National Missing Persons Week

An annual week of action that takes place in Australia during the first week of August to raise awareness of the significant issues surrounding missing persons. The week is also used to profile long-term missing persons, and to educate the Australian community.

The disappearance of Tony Jones in 1982 was the catalyst for the establishment of National Missing Persons Week (NMPW) in Australia by the Jones family. The inaugural week took place with a memorial service in Townsville in 1988, where the Mayor of Townsville planted a tree in commemoration of Mr Jones.

NMPW continues to this day, and is supported throughout the missing persons sector and within the broader community to bring much needed awareness and hopefully answers for those left behind.

In support of NMPW, the AFP NMPCC coordinates an annual police campaign with State and Territory police, highlighting a different theme each year to raise awareness of the significant issues associated with missing persons, and profiling long-term missing persons to reduce the incidence and impact of missing persons in Australia.

The annual police campaign compliments other campaigns, events, initiatives and memorial services run by families with a missing loved one, advocacy networks, government and non-government organisations, and members of the public.

National Missing Persons Week 2024 was held from the 28 July - 3 August.

  • This year’s National Missing Persons Week campaign will focus on 8 missing Australian women.

    The AFP is shining the light on long-term missing women this National Missing Persons Week (NMPW), calling on the Australian public to come forward with new information that could help bring them home. This year from 28 July – 3 August, the campaign Always Searching will focus on the continuing efforts of police to solve missing persons investigations.  

    Throughout the week, 8 missing women will be featured, providing an opportunity to raise awareness and encourage the community to come forward with any information they may have. Each case will highlight a different long-term missing person who has been selected in consultation with state and territory police.  

    The recurring message of this year’s campaign is that no matter how tiny the detail, police are committed to following leads and information to help find families’ loved ones.

     For further information be sure to follow the AFP’s National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC) Facebook, Instagram and X pages.  Don’t forget to like, share, and comment on the posts and use hashtag #NMPW2024.

    If you have any information about a case, we encourage you to contact Crime Stoppers. You can anonymously share information at https://crimestoppers.com.au/ or freecall 1800 333 000.  

    Remember, no detail is too small or too big, together we can make a difference.  

    Laura Haworth – missing since January, 2008, last seen in Queanbeyan, NSW.

    Anne Marie Jeffery – missing since August, 2020, last seen in Lake Arragan, NSW.

    Angie Lee Fuller – missing since January, 2023, last seen in Alice Springs, NT.

    Tanya Buckland – missing since August, 2013, last seen in Warwick, Queensland.

    Susan Goodwin – missing since July, 2002, last seen in Port Lincoln, SA.

    Nancy Grunwaldt – missing since March, 1993, last seen in Scamander, Tasmania.

    Julie Garciacelay – missing since July, 1975, last seen in North Melbourne, Victoria.

    Chantelle McDougal – missing since July, 2007, last seen in Nannup, WA. 

  • This year National Missing Persons Week (NMPW) will be recognised from 30 July - 5 August 2023. The theme of this year’s national police campaign is, “Can You Solve The Case”.

    For further information on this year's NMPW, please click here.

  • This year National Missing Persons Week (NMPW) will be recognised from 31 July - 6 August 2022. The theme of this year’s national police campaign is, “Without Them”. This year's campaign challenges Australians to identify with the missing, feel the weight of each missed year and consider their own emotional reaction to having a loved one go missing.

    For further information on this year's NMPW, please click here.

  • This year National Missing Persons Week (NMPW) will be recognised from 1-7 August 2021. The theme of this year’s national police campaign is, ‘Their faces may have changed, missing them hasn’t’.

    The National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC) have worked closely with AFP Forensic Artists to create aged progressed images of seven long-term missing persons from across Australia.

    The NMPCC liaised with the families of the seven long-term missing persons, to create videos that communicate how their loved ones are not only missing but how they are missed.

    For further information on this year's NMPW, please click here.

  • For 2020 NMPW, the NMPCC aims to highlight these thoughts that run rampant in the minds of loved ones when they are left wondering, and hoping their missing husband, mother, uncle or sister will return home.

    For further information on this year's campaign, please click here. 

