Good morning everyone!
I have been a bit busy, but have just managed to read through the various posts. There is a couple missing here in Cairns and it is interesting given some of the previous posts to see how the family of this couple, as well as an ex, are pleading with the public for information. This is how the CM reported it this morning.
A CAIRNS father has choked back tears while confronting the possibility his missing son and daughter-in-law could have met with foul play.
Scott Maitland, 35, and wife Cindy Masonwells, 33, were last seen on Thursday night last week when they picked up their green panel van from a repair shop in*suburban Bungalow.
The couple, who have a house at Gordonvale, south of Cairns, recently moved to Mount Isa to work at the mines and had flown to Cairns that night for a friend's engagement party and to pick up their car which had been repaired after being stolen earlier this year.
Scott's father, Wayne Maitland, made an emotional plea yesterday.
"The concern we've got is how can two people just disappear," Mr Maitland said.
"He knew the town, he knew most of the people in the town so there's got to be someone who knows or (has) seen him."
Cairns CIB Detective Senior Sergeant Ed Kinbacher said a major incident room had been set up to find the couple, with investigators from Brisbane arriving in Cairns today.
"There appears to be two main possibilities - there is a third-party involvement that has caused this event or alternatively there has been an accident in the vehicle and they haven't been located," he said.
"Their accounts, their phones and any other normal types of interactions with the community have stopped since they arrived in Cairns."
Det Sen-Sgt Kinbacher said police were not ruling out a link between the panel van being stolen in mid-April from a workshop at suburban Portsmith and the couple's disappearance.
He said Scott Maitland had followed up inquiries which led to the vehicle's recovery.
"There are a range of suspicious circumstances and it is highly concerning," Det Sen-Sgt Kinbacher said.
A friend of the pair, Jodi Noden, said the disappearance was out of character.
"It's very unlike the two not to be in contact," she said.
"Cindy has a huge personality, very bright, bubbly and fun with a wicked sense of humour.
"They went to the mines to knock off their mortgage. Scott is a boilermaker and Cindy is a driver at the mines."
Donna Astill, Scott's ex-partner and mother of his teenage child, has set up a Facebook page to appeal for information.
The mystery comes as North Queensland police also investigate the disappearance of gold prospector Bruce Schuler.
Anyone with information on either case should phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.