The vice-president of the search team that solved two high-profile missing persons cases in Tasmania will assist in the search for the Nannup Four after the decades-long mystery was featured in an ABC podcast.
Chantelle McDougall, her five-year-old daughter Leela, Simon Kadwill and Tony Popic went missing from the isolated town of Nannup in 2007.
In the weeks leading up to their disappearance, Ms McDougall had told her parents the four were moving to Brazil.
Jim and Cath McDougall raised the alarm with police after they failed to hear from their daughter.
“Every day I’d go to the post office on the way home from work, thinking there’d be a letter there,” Mrs McDougall said.
“There was never any letter.“
Jim and Cath McDougall have not given up hope of finding answers to their daughter’s disappearance. (ABC News: Geoff Kemp)
The group never travelled on their passports nor accessed their bank accounts ever again.
In the ensuing police investigation, it was revealed that Kadwill, whose real name was Gary Felton, was running an online cult while living under a stolen identity.
The self-styled spiritual guru had told an online follower of plans for a suicide pact in the lead-up to the disappearance, where the four would wander into the wilderness and take a fast-acting drug.
Simon Kadwill created an online cult and his true identity was later to be found to be Gary Felton. (WA Police)
Celine Cremer volunteer joins search
The case was the focus of ABC Expanse podcast: The Nannup Four and, after hearing the podcast, Find Our Lost Loved Ones (FOLLO) vice-president Matt Strickland reached out to the McDougall family, offering his assistance.
“It’s very hard to imagine what these people are going through,” he said.
“There’s not a lot I can say but there’s a lot I can do.“
Mr Strickland was among the volunteers who signed up to look for missing Belgian tourist Celine Cremer, who disappeared while hiking near Philosopher Falls, in Tasmania, in 2023.
Their efforts led to the discovery of her remains in January this year.
Celine Cremer was loving life travelling Australia when she went missing in Tasmania’s west while bushwalking. (Supplied)
“That experience was life-changing,” he said.
“We didn’t realise what was going to happen afterwards, but we decided that we were going to just continue doing what we’re doing.”
A number of the volunteers then formed as a group to look for other long-term missing people in the wilderness.
Their first case as the official group concluded in less than two days, when they found human remains during the search for missing Tasmanian Peter Willoughby on May 30.
Mr Strickland hopes to take the team’s new-found success out of Tasmania, with the Nannup Four Case the first interstate search he will be part of.
With a background in geology and exploration, he’ll assist retired detective Barry McIntosh, Chantelle’s uncle, with a search later this year.
Matt Strickland has 30 years of experience in geology and exploration. (ABC News: Emily Smith)
“I think it’s going to be quite difficult to access this area and do the work that he wants to do, but I’m hoping that I can get some volunteers to help us out to make it easier for him to operate in that area,” Mr Strickland said.
Mr McIntosh has been investigating the disappearance since the COVID pandemic, when he received a copy of the police file and had unanswered questions.
He has been raising money through an online fundraiser to finance a search later this year.
“I estimate the search cost of $10,000,” he said.
“Once I’ve knocked that out I’ve pretty much done everything I can do.“
Where will the search focus be?
The search will focus on an area of bushland near the WA town of Northcliffe.
In the days surrounding the disappearance, two bus tickets linked to the four were purchased for Northcliffe.
Three months later, in October 2007, prisoners carrying out track clearing in bushland near the small town reported finding items of clothing and a smell of death in the area.
Police admit search error
WA police had previously conducted a search of the area, but have since admitted they were in the wrong location.
They’ve declined the family’s request for a new search.
Mrs McDougall said she was “frustrated” when she learnt of the error.
“I was absolutely devastated and disappointed to think they get a bit of a lead and they can’t get it right,”
she said.
Tony Popic, Leela and Chantelle McDougall would often be seen in Nannup together. (Supplied: McDougall family)
While the McDougalls are excited about the new offer of assistance, they are unsure if they will ever get the answers they desperately want.
“One day I’m really positive and the next I’m not; sometimes I think I’m in automatic,” Mrs McDougall said.
“I just keep hoping that we’ll turn up something.”
Follow Expanse: The Nannup Four on ABC listen to hear every episode of season six.
