Fiercely independent, Trish Backhurst was reluctant to go into aged care when she was diagnosed with dementia and began to experience a decline in her memory.
The 81-year-old was still physically fit and walked every day. Twice if weather permitted.
She and her late husband had been keen bushwalkers, and it was a past-time she kept up – able to cover many kilometres at a time.
Everyone in the seaside town of Inverloch, in west Gippsland, knew her. So when she disappeared in March 2021 hundreds volunteered to join the search for her.
Despite extensive efforts, no trace of Backhurst has ever been found and on Friday a coroner formally found that she had died.
Backhurst had no children of her own, and after her husband’s death in 2015, his son and daughter continued to care for her as a much-loved member of their family.
They visited nearly every day, bringing her meals, helping with jobs around the house, medical appointments and stopping to chat with her about her latest walks or her tinkering in the garden.
Not knowing what happened was the hardest part, her stepson said.
“We miss Trish terribly and we hope wherever she is, she is at peace,” he said.
In the months before her disappearance, Backhurst had been returned home by police or members of the community after becoming disoriented on her walks.
In November 2020, police found her walking along a highway toward Wongthaggi, nine kilometres from home.
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Backhurst was last seen on March 17, 2021, when she went for a morning walk with a friend, and later in the afternoon when she was captured in dashcam footage walking along a roadside shoulder.
On March 19, a friend went for a drive looking for her, believing she had gone for a walk without waiting for him.
That afternoon her stepchildren raised the alarm with police, concerned she hadn’t been seen in several days.
Police including mounted and motorcycle officers, firefighters, SES volunteers, surf lifesavers and two helicopters were among those dispatched to search the area around Backhurst’s home and her regular walking tracks.
Given her recent history of becoming confused, and her physical ability to walk long distances, it was likely she left home and became disoriented, Detective Paul Burns told an inquest on Friday.
Police also investigated the possibility she may have been struck by a car, because of the footage of her walking on the side of a 100km/h road.
But investigations failed to find any evidence of a crash or cars being repaired.
A survivability report indicted it was unlikely Backhurst could have lived in the elements beyond March 23, 2021.
Coroner Paul Lawrie will had down written findings at a later date.
