading, a good reminder of the reality of 52,000 yearly disappearances, and the number of those that remain lost to this day.

If you have any information about these (or other missing) people, please call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

www.austcrimefiction.org/review/vanished-nicole-morris