CARLY McBride’s partner says he dropped her off to see her daughter and never saw her again.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The father of her daughter says Ms McBride walked out of his Muswellbrook home to go to McDonald’s and that was the last he saw of her.
And police will say only that they are ‘‘keeping an open mind’’ into what may have happened to the mother of two.
It appears the only certainty in the mystery of what happened to Carly McBride is that six weeks ago she vanished without a trace and hasn’t been heard of since.
Her partner of three months, Sayle Newson, told the Newcastle Herald he feared the worst. ‘‘I believe she is dead, but I need the truth,’’ Mr Newson said.
A police strike force has been set up to investigate the disappearance, areas of bushland have been searched and friends and family members have been interviewed.
But there is nothing else, or at least that is what Hunter Valley police are telling the public.
‘‘We are keeping an open mind at this time until we can say otherwise,’’ crime manager Detective Inspector Tim Seymour said on Tuesday. ‘‘We are confident somebody in the community would be aware of what her movements were and we ask anyone with information to come forward.’’
Detective Inspector Seymour said he was unable to shed any light on the fate of Ms McBride, including theories that she had staged her own disappearance or was the victim of foul play.
Within days of her disappearance, police released a short statement about Ms McBride being last seen in Calgaroo Avenue at Muswellbrook about 2pm on September 30.
It would later be revealed that the Belmont woman was there to visit a daughter before, police have been told, she left to walk the kilometre or so to McDonald’s.
She never arrived.
Mr Newson told the Herald on Tuesday he had dropped Ms McBride off at the house about 12.30pm and had only returned at 4pm when calls and messages to her phone were not returned.
He was also told his girlfriend had left and not returned.
Her phone continued to ring until about noon the following day.
Mr Newson said he had returned to the town most weekends since the disappearance to doorknock the ‘‘400 or so’’ homes Ms McBride would have passed on her way to McDonald’s.
He will return this week to search bushland and continues to update a Facebook page he created in a bid to keep interest in the case.
Mr Newson had driven Ms McBride up to Muswellbrook that day to see her daughter, as he had done previously.
It was their practice that he would drop her outside the house before leaving to allow her time with her daughter. She would keep in touch and tell him when he could return and pick her up.
‘‘She was a beautiful woman who was going places, we were going places,’’ Mr Newson said.
Detective Inspector Seymour said police had searched an area near Muscle Creek and the Skellatar Stock Route, the last road in the estate where Ms McBride was reportedly last seen.
Nothing has turned up.
Ms McBride is described as being of Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander appearance, approximately 165centimetres to 175centimetres tall, with a thin build and brown hair and eyes.