  • Annually during National Missing Persons Week (NMPW) the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC) strives to create awareness throughout the wider Australian community, specifically those who have never thought about a missing person or the impact it has.

    In 2019, National Missing Persons Week falls on 4-10 August, and is centred on the theme of ‘Individuals Not Statistics’.

    It is sometimes easy to generalise the 2,600 long term missing persons in Australia and lose the essence of the individual. The people captured in the statistic are not just ‘missing persons’, they are fathers and daughters; students, chefs and academics.

    To continue this narrative, the 2019 NMPW campaign will go beyond the statistics and focus on eight long-term missing persons from around the nation. Unlike previous years, the new design removes the ‘persons’ from National Missing Persons Week and replaces it with the name of the real person being profiled.

    To complement the profiling element of the campaign, the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre have also joined forces with media personalities and social media influencers to amplify messaging on social media during National Missing Persons Week. The influencers will use their platform to share content to raise awareness of the issue and the importance of the week.

    The eight profiles have been selected by the NMPCC in consultation with state and territory missing persons units and can be viewed here.

  • This year, NMPW will run from the 5-11 August, and will see the 30 year anniversary of the week commemorated across the country.

    To acknowledge and celebrate this milestone anniversary, the NMPCC will create a digital campaign to promote the week. The target audience being the wider Australian community; those who have perhaps never thought about a missing person, or believe the impact of a missing person will never affect them.

    To commence the week, the NMPCC will be launching a short film displaying the effects of a missing loved one on family left behind. The film aims to provide insight into the emotional struggle, the not knowing and the waiting for answers that families experience when a loved one is missing.

    The NMPCC will supplement the short film by launching a campaign titled ‘30 for 30’, advertising 30 missing persons for 30 years of NMPW. The campaign will highlight missing persons cases, and will touch on the different reasons why people go missing as well as the impact on families and friends let behind.

    Through our corporate supporters the Outdoor Media Association, the NMPCC will once again partner with Australia’s Out of Home advertising industry to display the faces of the selected 30 missing persons across Australia.

    For further information on this year's campaign, please click here. 

  • National Missing Persons Week (NMPW) 2017, aims to raise awareness around the high number of ‘youth’ who are reported missing to police each year.

    The theme of ‘youth’ was selected as an outcome of the AFP commissioned research ‘Missing Persons in Australia 2008 - 2015’ statistical bulletin (PDF 370KB). The research conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) with data supplied by our state and territory police, found three out of five missing persons reports recorded by police related to a young person under the age of 18. Those in the age bracket of 13 to 17 years accounted for 19,000 of the 38,000 or 50% of all missing persons reports recorded by police each year.

    The graphics for this year’s campaign, focus on those families left behind following the disappearance of a loved one, with a message not only to youth, but all missing persons; ‘Still waiting for you to come home’. This message provides hope to all families.

    Youth missing

    There are many terms that relate to ‘missing’, including disappearance, abduction (both stranger and parental), running away, homelessness, squatting, couch surfing, sleeping rough, staying with friends, going walkabout or just heading off. All these terms can be considered as ‘missing’ if there is a concern for a person’s safety and welfare and their whereabouts are unknown. It may be that young people have been reported missing and don’t realise.

    A very small percentage of missing persons cases in Australia are stranger abductions. Young people (those under the age of 18) go missing for a number of reasons including family and social conflict, wanting to become independent, being the victim of crime, forgetting to communicate, mental health problems, drugs/alcohol abuse as well as escaping from other abuse and neglect.

    Most young people who are reported missing disappear for short periods of time before either being located or returning home. Going missing is seen by young people as a way of resolving tension or conflict at home or within friendship groups, but if the underlying factors are not addressed when they return and the issues remain, they are at greater risk of going missing again.

    Factors that should be considered in determining if a young person is at risk of going missing include deteriorating academic performance, truancy, personality/mood changes, acting out and risk taking behaviors, inappropriate peer groups and substance abuse.

    Whilst it is not a crime to go missing there are vulnerabilities present when someone disappears. Lack of access to support, financial constraints, poor hygiene, substance abuse etc. may all impact on a young person’s ability to keep safe.

