When Marcia Ryan rang her parents on Monday, August 19, 1996 to tell them she was on her way up north to visit, they had no idea it would be the last time they would hear her voice.
That morning, the 33-year-old, who lived in the bayside Melbourne suburb of Seaford, told her boss she felt unwell and went home to gather her dog Ziggy and some dog food.
She then drove her 1980 Mitsubishi Sigma along the Princes Highway east towards Victoria’s Gippsland region, leaving a worried friend and brother Mark standing in the driveway.
She was in a hurry to leave, and had not packed a suitcase, stopping briefly to withdraw cash from an ATM in Camberwell and call her parents from a public phone box using reverse charges.
But for someone in such a rush, it seemed odd to her family that she had set off on the longest route possible to her parents’ holiday unit on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Marcia was 33 years old when she went missing. (Supplied: Tony Ryan)
Marcia stopped near the Haunted Hills outside of Newborough, about two hours east of Melbourne.
Her car was abandoned and she and Ziggy disappeared.
The Sigma sat for days before VicRoads began leaving messages on her answering machine at her Seaford home, advising her it would be towed if it wasn’t collected soon.
Her mother, father and her brother Mark, one of Marcia’s four siblings, would die never knowing what happened to her.
Twenty-eight years since her disappearance, surviving members of her family have not given up hope of finding out what happened to her and an ABC true crime radio series has revealed new clues that could shed light on the case.
06 True Crime in Real Time | Paul Ryan shares memories of his sister
Wallet found by highway
When Marcia’s parents rang her brother Tony to say she still hadn’t made it to Queensland, at first he reassured them that it was a long drive and she’d probably be there soon.
But a worry had crept in, so he went to his sister’s house to check the answering machine for any messages.
“By Thursday we started to get really concerned, because she should have been there by now or [we should have] heard from her,” Tony Ryan said.
Marcia’s brother Paul Ryan does not think her death was a suicide. (Supplied: Tony Ryan)
By Friday his worries were validated when he picked up a message on Marcia’s answering machine from a man in Trafalgar who had found her wallet.
“When I heard that message I thought, ‘Well, that’s not right, there’s something that’s gone completely wrong here,'” Tony said.
“Why Trafalgar? Why her wallet? It started to not make much sense at all.”
Then on Saturday morning, there was another message on the answering machine, this one more serious.
“There was a message from VicRoads saying, ‘Marcia, if you don’t move your car off the side of the highway we’re going to impound it on Monday’, and I thought, ‘Well, that’s a really bad message,'” Tony said.
Police searched the area and different stories were told, but no clues led to closure.
One theory was that Marcia was heading to her parents’ holiday unit, ran out of petrol and someone took her.
Her wallet was found by the Princes Highway near Darnum, about a 20-minute drive back towards Melbourne.
There were many theories and possibilities surrounding the wallet.
Did she throw it out of her car window herself, on her way to start a new life?
Or did someone take Marcia and then throw her wallet from a car?
Anything for answers
Marcia’s brother Paul Ryan has tried everything in a bid to find her.
As the oldest of five siblings, he always felt it was his responsibility to protect his family.
Tony, Dianne, Marcia, Paul and Mark Ryan as children. (Supplied)
He has shared their family’s story and has even resorted to contacting people claiming they’ve been able to communicate with Marcia beyond the grave.
A clairvoyant told him she had been taken by three people and buried somewhere.
Through the years, many stories and scenarios have plagued his mind.
Paul told the ABC that Marcia had a history of mental illness, but he did not believe her death was a suicide.
“There’s no body … you can’t bury yourself or hide yourself if you kill yourself,”
Paul said.
Prior to her disappearance she had bought a house, renovated it and had a stable job.
The sightings
For its true crime radio series, ABC Gippsland radio has spoken with people who have come forward with new clues about Marcia’s disappearance.
Gippsland resident Stuart Booth said he saw Marcia and her car on the Princes Highway near Haunted Hills, but she wasn’t alone.
He told the ABC that parked in front of Marcia was a white station wagon with two men standing on either side.
“I believe it was Marcia standing at the back left hand side of [her] vehicle,” Mr Booth said.
One man, of European descent, was wearing a white shirt and black pants, and had dark hair and a gold necklace, Mr Booth said.
Another man with bleached hair was standing on the passenger side, smoking a cigarette, according to Mr Booth.
“I noticed Marcia because I looked at her and she was pretty well-groomed,” Mr Booth said.
When Mr Booth learned that Marcia had been reported missing, he told police what he saw.
“They sort of dismissed it,” he said.
Marcia’s Mitsubishi Sigma was abandoned on the Princes Highway near Moe. (Supplied)
The night after Marcia stopped near Moe, truck driver Brian O’Donnell told the ABC he was driving his regular route on the Princes Highway to East Gippsland.
Shortly before Traralgon, he spotted a woman hiding in trees.
“I saw something move … it was a woman and she’d gone from a standing position into a snow skiing position … crouched over,” Mr O’Donnell said.
“I could tell she didn’t want to be seen.”
He thought of going back but a fellow truck driver didn’t see the woman and convinced him not to.
Mr O’Donnell lives with thoughts of “what if” each day.
Reports of shallow graves
About a year after Marcia and Ziggy went missing, a woman, who can only be identified as Betty, says she tried to tell police about two shallow graves at Moondarra State Park in Gippsland.
Her brother-in-law said he had been in the park when he came across a large and a small grave.
“Out of the big grave was a hand, so he came in to us and he was as white as white and he was shaking,”
Betty said.
“The young policeman just couldn’t care less, he said, ‘Just sit there and wait.'”
Betty said she waited for an hour in the police station, but ended up leaving.
Tony Ryan plans to search the Moondarra State Park with a metal detector. (ABC News: Millie Spencer)
Even though bushfires have since swept the park clean, Betty’s information spurred Marcia’s brother Tony to buy a metal detector.
He hopes Marcia’s beloved Ziggy was wearing his collar if they were buried.
Tony has plans to scour the Moondarra State Park in search of his little sister and hopes to finally bring her home.
“Looking for Marcia is an interesting thing. In my head she still looks 33,” he said.
“Marcia would be 60 now. If she’s still alive, we’re looking for a 60-year-old woman.
“I’ve got plenty of theories but I haven’t got any answers.
“But someone knows something.”
