As Natalie Barnett goes about her busy shift at a central Queensland supermarket, she spots someone from a distance who looks like her daughter.
It has been 10 years since Chantal was last seen alive, but Ms Barnett's breath still catches at the possibility it could be her.
"My heart stops every time and then when they look around, you know it's not her," she said.
"But that's what I cop every day. It's hard. It's not getting easier."
It has been a harrowing decade for Ms Barnett and Chantal's father, Glen, not knowing what happened to their precious daughter.
Central Coroner David O'Connell ruled in 2020 that Chantal died on or about March 2, 2013, likely from a drug overdose where she voluntarily consumed the drugs, but said there remained a degree of uncertainty over the cause of her death.
Her family has since dealt with searches and the utter despair of not knowing where their daughter's remains lie.
"We're not free. We will never be free until we know," Mr Barnett said.
"I just hope there is something done before I go to the grave."
The Barnetts throw flowers into Gavial Creek on the outskirts of Rockhampton every year on their daughter's July 25 birthday.
"It's the last place they [police] found anything of hers, so that's all we've got," Ms Barnett said.
"[But] we don't know whether she's even here."
She said her family was still looking, hoping and praying that someone would come forward and let them know where Chantal was.
"It's very important to have Chantal home, to have somewhere for her two children to place flowers on a grave … so we can have some peace and lay her to rest properly," she said.
"We just need that closure."
Murder trial discontinued
Chantal Barnett was 27 when she and her 26-year-old boyfriend Robert Martinez went missing in March 2013.
Mr Martinez's body was found near Gavial Creek in 2014, and his remains showed no evidence of a person inflicting an injury on him.
Chantal's body has never been found, but her handbag was found near Mr Martinez's remains.
In 2018 two men went on trial in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton after pleading not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of interfering with a corpse.
But midway through the trial, they pleaded guilty to interfering with a corpse and the murder charges were dropped.
During sentencing, Justice Graeme Crow said he was "troubled deeply" that Chantal's body was not found and urged the pair to think of her family and cooperate with authorities in locating her body.
One man was sentenced to two years in jail, while the other was jailed for 378 days.
Who was Chantal?
Ms Barnett said Chantal was a tomboy and "a rough nut" as a little girl.
"She could be a hardhead, she was loving. She'd stick up for family no matter what," Ms Barnett said.
"She got mixed up in the wrong crowd and was easily led, but she was a good mother to her kids."
Mr Barnett still recalls the last moment he saw his daughter.
She bounded up to him at the beach and wrapped her arms around him.
"She was a good kid but she wasn't an angel," he said.
"She did have a drug problem, but she came to me and asked for help, and I said, 'Yes'.
"By the time I said that … she was gone."
Unanswered questions
The Missing Persons Advocacy Network said 145 people were reported missing nationally each day and 2,600 people were considered to be missing long-term.
"People who are left behind are imagining every single possible scenario that might explain why their loved one disappeared," founder Loren O'Keeffe said.
"That constant ruminating is absolutely exhausting."
Ms O'Keeffe said loved ones of missing people faced what many psychologists considered one of the most difficult types of bereavement, known as "ambiguous loss".
"Ambiguous loss doesn't get easier to cope with over time. It is this unending, not knowing that takes a huge toll on the people," she said.
Mr Barnett said he still shed a tear every morning on his way to work.
"I don't think there will ever be a body found," he said.
"Whether it's because nature has taken its course … she could have been taken away with the [creek] water.
"She could have even been in this creek.
"No one will ever know until someone comes forward and says 'this is what happened'."
