For 17 years his family has chased down every possible lead and lived with the hope of one day being reunited.
But the heartbroken family also fear they may never see Paul Wright again after the-then 27-year-old vanished from Rosanna in September 2003 following a minor run-in with the law.“People may say ‘Oh let it go, it's been 17 years, let sleeping dogs lie’, but you can't," Mr Wright said. "Not a day goes by when we don't think about him.”Mr Wright came into Paul's life when he was just two and soon became his adoptive father.
"His barrister was very out there and said 'Look, you could go to jail with this’ and that prompted a great deal of fear in Paul," Mr Wright said.Credit:"He was very, very worried, really nervous about the whole situation. I said 'No we’ll be fine, he's got to tell you that stuff', but he was fearful.
“Unfortunately at that time we'd been at loggerheads for some time. I was just trying to do the right thing as a parent but I was arrogant, I was stupid, I was ignorant. I did not realise, maybe I dismissed it.Mr Wright said Paul left behind everyone, including his heartbroken mother Jenny, younger brother Hayden and his Rottweiler Georgia.
The family, who moved from Melbourne to Ocean Grove about six years ago, now spend holidays searching for faces in the crowd in the hope that one day they'll be reunited with their boy.
Unbearable.
Poor guy