Joanne packed a bag to hitchhike to Sydney. She was never seen again

On the bank of a cane train track near a remote lookout in far north Queensland, locals stumbled across a floral bag and broken glass.

It was June 1998, and the discovery raised alarm bells.

The bag was the same one that 37-year-old mother Joanne Butterfield took everywhere with her.

Inside were her birth certificate, passport, a typed resume, her toothbrush and toothpaste.

For almost three decades, family have questioned how their mother suspiciously disappeared.

Now, an inquest before Coroner Stephanie Williams will probe the circumstances of Butterfield’s suspected death, and the adequacy of the police investigation into her disappearance.

Butterfield was last seen alive about 8pm on June 25, 1998, leaving a house in Mowbray near the Captain Cook Highway. She was wearing a black dress and carrying the floral bag.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Ah Gee, told the Coroners Court on Tuesday that Butterfield, a mother of four, had worked at a local IGA shop in Mossman.

But in late June of that year, she told daughter Sky she intended to move back home to Camden in Sydney.

“She started to set in motion this plan, this motivation to relocate back to Camden,” Ah Gee said.

He said Sky went to her mother’s house to collect some personal belongings, and they fought about her plan to return to Sydney.

Sky’s last memory of her mother was seeing her in tears on the doorstep of the house.

Joanne Butterfield had been involved with men who had reputations of violence, Ah Gee told the court, and she feared for her safety.

She told her loved ones she planned to hitchhike to Sydney.

Days later, locals discovered the items discarded at the Henderson Drive lookout in South Johnstone.

“The combination of items of that scene were so obviously concerning that they drew the immediate concern of a number of members of the public who lived in that area and walked past it quite frequently,” Ah Gee said.

He added that three children mentioned the presence of broken glass as being out of the ordinary.

The items were hand-delivered to Innisfail police station, with South Johnstone police station also told about the discovery.

Ah Gee said police checked whether there had been any property crime reports for the lookout area.

“The police leapt into action,” he told the court.

“They called Ms Butterfield’s home a couple of times in the days that followed them being hand-delivered this key evidence and observing it themselves. And that’s all they did.

“That is the extent of the proactive policing that the brief of evidence portrays in relation Ms Butterfield’s disappearance for weeks.”

Ah Gee said one of Butterfield’s children eventually asked where their mother was – a question that “ought to have already been asked by others”.

Police took few photos of the scene during their investigation, he said, adding that even in 2024, police “were not even sure” what had been found at Henderson Drive, and which items had been found elsewhere.

The court heard police never approached Butterfield’s best friend, who lived around the corner from her, to obtain information. The friend is now dead, Ah Gee said.

In 2014, Coroner Jane Bentley delivered findings into Butterfield’s suspected death, saying she likely met with foul play.

Police continued the investigation after fresh information from Crimestoppers suggested two men may have been involved in her death.

Police subsequently concluded that Butterfield had taken her own life.

The case was reopened in 2021 as detectives made a public appeal to anyone who saw a woman hitchhiking between Port Douglas and the South Johnstone area between June 25 and June 28, 1998.

At that time, detectives said she had likely met her demise at the hand of others.

Butterfield’s children participated in Tuesday’s hearing via video link, and Coroner Williams told them she had no doubt that the passage of time had not made their grief any easier.

She said she expected the inquest would hear that given the years that had passed, there would be a significant impact on the information available today.

“I have no doubt that your grief is compounded by the uncertainty and conflict between the former coroner’s findings and the subsequent police findings in respect of what may or may not have happened to Joanne,” Williams said.

The inquest is scheduled for August.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.