Just days out from tackling a half marathon, emerging Halls Creek leader Seymoure Farrer is also on a mission to raise awareness for his missing cousin Jayo Rivers, who hasn't been seen for almost eight months.
A member of the Indigenous Marathon Project, Seymoure warmed up for Saturday's Gold Coast half-marathon during a stopover in Darwin, proudly adorned in a T-shirt provided by Jayo's family.
The shirts depict a Missing Person poster on the front, and further details such as the location Jayo was last seen on the back.
The talented 27-year-old footballer vanished in October last year while travelling through outback Queensland with six other camping and hunting companions. He was on his way back to the Top End after spending a season playing football for the Balranald Roos in southern NSW.
Seymoure and his IMP teammates will wear the shirts on a training run around Gold Coast streets and hope raising public awareness about Jayo's case can help solve the outback mystery.
"There’s someone that knows something and you know its just a matter of them having confidence to come up and speak to the family and bring some answers to the table.
Jayo Rivers hasn't been since he apparently vanished in October last year. Image: Guy McLean, NITV News
'Still left without answers'
"That’s one thing that I’m hoping my message can hopefully encourage whoever it is to come forward.
"It could be anyone’s children. It could be my brother or my uncle, it could be anyone in my family.
"So at the end of the day, he’s a human being and he’s loved by many."
Jayo's Mother Joanne and Aunty Belinda struggle to deal with Jayo's sudden disappearance each day, and thanked Seymoure and his fellow IMP runners for raising the case's profile.
"We’re truly grateful for Seymoure and the other runners to take this on board and use it as a platform and put his name out there in the media again," Belinda said.
"Our family is still left without answers hopefully this might bring something out."
An air and land search near Noccundra, in far south-western Queensland, failed to locate any sign of the Kija man, who is renowned for bush skills learned from his grandfather while growing up in remote Warmun and Halls Creek in northern Western Australia.
Jayo's Aunty Belinda Rivers (front left), Mother Joanne Rivers with IMP runners (from left) Callum Campion-Bohme, Kyle Wagner and Seymoure Farrer Image: Guy McLean, NITV News
Homicide squad detectives were assigned to investigate Jayo's disappearance and the case was recently handed to the Queensland Coroner.
Members of his family, who searched the landscape at Noccundra for weeks after authorities abandoned search efforts have expressed frustration over the initial Police search and subsequent investigation.
"We've spoken to the police numerous times. We used to have our meetings every fortnight and we get no answers each and every time," Belinda said.
"The last big meeting we had with them was here in Darwin and there were still no answers. The only outcome we got out of that is we got his possessions back and while it's not him, it's something."
Jayo went missing in Queensland's remote outback. Image: Guy McLean, NITV News
Jayo's family hopes a Coronial Inquest will soon be held and that process can provide them with the answers they desperately need .
"We hope that there is an inquest and they get these fellas back in and we really get some answers.
"You can’t just vanish."
