National Missing Persons Week was launched at the Bega Valley Commemorative Civic Centre on Monday and mingling among the people who gathered – crime fighters, a civic leader, best-selling author, members of the media and the public – was one man who knows all too well the heartache that is felt when a loved one disappears without a trace.
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In his every waking moment, John Levitski lives in hope that his daughter Kellie-Anne is still alive. Somewhere.
But in his heart of hearts Mr Levitski knows it's at best a "50/50" chance.
"It’s something that never goes away, it’s with you all the time," Mr Levitski said following the Bega launch of National Missing Persons Week on Monday.
Mr Levitski has travelled thousands of kilometres and spent thousands of dollars searching for Kellie-Anne, 38, who disappeared without a trace from a caravan 40 metres from his house in Mt Darragh, sometime between 8.30pm on March 30 and 9am the next day, 2014.
“I’ve travelled to Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Byron Bay searching the streets for her, but then you realise that you could have missed her by five minutes … that’s if she was there at all,” Mr Levistki said.
Since Kellie-Anne’s disappearance, Mr Levitski said his 140-acre property had been "turned upside down" and, being the last known person to see her alive, he had been extensively questioned by police.
Despite the publicity that her mysterious disappearance generated, only two people came forward with what they claimed to be sightings of Kellie-Anne.
The first person was an Eden woman who claimed that she saw Kellie-Anne on Mount Darragh talking to men in a pig-shooting ute.
In the second instance, a Bibbenluke man left a note in Mr Levitski's mailbox claiming he had seen Kellie-Anne with a man at Canberra Hospital. Both people were interviewed by police, but there was no evidence to support their claims.
Mr Levitski said he had “seven or eight” of his own theories: “She could have been the victim of a hit and run driver who then panicked and dumped her body; some psycho could be keeping her captive somewhere; perhaps she suffered a seizure, died, and her remains were taken by wild pigs or foxes.”
Kellie-Anne’s medical conditions included epilepsy and schizophrenia; drug use had made her both vulnerable and cunning.
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