- Marcia Ryan was last seen in 1996 speeding away from her home in Seaford, Vic, on her way to visit her parents in the Gold Coast, QLD.
- Marcia never arrived and was never seen again.
- Now 29 years on, following fresh evidence revealed in an ABC Radio series on Marcia’s disappearance, the case has been reopened.
Here, Tony Ryan, 63, from Melbourne, tells his story in his own words.
Race you down the hill, Tony!’ my younger sister Marcia laughed, jumping into her homemade billycart.
‘You’re on!’ I said, leaping into mine.
I was nine, Marcia was eight, and, growing up in a bustling household of five kids – Paul, Mark, Dianne, me and Marcia – all born within five years, we were thick as thieves.
Marcia, Dianne and I shared the same friends and attended the same school.
As teenagers we went scuba diving and hit up live gigs together.
But in 1980, our world shattered when Dianne, just 20, was killed in a tragic car accident.
Marcia was 17 at the time and it hit her hard.
She had a breakdown and took drugs to cope.
But she was soon back on track, getting clean.
At 23, she got a job at our Aunt Thea and Uncle Bill’s trucking logistics company and then bought a house in Seaford, Vic.
Marcia travelled to Europe, dived in the Whitsundays and loved zipping around on her Ducati motorbike.
In time, I married Robyn and had three girls, Sarah, Melissa and Kirsten, who Marcia doted on.
In 1995, Marcia was prescribed medication for Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition that affects the thyroid gland.
She also struggled with anxiety and mood swings, triggered by the condition.
On days she missed her medication, her symptoms were worse.
On August 19, 1996 – just a month after Marcia’s 33rd birthday – our mum, Johanna, rang.
‘I’ve got to get out. I’m going to see Mum and Dad.’
‘Can you go to Marcia’s?’ she asked. ‘I think she’s having issues.’
I was at work in my job as an IT specialist, so our brother Mark went.
Marcia told him she’d left work feeling sick, but she seemed distressed.
She had a nap and then around 9.30pm, suddenly jumped up.
‘I’ve got to get out,’ she said, bundling her heeler border collie cross Ziggy into her cream Mitsubishi Sigma. ‘I’m going to see Mum and Dad.’
Mark tried to stop her but she sped off.
Shortly after she left, Marcia rang Mum from a phone box. ‘I’m coming up to see you,’ she told Mum.
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Mum and my dad, John, were at their Gold Coast holiday unit, a 20-hour drive away.
Two days later, Mum rang in a panic.
Marcia was still on her road trip and hadn’t arrived.
‘She’s still not here,’ she cried. ‘Can you check her place?’
I went over and, letting myself in with a spare key, I listened to a voicemail on her answering machine from a man.
Did someone attack her?
‘I found your wallet and bank cards on the road near Darnum,’ he said.
Alarm bells rang.
Did my sister toss her wallet to start a new life – or did someone attack her, then throw it out of their car?
There was a second voicemail from VicRoads, a government body.
‘If you don’t move your car off the Princes Highway, we’ll impound it on Monday,’ a man said.
Apparently, the Sigma had been abandoned in Haunted Hills, around 20kms from where her wallet had been found.
Had Marcia run out of petrol and hitched a ride?
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I notified police, then went out to the car and broke into it, terrified I’d find her in the boot.
There was no trace of her.
Police and SES volunteers searched the area.
Our parents rushed home to Victoria and we scoured bush tracks.
The story made the papers, and a truck driver reported spotting Marcia in a distressed state at 11.50pm the night she took off.
She had declined a lift and continued walking towards Morwell, in the opposite direction to where her wallet was found.
But there were no solid leads.
In 2001, the coroner ruled that Marcia likely died on or around the day she left, but couldn’t determine the cause of death.
We were gutted.
Tragically, three family members passed never knowing what happened – Mum in 2006, aged 73, Dad in 2013, aged 83 and Mark in 2016, aged 55.
But it was only in 2023 that I learned we had the right to see the police report that the coroner had read.
Going through it, I was stunned.
Many people had contacted police after Marcia disappeared with sightings, tips and clues.
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One man had seen her and the Sigma on the highway near Haunted Hills with two men – one dark-haired, wearing a gold chain, the other blond-haired, smoking.
And a truckie said he saw a woman hiding behind a tree near Traralgon, 24km east of Haunted Hills, the next night.
He didn’t stop.
Most leads weren’t followed up, as they couldn’t be verified.
I joined a group for families with a missing person called The Wild Bunch, and a Trafalgar woman contacted me.
She said a year after Marcia vanished, her brother-in-law had discovered two shallow graves – a big one, and a small one – in Moondarra State Park, Vic, near Haunted Hills.
She reported it to police but they never looked into it.
The following year, a bushfire ripped through the park, possibly destroying any evidence.
We’ll never know if they belonged to Marcia and her dog Ziggy.
It’s now been 29 years since my sister left and, following fresh evidence revealed in an ABC Radio series on Marcia’s disappearance, the case has been reopened.
Kirsten, now 33, is the same age that Marcia was when she disappeared and, just like her, is a nature lover, adventurous, and fiercely independent.
It’s a painful reminder of my free-spirited sister.
Were Marcia alive today, she’d be 62.
While we may never know why she left that day, I believe she may have been triggered by PTSD following Dianne’s death.
She’d talked to us about quitting her job and, two weeks before she vanished, she eerily told Ann, a close family friend, ‘I could disappear in a town like Tully in Queensland.’
I pray she wasn’t harmed. But if she was, we need to know. I just want to bring my sister home.
Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Visit the Australian Missing Persons Register
