Tip-offs spark second inquest for missing hitchhiker

Two men may have been involved in the death of a mother who disappeared while hitchhiking almost 30 years ago, a coroner has heard.

Anonymous tips “pointed” to the unnamed duo preparing to give evidence at a second inquest into the 1998 disappearance of Joanne Butterfield, the court was told.

Ms Butterfield, 37, left the north Queensland home she shared with one of her four children to hitchhike to Camden, NSW.

The lawyer assisting Patrick Ah Gee in Brisbane on Tuesday said his daughter begged him not to leave his Mossman home.

“This was the catalyst for what would become a vocal argument between a young girl and a mother in a difficult personal situation,” he told coroner Stephanie Williams.

Mrs Butterfield said that on June 24, 1998, she left her daughter crying on the doorstep.

This was the last time he saw his mother while she was alive.

Days later Ms Butterfield’s bag was found surrounded by broken glass near the sugar cane railway in Innisfail, more than 100 miles away.

Mr Ah Gee said members of the public reported the items to both Innisfail and South Johnston police, with some handing them over to officers themselves.

More than a week later, Mrs. Butterfield’s daughter received an envelope containing a number of personal items, which she believed to be in her mother’s handwriting.

An inquest into the disappearance and suspected death of Ms Butterfield in 2014 found it was unlikely that she had taken her own life and that she was likely to have encountered something bad.

It was determined that he was killed by an unidentified person or persons.

New evidence led to a second investigation in August.

“New information has been received from Crime Stoppers, anonymously, pointing to two men who may have been involved in her death,” Mr Ah Gee said.

“To be fair to them I will not name them at this time but they will be called during the investigation.”

He said the police’s alleged failures in the initial investigation into Ms Butterfield’s disappearance would also be examined during the inquest.

Police failed to adequately pursue Ms Butterfield’s disappearance, the coroner was told.

He was last seen alive at Mossman, north of Cairns, on 25 June 1998.

“They searched Ms Butterfield’s home several times over the following days,” Mr Ah Gee said of the police response.

“And that’s all they did. That’s the extent of proactive policing that the evidence shows.”

He said no further action was taken until July 7, when Ms Butterfield’s daughter called the police to inquire about her mother’s whereabouts.

The next day he received the mysterious envelope.

Ms Williams addressed Ms Butterfield’s two children, who listened to Tuesday’s pre-inquest conference via livestream.

He acknowledged his pain had been compounded by inconsistencies in the findings of the 2014 investigation and subsequent police findings.

“I cannot guarantee that this investigation will answer your questions [but] “We will do our best to find these answers,” he said.