Volunteers Who Found Missing Hiker Form New Search Group

When Jon Edmunds and Tony Hage helped search for missing Belgian backpacker Celine Cremer in Tasmania's wilderness, they never expected it would change their lives forever.

The volunteer-led search brought together strangers who spent months combing through dense forest. After helping find Ms. Cremer's remains two and a half years after she disappeared, something remarkable happened: the volunteers didn't want to say goodbye.

"The people who organized the search for Celine, I don't think they've realized what they've created," Edmunds said. "This thing that's going to hopefully roll on and help other people bring closure."

Now the group is formalizing and preparing for their next search. They'll look for missing people in cases where police have stepped back, starting in Tasmania with plans to eventually operate across Australia.

Their first new case involves Peter Willoughby, a 76-year-old Scottsdale man who disappeared last October. He'd gone into Hollybank Forest Reserve to retrieve his bogged car and never came home.

His partner Katrina Clifford has been waiting for answers ever since. The couple had spent over 40 years together after meeting at a party when she was 19. "We never had harsh words, hardly ever," she said.

The Ripple Effect

What started as one search has sparked something bigger. The volunteers discovered that working together through difficult conditions created bonds that felt like lifelong friendships, even among people who'd just met.

"Just catching up with people, it just felt like you were catching up with old friends, like you've known them forever," Edmunds said. The model they're creating would be unusual in Australia, where most volunteer search groups only operate under police direction.

Their approach offers hope to families who've exhausted official search resources. Many missing person cases go cold not because people stop caring, but because resources run out.

By maintaining their skills and connections, these volunteers are turning one tragedy into ongoing hope for multiple families. The new search for Peter Willoughby is planned for late May, giving Katrina Clifford something she's desperately needed: a reason to believe answers might still come.