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Push for answers: 'I just need to know'
Investigation re-opened: New England police probe cold case
ON SEPTEMBER 25, every year, Yvonne Roach lights the candles on a cake before her grandchildren sing happy birthday.
But for the last 22 years, her son, Bill Roach, hasn't been there to blow out the candles on his cake.
"As Kim always says, he did exist. He was her brother, he was their uncle, he was my son," Mrs Roach told The Leader.
"Kim always makes a cake and we put candles on it and the kids blow them out and say happy birthday to Bill."
The then 25-year-old seemed to vanish in an instant after he was last seen walking out of Armidale on New Years Eve in 1993.
Ever since, it's left a family with the agonising anguish of not knowing where he is or what happened.
Times like Mother's Day, his birthday and Christmas are even tougher for his mother and sister.
At Christmas, Mrs Roach has a little angel that sits on the tree every year for her son.
"Sometimes you just wonder, you really wonder what happened," Mrs Roach said.
"You know you hope ... what if you opened the door one day and he was just standing there?
"It's even hard for Kim. She always hoped that he would come in the door."
Mrs Roach has never waivered in her quest to find answers and that plea to find the truth gained momentum earlier this year when New England police received fresh information about the disappearance of Mr Roach.
That information triggered the re-establishment of a dedicated strike force which has re-opened the case, culminating in a search of a property on the outskirts of Armidale, last week a property that has never been search in previous investigations.
Mrs Roach was informed of the developments and is hoping after all these years she might find out the missing piece of the puzzle on her quest for answers.
"I'm sure somebody knows something, somebody would have to know something," she said.
"I just can't see how anyone would have vanished off this earth.
"There is no closure, there is no memorial. We never got to have a funeral, I'm 75, I'm hoping to have one before I go."
New England Detective Inspector Ann Joy said Strike Force Annan a team of detectives heading up the case were chasing a number of leads following this week's appeal for public help.
"Detectives are following a number of lines of inquiry as part of their investigations into the disappearance of Bill Roach," she said.
"We would again appeal for information, any pieces of information from the public that could help. We would urge those people to come forward and contact Armidale detectives or Crime Stoppers."
Bill Roach was reported missing to police in January, 1993, but there was no investigation into his disappearance by police at the time. It was February when Mrs Roach and Kim went to the home and packed up all of his belongings "because otherwise he would have owed them a lot of rent."
"We just packed everything up,"
"It didn't look like anyone had been there for a while."
Mrs Roach said her first thought was that Bill had tried to walk into town along the road and collapsed.
"He hitchhiked everywhere, he was walking all the time," she recalls.
"That stayed in my mind for quite awhile, but the only shoes that he had were steel-capped boots, and we found them at the house when we picked up his belongings."
"He was just tall and thin. I think that's what he would look like now," Yvonne Roach
WHEN Yvonne Roach remembers her son, it's his happy go lucky attitude that she recalls first.
Like any mother, she was always proud of her Bill, a "a bright boy but of course he didn't go to his full potential", she says of his schooling, rather it was out of the classroom where he excelled in his younger days.
"He went to New Zealand for little athletics in 1980 and came back with a swag of ribbons and medals," she recalls.
"He did fun runs.
"He was an amazing athlete, very talented at soccer, he was a swimmer, played rugby union, water polo.
"He was just tall and thin. I think that's what he would look like now."
Bill Roach was adopted as a baby at six-weeks-old.
He grew up in Armidale and started kindergarten at Newling Public School in 1974, and then went on to Armidale High School and right through to year 12.
The last time she saw Bill was on Christmas Day in 1993 - six days before he vanished in Armidale.
"We had a lovely lunch, although he was a bit spaced out that day," she remembers.
"That book he had with him, he always had it tucked in his pocket.
"That's what he used to write his thoughts in.
"It's never been found."
Mrs Roach dropped Bill off at a friends house about 4pm on Christmas Day and he was due to call her on Boxing Day.
"He did ring, but I missed the call," she said, recalling that she tried to call him back but would never speak to him again.
"I waited all day and didn't get the phone call."