By CASEY NEILL
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 cousin 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 heartbreaking.
“I suspected that we were going to,” Kim said.
“It was very painful.
“We didn’t get together as a family but we made contact with each other. I’m glad everyone was there for each other.”
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,” she said.
“I think he left of his own accord.
“I think he might have made up his mind and gone ‘I’m out of here, I’ve got to leave now’.”
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.
“That’s what I’m really hoping for,” she said.
“You try and get on with your normal life because you have to, but it’s hard.
“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, including Greater Dandenong, 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 police 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 or provide information to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppers.com.au.
