When Sandie Gillette and one of her sons saw the man walking towards them in a Sunshine Coast car park last summer they were too stunned to move.
They had last seen him 10 years before and 1800 kilometres away when he stormed out of the home they shared in suburban Melbourne.
He was, they believe, Ms Gillette's long-lost former partner â and the father her boys barely knew.
They last saw Russell Jenkin in September 2006 when, after a fight with Ms Gillette, he walked out of the family home in Werribee, leaving his two sons â aged four and two â behind.
Despite countless appeals for help to find Mr Jenkin in the decade since, the children, Ethan and Charlie, do not know what happened to their dad.
That was until January this year.
While on a trip to Queensland with his mother, Ethan, now aged 15, spotted Mr Jenkin inside a shopping centre car park.
"We were coming out of the shopping mall and he was coming towards us, casual-like, we then got into the car," Â Ms Gillette said.
"We drove past him and he was observing us, and he took his sunglasses off and I thought, that's definitely him.
"It was a bit numbing ... realising it was him. We could have approached him, but he could have approached us."
That sighting was on January 27, at Caloundra Stockland shopping centre on the Sunshine Coast.
Ms Gillette, who now lives in NSW, had taken her two boys, Ethan and 12-year-old Charlie, to Queensland to visit her older daughter â the boys' half-sister â who lived nearby.
After all the years he'd been missing, Ms Gillette said she never expected to see Mr Jenkin â who would now be aged 47 â in a different state.
When they got back from the shops, Ethan looked up a photo of his dad, to be sure it was him.
"He looked up the missing person's poster and he was 100 per cent positive," Ms Gillette said.
"There's no reason for him to be there. He may have been passing through, but it was definitely Russell."
Ms Gillette said she would understand if Mr Jenkin did not want to be found, but she wants him to at least tell authorities that he is still alive, if only for Ethan and Charlie.
"It's always there, that not knowing," she said.
"The boys would like to know him and if he is out there, he doesn't have to contact us, just the police.
"They know who he is and they still think of him as their dad and they want to know what happened."
The day that he went missing from their Thompson Court home in Werribee on September 22, 2006, the couple had fought.
"He'd been watching the football, and there was an argument so I went to the other room with the boys and watched a movie," she said.
"At about 9.15pm that night, I heard the front door and him reversing out and that was it."
The silver Toyota Yaris he left in was found the following day, on September 23 about 40 kilometres away at the Lara football ground.
Mr Jenkin said goodbye to Ethan before he left, Ms Gillette said, but in the years since his disappearance he has never tried to speak to his sons.
"I've never been in another relationship so the boys have never had that male figure, but in saying that they've turned out very good, they're good boys," she said,
"The youngest one is 12 going on 13, and he sees his friends with their dads but he just doesn't get to have his dad there.
"As the boys get older, they ask more questions, especially Ethan being the oldest, he's not quite sure how he feels about seeing him."
When Mr Jenkin was seen in January, he was wearing a maroon T-shirt and blue shorts. He is Caucasian and about 175 centimetres tall, with a medium build, short brown hair and hazel eyes.
He was with a woman, who appeared to be aged in her 40s, and had curly black hair. She was wearing a black T-shirt and black shorts, and the pair were seen getting into a black ute with a silver metal tray.
Wyndham police Detective Sergeant Dennis Williams urged for Mr Jenkin come forward, saying: "We just want to make sure you're safe and well."
"It is absolutely not a crime to go missing, however it is important to make contact with police to let us know you're OK," he said.
Anyone who sees Mr Jenkin is urged to contact Wyndham Crime Investigation Unit on 9742 9439, or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.