When Lily Parmenter allows herself to think about who could be responsible for the sudden disappearance of her mother two thoughts instantly flood her mind.

More than 14 years have passed since the hairdresser from Queensland last saw her beloved mum, Kathleen Mary O’Shea, or Katie to her friends, alive.

It was the evening of Friday December 16, 2005, and Ms Parmenter had brought her to tears with an early Christmas present of a crystal ball necklace.

The then 19-year-old salon apprentice and her mother would spend the holiday apart with Ms O’Shea and her youngest daughter instead travelling to Queensland from Melbourne for the birth of Ms O’Shea’s first grandchild.

The trip was meant to be a chance for the mother-of-five to spend time with a number of family members, as well as catching up with friends from her years of living in Far North Queensland.

However, despite having a return flight to Melbourne booked for 17 January, 2006, for her brother’s wedding, the 44-year-old never made it back home.

Katie O'Shea, a mother to five, went missing while on holidays in Queensland in late 2005. (Supplied)

In fact, little is known about her whereabouts after Ms O’Shea withdrew $200 from the Post Office at Ravenshoe, a town in the Tableland Region of Queensland, on Thursday 29 December, 2005.

“She was bright, bubbly and kind,” Ms Parmenter, now 32, told nine.com.au of her mother.

“The one thing she always taught us is don’t ever think you’re better than anyone else… She was a proud mum.”

‘An anonymous death’

It is this sense of pride in her family that continues to stay with Ms Parmenter.

She refuses to believe her mother would have voluntarily abandoned her children. Instead, it is her belief her mother is dead, possibly murdered.

“I don’t think that she would leave for this long. She was about to be a grandma - wild horses wouldn’t be able to keep her away,” she said.

“I just want to bring her remains home, for me personally, there’s nothing worse than having such an anonymous death. It’s the cruellest thing you could do to someone.”



Ms Parmenter first suspected something “just felt off” when calls to her mother’s mobile phone on New Year’s Eve continued to go straight to voicemail.

The pair had spoken three days after Christmas and even though reception in the area regularly dropped in and out, something still didn’t sit right for Ms Parmenter.

Katie O'Shea's five children continue to search for answers to what happened to her. (Supplied)

“The last words my mum said to me were don’t forget how much I love you and how proud I am of you,” she said.

“They are beautiful and at the same time they are really sad.”

It wasn’t until Ms Parmenter phoned one of her brothers on 11 January, 2006, to ask “did mum cry?” at the birth of his daughter that she realised her mother might be missing.

It was during this same call that Ms Parmenter was told her mother had missed the birth of her grandchild altogether and had supposedly gone to see friends but not bothered to come back.

The mobile phone

She was also told her mum had left her mobile phone with her son. Yet, this bit of information wasn’t something that overly surprised Ms Parmenter.

“She was an avid pay phone user,” she said with a gentle laugh, adding that her mum regularly made calls from a public phone while preferring to use her mobile phone as a number and address book.

After ringing around “half of Queensland” to her mother’s friends, hospitals, doctors and local hotels Ms Permenter again phoned one of her brothers and urged him to report their mother missing.



The last place Ms O'Shea was seen was at the bottle shop of the Atherton Hotel. (Facebook)

On Friday 13 January, 2006, Ms Parmenter’s brother did just that.

But to this day, no one has seen or heard from Ms O’Shea.

According to the findings of a 2014 coronial inquest into her disappearance, the last known sighting of Ms O’Shea alive was by an attendant in a bottle shop of the Atherton Hotel on 29 December, 2005 who said she left in the company of two men.

Coroner Jane Bentley ruled Ms O’Shea died soon after 29 December, 2005. The cause of death is unknown.

Despite the passing years, Ms Parmenter and her family remain at a loss as to what happened to her mother. One theory is that she died of an accidental overdose in which a family member might have had a hand in disposing her remains. A second theory is Ms O’Shea was the victim of a convicted rapist.

“The family member has been… and that is a possibility,” Ms Parmenter said, declining to name the alleged suspect in the family.

“But there was a monster in the area. He frequented that same area. The possibility is that he could have done it too. I don’t know what’s worse, that she could have been killed by a family member or killed in a vicious attack.”



Little is known about Ms O'Shea's whereabouts after she withdrew $200 from the Post Office at Ravenshoe on Thursday 29 December, 2005. (Supplied)

‘Local monster’

The “monster” Ms Parmenter is referring to is Francis ‘Frank’ Wark - the convicted rapist who is serving a life sentence for the murder of missing Western Australian teenager Hayley Dodd .

Like Ms O’Shea, Hayley has never been heard from or ever found.

Ms Parmenter claims her mother could have come into contact with Wark during her visit in Queensland as they had allegedly met at a party when he lived in the state and one of her brothers had a connection in common with Wark. But, she can’t be certain.

Nine.com.au is not suggesting Wark is responsible for Ms O’Shea’s disappearance or suspected death.

These days, Ms Parmenter is retraining to become a criminologist. She hopes one day to join the Australian Federal Police to work in the Missing Person’s Unit, and hopefully as a colleague to her mother’s case detective before he retires.

She is also working on raising a financial reward for information that could lead to information about her mum’s cold case.

“I’ve tried appealing to common sense and common decency. She’s not the face on a missing poster. She was a mother of five, a grandmother,” she said.