The family of a 26-year-old man missing in a remote area of Western Australia's south west is launching their own intensive search party, more than a year after he was last seen.
Corey O'Connell was last seen walking along Brockman Highway, south of Nannup, on June 24, 2021 after his vehicle ran out of fuel.
His car and belongings were found months later but Corey had not made any contact with family or friends since.
Police continue to investigate his disappearance.
Mr O'Connell's distraught family have struggled through the past year and have decided to plan a wide-scale independent search of the region next month.
Mr O'Connell's sister, Haylee O'Connell, said she was constantly on the lookout, and often mistook strangers to be her brother.
"It's something I would never wish upon my worst enemy," she said.
"I will see someone who will literally look nothing like my brother, but somehow my head paints it to look like him.
"It's the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night and each day."
Walking on foot and last seen by a driver
Mr O'Connell was believed to have been travelling between Manjimup and Busselton that day.
A witness who saw Mr O'Connell walking along the rural highway in the early morning pulled over and spoke to him.
"He didn't seem to want to talk but she felt it was very odd," Ms O'Connell said.
"She offered to help him, asked if he wanted her to get some fuel for him, and he declined.
"The lady had her child in the car, so I completely understand why she didn't let a strange man into her car and offer him a lift.
"She went into town, reported it to the police, came back and Corey was no longer walking on the road.
"No-one has seen him since."
Mr O'Connell's family believe he was struggling with his mental health and while they were unsure what he might have been thinking at the time, there was a slight hope he might have been living off the grid.
"That's kind of the narrative that we had for the first six months," Ms O'Connell said.
"But then the police looked more into it and came across this fella that was living off the grid and Corey was nowhere to be seen.
"That's when the search really stepped up and the police came across his bag and doona.
"So he definitely now was a missing person."
Dogs, horses, bikes ready to cover large distances
Ms O'Connell recently got in touch with K9 Trackers Perth, which was co-founded by Sonya Bowditch — a trainer and handler for the K9 section.
"K9 Trackers is a free service for people in WA, we have dogs that are trained in scent-specific tracking and we also have cadaver dogs," Ms Bowditch said.
"We use our dogs to search for people who are missing and we give them a scent item.
"And the dogs track where they have been and, in this case, as Corey has been missing for a year, it's basically a process of elimination.
"With this search, we will be using our cadaver dog and we will have volunteers on horses, off-road bikes, and we've had a lot of people offer to help with line searches."
The volunteer group can provide long-term assistance to families and Ms Bowditch said sometimes the families would then go out and continue with their own private searches.
"Because we've taught them what to do," she said.
"We have found the missing loved one for the families before, and we always maintain contact with the police while we do these searches."
South West District Police Superintendent Geoff Stewart said the search for Corey was an ongoing investigation.
"We continue to investigate, including following up all lines of inquiry, either generated by the detectives or supplied by the community," he said.
Kindness of strangers helps grieving family
The number of people willing to help Ms O'Connell find her brother had been a surprise.
"It just definitely puts my faith back in humanity. These people are just awesome," she said.
"Part of you hopes that we do [find him] and then a part of you also hopes that you don't — the weekend is not going to be a success either way.
"I might laugh or not think about him for an hour or half an hour and then I feel guilty for having that laugh or smiling or feeling some sort of happiness.
"Every time my mum calls I hope that it's her telling me that we've found him or we know where he is.
"So it's every day, it's not once a week or a few times a month, it's all day every day."
