Family members of missing Adelaide woman Colleen South say her phone has been found in Port Noarlunga — more than 570 kilometres from where she was last seen across the border in Victoria.
It comes as Victoria Police scale back the search for the 58 year old, who was last seen on the side of the road in the Victorian Mallee town of Ninyeunook on July 3 before her car was found abandoned in a ditch by a farmer.
The Adelaide woman's possessions were found about 20 metres away and the car was locked.
More than 30 specialist search and rescue police along with dozens of volunteers scoured the Ninyeunook area last week but found no trace of her.
The woman's daughter, Veronica South, has revealed Colleen's Samsung phone was found on Thursday south of Adelaide but it was missing its SIM card.
"Someone handed it in and contacted my cousin Farah because he saw she'd been missing.
"We're assuming she may have thrown it out the window when she was driving but we're not sure why her SIM card is missing.
"It's good the police are looking into it. Hopefully, they might find some leads from there."
Before travelling to Victoria, Ms South was captured on CCTV at the Liquorland store in the Adelaide suburb of St Agnes on July 2.
She is known to have left Renown Park, in Adelaide's north, the previous day in her silver Hyundai Getz hatchback.
Calls for a private investigator
Friends and family members of Ms South are fundraising for a private investigator to help with their search.
"We still believe there is a high potential someone else is involved and she could be in harm's way," Ms South's niece, Farah Mak, said.
"But to rule out that possibility, or find out that is correct, we need a private investigator to follow all leads and be very detailed in it.
"It's all-consuming. We're constantly worrying, thinking, 'What if?'."
Ms Mak described the missing woman as a gentle, loving, "kind and generous person".
"She was quite a hands-on mum and grandmother," she said.
"It's a very difficult time right now, for Veronica in particular, because Colleen was her world.
"She lost her father when she was only 15 years old."
Family 'getting more anxious'
Veronica has returned home to SA after spending nearly a fortnight in Wycheproof, near Ninyeunook, looking for her mother.
"We're feeling exhausted from it all," Veronica said.
"We're getting more anxious, because we were really happy that police were going on with the search, but now it's scaled back, we're wondering, we did all this for what?
Veronica is planning to return to Wycheproof in two weeks to continue to search for her mother if she is still missing.
"Now that I'm back home, it's really starting to hit me that my mum's been missing for almost a month," she said.
"I just want to get back up there as soon as I can."
