Tasmanians who helped find the remains of missing Belgian backpacker Celine Cremer in the wilderness are turning their attention to another cold case, driven by a shared desire to bring closure to grieving families.
Jon Edmunds and Tony Hage were among the group of volunteers who spent countless hours searching for Cremer after she disappeared near Waratah on the state’s west coast.
Now the pair are helping lead a search for Peter Willoughby, who went missing in bushland in the Hollybank area in northern Tasmania last October.
The group is also working behind the scenes to set up a non-profit organisation so they can keep searching for missing people long into the future.
Edmunds, of Newnham, said the emotional experience of searching for Cremer changed him in ways he didn’t expect.
“Leaving Waratah at that time, I didn’t realise how invested I was until … I felt a fair bit of emotion leaving, knowing that, or at that stage, we hadn’t found her for her friends that … we became good friends with during the search,” he told Pulse.
He said seeing the closure that finding Cremer brought to her loved ones was what motivated him to keep going and spurred him on to use his bush skills for future cases.
“You go on bush walks and see incredible scenery of Tasmania and that’s rewarding, but yeah, to find someone and bring closure to grieving family and friends and …. can’t think of a better reward than that,” he said.
Edmunds said the bond formed during the Cremer search kept the group together.
A major search for Willoughby is planned for the end of May with around eight volunteers from the Cremer search to take part, alongside new recruits, with about 50 people registered so far.
“I think it’s motivated a lot of the group to stay in touch and keep this rolling on,” he said.
For Hage, a search and rescue volunteer of around 15 years from Wynyard, finding Cremer’s phone during the search still stirs deep emotions.
“That moment when I found the phone and then talking about it later, even now, it certainly stirs some emotions up,” he said.
Hage said the group’s shared purpose was what kept them coming back.
“I believe we had a common goal … to find closure for a worthy family,” he told Pulse.
“And we’re going to band together and continue that worthy cause, to find loved ones.”
He said the volunteers brought different strengths to the effort.
“I have a little bit of knowledge, I have a little bit of bush skills and I have a lot of compassion,” he said.
“I feel the group has this enduring quality, so I sort of like to continue with the group as well and they’ll support me and I’ll support them.”
For the upcoming search, the team will be split into four groups of around 12, a change from the single-line formation used in the Cremer search.
“We’ve got enough experience now where there’s enough leaders in each group to sort of look after a small team and we think that’ll give us a bit more flexibility,” Edmunds said.
He said the terrain at Hollybank is drier than the rainforest near Waratah but still challenging, with steep rocky drop-offs and thick scrub.
Hage described the bush as unforgiving, with slippery rocks, trip hazards and dense ferns up to a metre high that could easily conceal a body.
Edmunds said Willoughby was believed to have become confused while searching for his car and pushed on regardless of the conditions.
He said the first goal is to find an axe type object Willoughby was carrying at the time, which hasn’t been located.
“If we at least find that, police will definitely be involved again and be able to bring some resources,” he said.
Edmunds said police have provided previous search maps to assist the volunteers.
Tasmania Police said it’s aware of the independent search being organised for Willoughby and “remain generally supportive of those wishing to conduct these searches.”
A police spokesperson said an extensive police search was carried out in the Hollybank area in October but Willoughby wasn’t found.
“The case remains under review and Tasmania Police will continue to assess any new credible information in relation to his disappearance and respond appropriately,” the spokesperson said.
