Heartbreaking wait for answers about missing Julatten man
Leave A Light On
CCTV footage of missing Julatten man Reece Kearney was captured on December 15, 2017, as he travelled west towards Mount Garnet after filling up the black 2012 Bonneyville Triumph motorcycle he was riding at a Ravenshoe roadhouse.
The then 26-year-old had been living with his parents at their Julatten home when he was reported missing by father Ron Kearney on that day - the last time his family saw him.
According to missing person’s reports, Reece had been seen in an agitated state around that time after the funeral of a friend who had died suddenly.
On December 15, 2017, Reece reportedly smashed his phone, took off from his family home on the bike, and withdrew $3000 from an Atherton bank.
On January 10, 2018, police reportedly confirmed Reece was alive and well, saying he had accessed his bank accounts and was seen on CCTV footage in more than one place in Ravenshoe, about 140km south of Julatten.
“We’re unsure of his intended destination or if he is being deliberately evasive,’’ Senior Constable Daniel Whitling said at the time.
“But he’s made no contact with family or friends.’’
On January 16, his father Ron made a public appeal for anyone to come forward who knew anything of his whereabouts that month.
There are reports of him later being seen at Mount Surprise, with his dad believing he was trying to ride to Normanton to see his brother and may have crashed the bike.
“We’ve done a search of the area from Georgetown to Croydon by road and now by helicopter as we think he may have had a road accident,” Mr Kearney said.
“There is still a possibility that he’s gone from Normanton to Mount Isa, so I appeal to the people out at the Isa and the three ways in the Northern Territory and Charters Towers, if they see something, please come forward.”
Reece, who is described as Caucasian, about 180cm tall, with brown hair and a slim build, has a tattoo on the inside of his right arm of the words “Life goes on”.
On February 8, 2018, the motorcycle, with Queensland registration 095-HV, was reportedly found at the Newcastle Range Telstra Tower about 20km east of Georgetown.
A police report then confirmed that, on February 15, 2018, officers and the SES had searched bushland near Georgetown in the Gulf Country and found several items of clothing belonging to Reece.
Police said at the time it was possible he may have tried to hitchhike through the area.
In August 2020, Ron Kearney made another appeal during Missing Person’s Week, saying he, his wife Denise, and their younger son Jarrod, thought about Reece every day.
“The poor boy needed help,” he said.
“We tried but he disappeared.”
Ron said at the time Reece was a “homeboy” who loved fishing.
“We’ve still got his fishing boat here, he was a mad fisherman,” he said.
He urged anyone with any information to call police.
If you have information about Reece contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or crimestoppersqld.com.au.
Families of missing persons from across Australia gathered in Melbourne on Sunday to remember their loved ones as part of Leave A Light On, a family support organisation founded by Suzie Ratcliffe and Newsport’s Bryan Littlely, an investigative journalist working on cold case private investigations including the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon from Adelaide Oval in 1973.
Leave A Light On has been running for more than 10 years, the concept of leaving a porch light on to guide the path home for missing persons honouring the efforts of Suzie’s family who left the porch light on for missing Joanne - 11 when abducted with Kirste Gordon, 4, on August 25, 1973, during a football match at Adelaide Oval - each night for seven years, until her father, Les, died.
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