A BENDIGO man has described his missing brother as a shy boy who had no reason to disappear.

Kevin John Whyte was the last person to see his brother, Allan Whyte, 17, and Maureen Braddy, 16, before they disappeared on November 23, 1968.

Mr Whyte was the first person to give evidence at a coronial inquest yesterday.

He said he was not aware Allan had a girlfriend and that he first met Maureen on the steps of a YMCA hall, later discovering her surname was Braddy.

“He said, ‘This is Maureen’, and that was it,” Mr Whyte told the court.

Allan Whyte.

Mr Whyte said he arrived at the dance in Mundy Street about 8pm as Allan was leaving, with both teens appearing “very happy”.

He said he invited his brother to an after-party at his Mundy Street home, which started about 10pm, but the teens declined.

“I never saw Allan or Maureen again after that time at the dance hall,” Mr Whyte said.

The court was told a police report stated Maureen and Allan had stayed with Mr Whyte for two to three nights following their disappearance.

But Mr Whyte rejected this assertion and said the teens never stayed with him.

“If they had stayed with me then they would not be missing,” he said in a witness statement.

Maureen was reported missing about 10.30pm on November 24.

The Whytes didn’t report Allan as missing until the following year.

Mr Whyte said his siblings had been close and the family had assumed Allan was working on a farm.

But Deputy State Coroner Iain West told Mr Whyte he “found it hard to understand” why Allan would go to a farm without saying goodbye if the family was so close.

Allan drove a dark-green FX Holden but had left it in his mother’s backyard the night he disappeared.

Mr Whyte said he believed Allan had met with foul play because he disappeared without his car, bank book or clothes.

He also told the court about the rumours that had circulated following his brother’s disappearance.

The various rumours all suggested Maureen and Allan were both alive and living in different parts of the state including Stanhope, Melbourne and Shepparton.