It's been more than three decades since Megan Mulquiney was last seen after work at Woden Plaza, but time hasn't eased the sense of loss and despair felt by her family and community.
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She is one of six long-term missing ACT residents police have shone the spotlight on during National Missing Persons Week, an annual event that aims to raise awareness of missing persons nationwide.
This year's theme was "Follow your instincts" and encouraged people to understand they didn't need to wait 24 hours to report someone as missing.
About 35,000 people go missing in Australia each year, which equates to one person every 15 minutes, and about 20,000 of those are young people.
More than 99 per cent of people are found, 85 per cent within a week.
Megan Louise Mulquiney was 17 when she was last seen at the south side Canberra shopping centre at noon on Saturday, July 28, 1984.
She was never seen again.
Megan was 158cm tall, with straight, dark brown hair that was parted in the middle.
When she went missing she was wearing a black corduroy jacket and skirt, a pink and grey checked blouse, black leather flat-heeled shoes and purple stockings.
ACT Policing criminal investigations Detective Sergeant Donna Parsons said her disappearance was still being investigated by cold case detectives in the homicide team.
She said the Mulquiney family's loss had reverberated in the tight-knit Canberra community and had devastated her family.
"Obviously for her family, and particularly for her mum Dorothy, it's been a really difficult time for them.
"They just want closure, and I think the community understands that."
Police posted a fresh plea for the public's help to find out more about Megan's disappearance on their Facebook page this week.
It attracted dozens of comments, many from community members who knew Megan or her family, or who recalled they were at Woden Plaza the day she vanished.
"A lot of people who were born and bred Canberrans remember that day and I think the community has a lot of compassion for Megan's family.
"Canberra's a small community and people know people and when something big happens it sticks in people's minds."
Detective Sergeant Parsons urged anyone with information to come forward and help end years of uncertainty for the Mulquiney family.
"Someone still must have seen or heard something. It might not have seemed significant or it might be something small that's been niggling at the back of their mind, or something from a conversation with someone.
"We say it all the time, but every little bit helps and could be the piece of information we need to find out what happened."
■ Visit the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre at missingpersons.gov.au/home. All information will be treated as confidential. People can also contact ACT Policing, 131 444 or Crime Stoppers, 1800 333 000.
