Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
FOR nearly 40 years, Griffith mayor John Dal Broi has sat in hope that each new lead on what happened to Donald Mackay would yield answers.
Another new lead in the case that has baffled police and the city's community has emerged this week, with Griffith detectives travelling to Victoria to explore new leads that might explain what happened to the anti-drugs campaigner.
Councillor Dal Broi, who was on council back in 1976 when Mr Mackay disappeared from the Griffith Hotel carpark, admits he has started to wonder whether they would find the body of Mr Mackay in his lifetime.
"I'm now at an age when it may not be resolved in my lifetime," Cr Dal Broi said.
"The other thing will be that as time goes on, people that perhaps were involved are getting older and some might have passed away - suddenly it becomes difficullt to find an answer of what happened."
Police have remained relatively quiet about what prompted the trip to Victoria, where Griffith detectives will liaise with the Purana organised crime taskforce.
Griffith Local Area Commander Superintendent Michael Rowan told ABC Radio on Wednesday that the inquiry into what happened to Mr Mackay was "always open" and police were always open to new information about the case.
The new lead comes a little more than 12 months after police dug up a property in Hay in search of Mr Mackay's remains in what had been described as one of the biggest operations related to the case in the past 30 years.
While the new investigation is still in its very early days, Cr Dal Broi is hoping it will turn up something concrete to provide closure to both Mr Mackay's family and the wider Griffith community.
"I know I speak for all of the community when I say that we want this resolved," he said.
"This is a blot in our history of Griffith."