19 January 2015
A Star News Group Publication
Bring Maverick back
Spirited showdownn
Property liftout
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SPORT
INSIDE
INVITE TO CELEBRATE
Monday, 19 January 2015
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Joining up to build bridges ADAM and Fiona joined more than 200 people to celebrate a new chapter for disability support service The Bridge in Dandenong. See page 14 for the full story. 131046 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS
■ New year sees family praying for answers...
No resolution CHRISTMAS was a heartbreaking reminder for Jake Lyons’s family of the hole his disappearance has left in their lives. The 20-year-old Dandenong North man’s father Rick went out with friends on 25 August last year and returned to find his Scullin Street house unlocked and the gas stove on. Jake was gone and he hasn’t contacted friends or family since, or accessed his bank accounts. Police Cold Case and Missing Persons Squad officers took over the investigation on 23 December. Last November Jake’s cous-
in Kim joined his sister Janessa, 19, and Rick to plea for information about his whereabouts and urge him to come home. “It’s still not developing. Nothing’s coming forward,” Kim said. “We as a family aren’t any clearer. We don’t have any more information. “It’s a horrible feeling.” She said Jake’s 21st birthday was approaching and that not hearing from him on Christmas Day was heart-breaking. “It was very painful,” she said. Investigators initially discounted foul play but in December indicated Jake might have been harmed. Kim believes the scenario
unlikely because he had no enemies or feuds. “I can’t see that. I think he left of his own accord,” she said. She said he was suffering from depression, “wasn’t in a good place” and had previously mentioned finding work in a rural area. Kim fears he’s taken his own life but remains optimistic that police can track him down. “You try and get on with your normal life because you have to, but it’s hard,” she said. “We just need some sort of closure. We just need to know. “Someone knows something, I think. “Please. We’re not coping very well.”
About 20 SES volunteers from four units conducted a four-hour line search at Warner Reserve on 23 December. Jake’s 2006 Holden Astra sedan was found at the Springvale park shortly after he went missing. Greater Dandenong SES unit controller Paul Daniel said police asked them to look for anything of interest and several specific items. A spokesperson from the Cold Case and Missing Person Squad said the search did not locate anything of value, nor had any useful public information been received. They said local police had covered all avenues of inquiry
so the case was moved to the squad “in order to devote more resources to this investigation”. The spokesperson said there was no evidence to indicate foul play. “But it’s one theory among many that police are working with,” they said. “There is absolutely a hope of finding Jake alive and that is the scenario police hope for.” Jake is described as Caucasian, 178 centimetres tall with a medium build and straight brown hair. He was last seen wearing green-coloured jeans, a blue jumper and black runners. Police urged anyone who saw Jake to immediately call triple zero.
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Jake Lyons has been missing since August.
1170003-DJ03-15
By CASEY NEILL
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