For 18 years Dubbo man Harry Gordon Youl has been on Australia’s missing person’s list.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dubbo coroner Howard Hamilton yesterday handed down the findings after a week-long inquest into Mr Youl’s disappearance.
Mr Youl’s body was never recovered and the inquest’s conclusion could not permit findings for the cause or manner of Mr Youl’s death.
On August 2 1990 Mr Youl’s wife, Janice, found a note left in her husband’s car. It read, ‘Dear Jan, So sorry, I can’t handle work or go on any longer.
‘I know it’s the coward’s way, Love Haz.’
Coroner Hamilton stated although Mr Youl appeared to have written the letter, no one actually saw him write it.
“On August 2 1990 Harry Youl departed from his Dubbo workplace,” Coroner Hamilton said. “No trace of Mr Youl has been sighted since that date.
“A supposed sighting by a Mr Ritchie made in November 1990 has been discounted as unreliable.
“No other traces of Mr Youl could be found in Centrelink or health insurance papers.”
After extensive enquiries throughout the past 18 years the coroner was able to conclude Mr Youl was dead and did not die under suspicious circumstances.
“However, it is believed no person stood to gain from his death,” the coroner said.
The court found that at the time of Mr Youl’s disappearance he was in a depressed and anxious state.
“When Mr Youl left his workplace he may have been contemplating, as opposed to intending, self harm. Yet there is no evidence after his departure that he had the mechanisms to put his contemplations into action,” Coroner Hamilton said.
He added it must also be taken into account the current climate during August 1990.
The river was so dangerously flooded at the time of Mr Youl’s disappearance that emergency workers could not conduct a search.
The inquest heard the river had reached more than 10 metres in the month of the disappearance, and there was evidence that Mr Youl was not a strong swimmer.
“The court must recognise Mr Youl might be a victim of the river’s flooding,” Coroner Hamilton said.
“But the evidence does not permit findings for the manner or cause of death.”
l.griplas@ruralpress.com
