When Donald Gordon Buckley’s granddaughter reported her grandfather missing earlier this year, New South Wales police initially didn’t think it sounded like an unusual case.
Until they asked when he went missing – and the answer was 1953.
Seven decades ago, at age 24, Buckley walked out on his wife, two young sons and baby daughter after having marital problems. At the time, he was working as a labourer in the Sydney suburb of Warwick Farm.
He made a couple of child support payments in 1954, the year after he left, after a court order. But then the payments stopped.
“The kids have now grown up to become adults, they’ve had kids themselves,” a NSW police spokesperson said, adding that when he first saw the case, he thought the year was a typo.
“And they just thought he’s walked out on the family and left it at that.”
Police are appealing to the public for information on what happened to Buckley, who would now be in his 90s. He is described as 175cm tall, thin and with brown eyes.
“We think one of three things has happened,” the spokesperson said. “He’s taken his own life … secondly, he’s changed his identity to get out of paying child support, or thirdly, he’s met foul play.
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility he’s still alive.”
The spokesperson said if a person has been missing for more than 100 years or if a death from more than 100 years ago is uncovered, police don’t investigate the matter. But this case still falls well within the timeline of warranting an investigation, the spokesperson said.
“It’s certainly up there as one of the oldest [cold cases],” the spokesperson said. “The report has been lodged by a family member and we’ve got to follow it up.”
Police have made inquiries through a number of agencies, including Border Force, the defence force, and the courts, but so far there has been no recorded trace of Buckley since 1954.
Inspector Jason Pietruszka, the crime manager of Blacktown police area command, said they were desperate to obtain information about Buckley.
“There is no doubt that this is an unusual set of circumstances in that the missing person report wasn’t lodged until 70 years after he was last seen, but that doesn’t prevent us from investigating this matter,” Pietruszka said.
“Despite the passage of time we are very keen to find out what happened to Mr Buckley.”
