Desperate for answers about what happened to her missing friend, Justine Ropet sought advice from a psychic.

Her friend, Belgian tourist Celine Cremer, 31, disappeared in the small Tasmanian town of Waratah in June last year.

“I knew the chance of her being there was very small, but I needed to check because it was driving me crazy,” she said.

Justine flew to Melbourne looking for Celine, but she wasn’t there.

Celine’s car was found parked at the start of a hike, known as Philosopher Falls, in northwest Tasmania. But she has not been seen or heard from since.

Justine traveled to Tasmania to try to understand how this could have happened.

“Because at first an accident was not a possibility for me,” Justine said.

Police eventually called off the search for Celine, saying bad weather at the time of her disappearance meant she could not have survived.

But since her body has never been found, Justine still holds out hope that her friend is still alive.

“When you have no idea (what happened), it’s very difficult to realize that it’s over because it might not be.”

Charging…

Thousands of people missing

Last year, around 56,000 missing persons reports were made to Australian police.

While most of the missing people have been found, there are more than 2,500 long-term missing people in the country whose whereabouts have been unknown for more than three months.

One of these people is Sevak Simonian, who was last seen in October 2014.

At the time of his disappearance, Sevak was living at his family home in Belrose, northeast of Sydney.

His brother Sasoon said the family first realized something was wrong when the 21-year-old didn’t show up for his work shift.

“The next day he had a shift at Bunnings, which he didn’t show up for.”

“That’s when alarm bells started ringing and we contacted the police and reported him missing,” he said.

At first, Sasoon wasn’t too worried.

He thought his brother might have had car trouble or gotten lost on a walk in the woods and would soon be found.

But this did not happen.

“My dad and I went to the Blue Mountains, went down to Kanangra Walls and found his car there.

“A couple of days later, the police began the search.”

The police search was called off after 16 days and was the largest search ever conducted in Kanangra Boyd National Park.

Sevak’s body has never been found.

In May 2019, an investigation into Sevak’s disappearance found that he was no longer alive, but could not determine “where, why or how he died.”

Ten years later, Sasoon still hopes that one day his family will have answers about what really happened to his brother.

“I would do anything not to be in this situation and I would do anything to get my brother back.”

Duel without answers

Lili Greer was 13 years old when her mother Tina disappeared.

While an investigation found that she was likely murdered by her then-partner, Tina’s body has never been found.

Lili is now in her twenties and, after years of advocating for her mother’s case to be taken “more seriously in the public eye”, an inquest was held in 2023.

“It was about 10 months of dedicated campaigning for an investigation to be carried out as originally denied.

“We have some answers, but with most missing people the answer is to find where your loved one is and that hasn’t happened yet for me or many other people.”

Lili now works at the Missed Foundation, which raises awareness for missing people and supports their loved ones.

She said it can be very traumatic for families to grieve without having all the answers about what happened to their loved one.

“The technical term is called ambiguous loss,” he said.

“You’re left not knowing what to do and where to put that emotion.”

‘Harmful’ advice from psychics

While some people may try to show support by theorizing about what might have happened to a missing loved one, Lili said this can be really unhelpful.

“We’re already thinking about all the different ways or things that could have happened to that person and it’s a constant loop in our mind.

“It’s amazing how many psychics come up and say, ‘I’ve gotten a ping from this lake,’ and it’s very damaging and downright disrespectful.”

Lili believes there should be more support for families who have a missing loved one.

“What you see with a lot of families is that they will go out and search the land, they will go out and put up billboards, they will do everything they can because there is no social support.”

“They dedicate their lives to finding their loved ones.”