  • Stay connected promotional image

    In 2016 the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre will focus on raising awareness of the impacts of missing persons within the community. Our key message 'Missing persons leave frayed edges, Stay connected' reminds us all of the importance of staying connected with family and friends and enhancing the support networks for those most at risk of going missing.

    The impact of missing persons

    Anyone, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or educational background, may face the issue of someone they know becoming a missing person. The impact on families and friends, and the missing people themselves, can be both profound and multi-faceted. Commonly reported impacts on family and friends of missing persons include health consequences, time off from work, and financial costs associated with the search.

    Impacts on families and friends

    Most missing persons are reported to police by family. Research reveals that for every missing person reported, on average at least 12 other people are affected whether it is emotionally, physically, psychologically or financially. For families, not knowing what has happened to someone they love is devastating.

    Impacts on missing persons

    For the missing person themselves it is often difficult to find the support they require to address their situation. Research conducted in the UK found that “being labelled as missing was traumatic […] and the loss of control to talk about their experiences in a way that was meaningful for them added to the trauma.” Geographies of Missing Persons 2013

    People who intentionally go missing often do so to escape or remove themselves from something that isn’t making them happy. These people are generally lacking the support they require to manage their situation and may feel that going missing is their only option. Improving community support is key to reducing the impacts on missing persons.

    Impact on the community

    Part of our mandate is to reduce the impact of missing persons on the Australian community. Awareness of the issue and enhancing community support mechanisms are key parts of our strategy.

    For more information on this year's NMPW, please click here.

  • Follow Your Instincts

    Research shows there are several myths about missing persons commonly held within the community. One of the NMPCC's awareness objectives is to dispel these myths in the hope that awareness of the facts will reduce the incidence of missing persons. In 2015 the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre will focus on raising awareness within the community of the common myths and facts surrounding missing persons.

    The central messaging and branding designed to help communicate the theme is ‘follow your instincts’. Merchandise and advertising has been produced and distributed across Australia to form a national educational strategy in support of this campaign.

    Follow your instincts

    One of the most common myths surrounding missing persons is that you have to wait before reporting someone as missing. It’s common for people think they need to wait 24 hours, 48 hours, or sometimes even longer before they can make a missing persons report to police.

    In Australia, a missing person is defined as anyone whose whereabouts are unknown, and there are immediate concerns for their safety and welfare. If someone you know is missing follow your instincts and report immediately.

    More Information

    For more information on some of the other common myths surrounding missing persons, please view the following NMPCC publications:

    For more information on this year's NMPW, please click here.

  • Remember Missing Persons and Dementia promotional image

    In 2014 the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre's focus was on raising awareness within the community of the links between dementia and missing persons. Each year the we build awareness messaging around one of the key groups in the community most at risk of going missing.

    What can I do to help?

    If you are a carer of person suffering from dementia who may be at risk of wandering and going missing, consider whether registration in a safe return program, an ID bracelet or other means of identification may be suited to your situation.

    The NMPCC also encourages the carers of people with Dementia to consider ways to help those suffering from this illness. This year, the NMPCC has developed a range of merchandise specifically targeted at carers and dementia sufferers, with the theme of "Remembering".

    More information

    For more information on dementia and missing persons, please view the following NMPCC factsheets:

    For more information on Alzheimer's and Dementia contact:

    Dementia Australia
    or call the dementia helpline on: 1800 100 500

    • 2013: See the signs before they disappear
    • 2012: Take the time to let someone know
    • 2011: When someone goes missing, more than one person is lost
    • 2010: When someone goes missing, a day spent waiting is a day lost
    • 2009: Not knowing is like living in darkness
    • 2008: Don’t close the door to communication: When communication goes missing, so does our youth
    • 2007: How do you find someone when they struggle to find themselves?
    • 2006: Life is a puzzle. Every piece is important
    • 2005: Talk, please, don't walk
    • 2004: Missing: the right to know
    • 2003: PLEaS (Prevention, Location, Education, and Support) principles
    • 2002: Find a way to say you’re ok
    • 2001: Somewhere, someone is thinking about you
    • 2000: If you’re missing, someone is missing you
    • 1999: Put yourself back in the picture
    • 1997/1998: Help unravel the mystery