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THE frustration of knowing so much, but feeling so far from the answer, follows Lyn Ireland every day as she pieces together the disappearance of her sister Maureen Braddy.
Even after a $1 million reward for information was released in January, Victoria Police have confirmed there has been no new update in the case of Maureen and Allan Whyte, who went missing from Bendigo in 1968.
Today is International Missing Children’s Day – an opportunity to raise awareness of families doing everything they can to find out what happened to their loved ones.
Ms Ireland said the inquest from 2013 appeared to piece it all together, but police remained reluctant to move on the prime suspect.
“If you read through the transcripts, it’s plain as day,” she said.
“It’s frustrating to think: Here’s all the evidence we need, let’s do something.”
Ms Ireland, with the aid of a relative, is continuing to put together timelines and a comprehensive overview of November 23, 1968, when Maureen and Allan were last seen leaving the YMCA hall on Mundy Street.
She believes a well on a property in California Gully holds the answers, but police will not excavate.
Daryl Floyd, who is excavating a second mine shaft near Avoca to find the remains of his missing brother Terry, said the excavation in California Gully would not be a difficult task.
“I think that’d only take us a few days to excavate properly,” he said.
“Lyn and some of her family members visited our excavation site over a month ago to see how it all worked.”
With the aid of volunteers and excavation equipment, he has been able to dig down 40 metres to a drive at the bottom of a shaft in Bung Bong, near Avoca.
Mr Floyd said they could know what happened to Terry “in a couple of months”, if all goes to plan.
“We’re not too far from getting answers now,” he said.
Terry went missing from the Pyrenees Highway on June 28, 1975.
The state government last year provided Mr Floyd with $50,000 for the task, after years of lobbying.