Deceased/Not Found Australia - Trish Backhurst, 81, Inverloch, Victoria, 17 or 18 Mar 2021

[TootsieFootsie]

Last Ditch Effort To Find Missing Inverloch Woman - South Gippsland Sentinel-Times

Police have already visited every house in Inverloch, and many of the surrounding properties looking for the missing woman.

POLICE are putting in a last-ditch effort today to locate the missing Inverloch woman, Trish Backhurst, 81, before scaling back their search next week.


Police Widen Search For Missing Inverloch Woman - South Gippsland Sentinel-Times


POLICE left no stone unturned in their search for missing Inverloch woman, Trish Backhurst, 81, today adding 20 additional officers to the search effort and extending their search area beyond the town boundaries.

Their efforts came as stepdaughter of Ms Backhurst, Karen Wallace made an impassioned plea on ABC Radio on Friday morning, while at the same time praising police and local residents for their assistance.

“It’s incomprehensible that someone could just disappear like that but she’s such a private person, she keeps to herself,” said Karen, in that hope that her mother might simply have gone into the wrong house and be staying there.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

No Cookies | Herald Sun

Police have received information about an 81-year-old woman who disappeared in Inverloch more than two months ago. But sadly none of the leads have led to her.

Behind a paywall, but there really seem to be no leads.

 

[YaYa_521]

Ms. Patricia is still missing.

Patricia BACKHURST
SBM

Anyone who sees Patricia is urged to contact Triple Zero (000). Anyone with information about Patricia’s whereabouts is urged to contact Wonthaggi Police Station on 03 5671 4100 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Australian Missing Persons Register
1 Aug 2021
SBM
81-year-old Patricia Backhurst was last seen in the vicinity of Screw Creek, east of Inverloch, Victoria about 5.23pm Wednesday, March 17 2021. Police believe Ms Backhurst became “disoriented” in Inverloch bushland while on a bushwalk, which she enjoyed doing regularly. Despite massive searches she was not found.

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Another missing mystery unresolved.

 

[lindamichelle1]

Patricia BACKHURST

Looks like she is still listed on the missing persons registry

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Coroner declares missing Vic woman dead

Fiercely independent, Trish Backhurst was reluctant to go into aged care when she was diagnosed with dementia and began to experience a decline in her memory.The 81-year-old was still physically fit and walked every day.

au.news.yahoo.com

Fiercely independent, Trish Backhurst was reluctant to go into aged care when she was diagnosed with dementia and began to experience a decline in her memory.

The 81-year-old was still physically fit and walked every day. Twice if weather permitted.

She and her late husband had been keen bushwalkers, and it was a past-time she kept up - able to cover many kilometres at a time.

Everyone in the seaside town of Inverloch, in west Gippsland, knew her. So when she disappeared in March 2021 hundreds volunteered to join the search for her.

Despite extensive efforts, no trace of Ms Backhurst has ever been found and on Friday a coroner formally found that she had died.

Ms Backhurst had no children of her own, and after her husband's death in 2015, his son and daughter continued to care for her as a much-loved member of their family.

They visited nearly every day, bringing her meals, helping with jobs around the house, medical appointments and stopping to chat with her about her latest walks or her tinkering in the garden.

Not knowing what happened was the hardest part, her stepson said.

"We miss Trish terribly and we hope wherever she is, she is at peace," he said.

In the months before her disappearance, Ms Backhurst had been returned home by police or members of the community after becoming disoriented on her walks.

In November 2020, police found her walking along a highway toward Wongthaggi, nine kilometres from home.

Ms Backhurst was last seen on March 17, 2021, when she went for a morning walk with a friend, and later in the afternoon when she was captured in dashcam footage walking along a roadside shoulder.