DANIEL Rosewall was at work with his parents David and Julie on January 27, 2010, when he asked to borrow his mother’s car.
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Dressed in shorts and business shoes, he called in to see his girlfriend and said he would see her that night.
But he never returned.
The red Mazda 3 Daniel was driving was found abandoned on a stretch of road near Broken Hill, about 700km from Bendigo.
The car was out of petrol, and one witness said the keys were left on in the ignition. The battery was also dead.
Dan’s wallet, baseball cap and a $50 note were on the front passenger seat.
There were few clues, with any evidence destroyed by the severe wind and dust storms that lash the New South Wales outback.
Daniel had driven along the same road once before in the hours before he vanished.
He bought two soft drinks in Silverton before returning to Broken Hill to withdraw money and then headed back out on the same route.
“He knew where he was going and what he was doing,’’ Daniel’s father David said six months after his son’s disappearance.
“He’s gone out there in the daylight and then gone back into Broken Hill and gone back out again.
“But why would you drive out there with no petrol?’’
Daniel had also passed signs to the nearby Eldee station, and the shearing sheds and windmill could be seen from the car. An intense five-day land and air search followed, with no sight of Daniel.
Then, in July this year, two-and-a-half years later, stockmen found human remains in a paddock on Wilangee cattle station, near Silverton and about 70km north-west of Broken Hill.
The paddock was isolated and mostly sand hills, but with patches of bush and grass.
The remains were sent for forensic testing and this week verbal confirmation was given to the Rosewall family that they were Daniel’s.
New South Wales police will not comment on Daniel’s death until they receive confirmation of the results in writing.