Search begins for family of four who vanished into bush 19 years ago

A search is underway for a family who went missing in Australia some 19 years ago.

The case of Chantelle McDougall, her daughter Leela, five, partner Simon Kadwill, and friend Tony Popic has become one of the biggest missing persons cases in Australia, with the group becoming known as the Nannup Four after their disappearance.

Now, following a renewed investigation into the disappearances a call was put out for volunteers to assist with a two-week-long search in an effort to find out what had happened, with the callout specifying that people should have experience in the Australian bush.

Matt Strickland, a geologist who has been involved in several missing persons searches, said: "We are going to be operating on what could potentially be a crime scene. So we need to be responsible; we need to have responsible people there."

Over 40 people signed up in the volunteers in the following weeks, but Strickland said that even though he has been successful, there was one thing about the Nannup four case which makes it more difficult than others he has pursued.

Chantelle McDougall and Simon Kadwill (McDougall Family handout)

"The searches that we've had so far, we've been searching for people who were lost and probably died of exposure, and they wanted to be found," he explained, "in the case of the Nannup Four, it appears that they didn't want to be."

Initially it was thought that they may have travelled to Brazil, but it would transpire that neither their passports or their bank accounts had been used, with Chantelle's loved ones reporting them missing.

To further complicate matters, it turned out that Kadwill's real name is actually Gary Felton, and he had been running a cult on the internet, which included promoting beliefs around doomsday and wanting to 'wander into the wilderness'.

Years later in 2017 an inquest into their disappearances would not be able to say for sure whether the group were dead or alive, ABC reports.

The four disappeared and have been missing ever since (McDougall Family handout)

The searchers intend to concentrate on an area near to the town of Northcliffe in WA, which is located approximately 62 miles from Nannup, where the missing people had been living.

"It's all regrown, and it's quite thick, and it is formerly a logging area," said Mr Strickland. "So the ground itself … kind of chaotic would be one way of describing it."

In October 2007, around three months after either Kadwill or Popic bought two bus tickets, prisoners who were assigned to clear tracks in the area said that they had found items of clothing and a 'smell of death', with dogs trained to find bodies subsequently also detecting the smell of human remains.

Chantelle's parents Jim and Cath McDougall are also driving across Australia to support the search.

"I think it's absolutely amazing," said Mrs McDougall. "I'm so grateful to all these people helping because for years it felt like we had no-one on our side trying to help us."

Nonetheless, she added: "We try not to get our hopes up too much. Because over the years, we felt that all the little leads and things we had have come to a dead end, and we sort of still don't know anything."