Marc Mietus cold case: A father still pursuing answers 17 years after son's disappearance
Updated
Four days into the new millennium, Marc Mietus left his home in Melbourne to move to Queensland, where he hoped to begin a new life.
His family never saw him again.
Marc's father, Kris Mietus, said he last spoke with his son in mid-January 2000 when the 21-year-old phoned home to Melbourne from a regional Queensland town.
A week later, Marc had vanished. It is believed he was murdered.
Kris Mietus said he remained troubled by the chain of events.
"You get your good days and you get your bad days," he said.
"How did this ever happen? What could we have done to change it? But hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it?"
Despite a reward of $250,000 on offer, the case is no closer to being solved.
Police said Marc picked up a hitchhiker who offered him a place to stay on a rural property in Booyal, near Childers.
Marc spent about three weeks living in a caravan at the address, but he was running low on cash and a week before he disappeared he called his father from a petrol station in Gympie to ask for money.
"I had to say, 'Remember when you left, remember you're on your own now'. Because we'd given him so much throughout his life, he had everything," he said.
"I said, 'you're on your own'. That was a very difficult decision to have to make."
During that week, Marc sold his car, bought a motorbike in Brisbane and rode it back to Booyal.
Another man who was temporarily living at the Booyal property told police he saw Marc getting into a car with a group of men on the morning of Australia Day.
That was the last time he was seen.
'He would have contacted us by now'
Queensland police Detective Inspector Damien Hansen said while there have been a number of persons of interest, they were yet to determine who was allegedly seen in the car by the witness.
"We've had a number of people we've looked at and we continue to look at so far as persons of interest," he said.
Detective Inspector Hansen said those involved in his disappearance may be more willing to come forward given the passing of time.
"Some of that loyalty that associates had to people at that time may not be as strong now, and we would ask those people to come forward and provide the information that they know what happened to Marc."
Following his son's disappearance, Mr Mietus travelled to Queensland in an attempt to find out what happened.
"He would have made contact ... his bank accounts were never touched," he said.
"Never to ring his sisters or even his mother or father, he wouldn't do that. He would have contacted us by now, so you know in your heart of hearts he's gone."
He said his son began withdrawing from his family in his late teens after several personal setbacks, including being rejected by a junior Melbourne AFL club and the breakdown of his parents' marriage.
"He started to smoke marijuana and that sort of just changed him from there," Mr Mietus said.
"It just escalated and I think at the end of the day ... he was trying to probably find something that made him happy."
Mr Mietus said his family remained desperate for answers.
"He was very close to his sisters and also his grandmother and she's just turned 93," he said.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, crime, law-crime-and-justice, missing-person, booyal-4671, qld, australia, bundaberg-4670, melbourne-3000
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