Missing person Li Bing Di.
“His mother, she’s not sleeping well. We hope she’s out there somewhere.”
Di emigrated from China to Australia with his family when he was eight, before settling in south-east Melbourne, where he attended Dandenong High School before working with the family as a plasterer.
In December 2000, a fire destroyed the Hampton Park home he shared with his mother and stepfather. Investigators said when the family learned the fire was likely caused by a lost cigarette, Di felt responsible.
In the following months, he moved into his father’s home in Dandenong South but became increasingly depressed and withdrawn before disappearing in February 2001.
Hayes, a detective from the Dandenong Criminal Investigation Unit, said an extensive police investigation had failed to locate the 21-year-old, with police even contacting their counterparts in Sydney and Nova Zealand after possible sightings were reported.
No banking activity or movements with his passport have ever been found and no sightings have been confirmed.
Detective Sergeant Dean Hayes in the park near where Li Bing Di was last seen. Credit: Simon Schluter
“He blamed himself for the fire and there was a lot of tension in the family at the time,” Hayes said.
“The resolution of the case is really in the hands of the public now. Someone has to know something. Someone has to have talked to him since then.
As part of National Missing Persons Week, which starts today, the faces of eight long-term missing people, including Di, will appear on buses and other billboards in an effort to help find answers.
The campaign, called Without Them, aims to help people identify with the missing and consider their own response to the disappearance of a loved one.
Faces of the National Missing Persons Week 2022 campaign. Credit: AFP
There are currently more than 2500 long-term missing persons in Australia with 53,000 reports across the country in 2021 alone.
This year, about $2.5 million of donated space, including billboards and buses, will be framed with photographs of the eight missing persons submitted by each state and territory.
Australian Federal Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Jason Kennedy said the annual week of action aimed to raise awareness of the issues surrounding these cases, including the endless unanswered questions left behind.
“I encourage all Australians to take a look at the profiles of our long-term missing, share the posts and keep the families of the missing in your thoughts,” Mr Kennedy said.
Naomi Busbridge, whose brother Paul Baker disappeared from the Northern Territory in August last year, said the aftermath for the families was heartbreaking.
“There are so many questions and no answers. You wonder why, you wonder where and if you’ll ever see them again,” Busbridge said.
“You wonder if this will ever end or if it’ll just be like a giant void…forever.”
For more information, visit www.missingpersons.gov.au.
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