Dozens of missing person cold cases are finally being examined by a WA coroner, thanks to a funding boost aimed at clearing up a backlog of police files dating back to the 1960s.
The WA Government has funded a part-time coroner's position for one year, to focus solely on long-term missing persons files, some dating back more than 50 years.
The news has been welcomed by the Missing Persons Advocacy Network, with founder Loren O'Keeffe describing it as long overdue.
"I'm thrilled for the families that will have their loved one's case put before the state coroner after such a long time," she said.
"This process will end the limbo, bring much-needed resolution, and give some of these families the overdue opportunity to mourn."
The WA Coroner's Court has declined to say how many cases will be examined, but has confirmed former Deputy State Coroner Evelyn Vicker has been appointed to oversee inquests at locations around the state through until June 2020.
Blocks of hearings will be held in Albany, Broome and Kununurra to work through the concentration of people reported missing in the far north and deep south of the state.
Missing persons cases are not automatically subject to an inquest, but in the cases in question there is a strong enough belief that the person has died to warrant an inquest to try to finalise what happened to them.
The project is already unearthing decades-old mysteries that were largely forgotten.
The boat captain who vanished
Among them is the disappearance of 52-year-old boat skipper Edward John Gibbard, who was last seen leaving an outback pub in 1976.
Coroner Vicker started hearing evidence on the case in the Perth Coroner's Court in October, more than 40 years after the disappearance.
The court heard Mr Gibbard's car was found on a roadside 11 kilometres away from the Lake Argyle Inn, parked at a strange angle. The circumstances were strange and police investigations at the time were inconclusive.
The Lake Argyle community was, and remains, a small isolated outpost on the scenic cliffs of Australia's biggest man-made lake that, at the time of Mr Gibbard's disappearance, was home to about 35 people.
Witness welcomes inquest
Mr Gibbard's disappearance has haunted local businessman Charlie Sharpe, who was just seven years old at the time.
"I was only a young fella, but I do remember him … he was one of the first tourism boat skippers at Lake Argyle, and everyone called him Captain Ted," Mr Sharpe said.
"I remember it was stormy and hot, and we all went out looking for him.
"He had a tan-coloured Falcon that was found parked up about five or six metres off the road, and it was like it had driven itself off the road — it was facing into the bush, at a 90-degree angle to the road."
Locals thought Gibbard had 'gone troppo'
The absence of footprints in the dirt outside the car was considered strange, and rumours and speculation spread quickly through the close-knit Lake Argyle community.
"There was all sorts of talk, I guess because there were a lot of people living at Lake Argyle that people believed were hiding from the rest of the world and Ted was one of those," Mr Sharpe said.
"Some people thought he'd walked down to the lake, and some people thought he'd deliberately vanished — there was talk about an unconfirmed sighting at Pine Creek in the Northern Territory.
"Back then they called November and December the troppo season, because it's the build-up before the first good rains come, and everyone goes a bit crazy with the heat.
"So everyone thought he might have gone a bit troppo, and maybe hitched a ride to Darwin."
Romance revenge?
Another theory ran that Mr Gibbard had had an affair or fling with a married woman, prompting a payback killing.
Mr Sharpe said there was a fair bit of drinking and partying going on among the workers at the lake at the time, and the combination of booze, heat, and boredom did lead to some "goings on" that caused gossip.
During the inquest, police said it was possible that Mr Gibbard — who'd served in the British Merchant Navy for 25 years — could have hitched a ride with a passing motorist and met with foul play.
Coroner Evelyn Vicker adjourned the hearing until later in 2019 in the hope that more witnesses could be found, but indicated she expects to deliver an open finding.
Charlie Sharpe, who now owns and runs the Lake Argyle hotel where Mr Gibbard was last seen sharing a beer with friends, said it would be good to know what happened that night.
"It was a really strange one, and my dad talked about it right up until his death a few years ago," he said.
"I guess it will be hard after all these years, but hopefully they can go over all the information again and try to work it out."
