Nine years after Allison Bernard disappeared, her loved ones are still yearning for answers.
The 23-year-old was last seen alive in February 2013, when she left a tavern with a non-Indigenous man in the small Queensland town of Coen in Cape York.
The mother of two disappeared around Archer River, near Coen on the way to her hometown Kowanyama.
Authorities conducted extensive ground and air searches of the area but failed to find any trace of her, and there have been no sightings since.
A coronial inquest into Ms Bernard’s disappearance has resumed in Cairns and her family are hoping it will shed new light on what happened to her.
"We are still looking for answers as to why or where or when is she going to come home," Uncle Teddy Bernard said.
"In Aboriginal culture, when someone dies, you’ve got to have a body to send the spirit home. But we don’t have a body, we don’t have anything."
Ms Allison Bernard was 23 at the time of her disappearance in 2013. Source: Supplied: AFP
Cops, 'person of interest' to be examined
Debbie Kilroy, who is representing Ms Bernard’s family, said the inquest will examine all aspects of the police investigation into the disappearance.
"This week we’ll be cross-examining the forensics officers... [the] officers who were in charge of the investigation, and the search and rescue procedure that was undertaken over a number of different times, different years," she told NITV News.
Ms Kilroy added that a “person of interest" will also be cross-examined later this week, and probably into next week.
"The aim... is to find out what happened to Ms Bernard and where she actually is, so that Ms Bernard can be brought home to Kowanyama and laid to rest,” Ms Kilroy said.
"The most distressing thing is that we may not get the findings from the coroner till next year, which means that Ms Bernard will be missing for 10 years. And her two children are 10 years older and still don't know where their mother is.
"It was quite heartbreaking."
Many of Ms Bernard’s family can’t afford to attend the Cairns Magistrates Court for the inquest so Ms Kilroy has started a fundraiser to cover the costs of travel and accommodation.
"The costs have been over $10 thousand dollars to date, just for this part of the inquest, not for the last part and definitely not for the third part," Ms Kilroy said.
"So we're raising the money to cover all costs for them to be here, coming from different parts of North Queensland.
"While we’re hoping that there will be a finding at the end of Ms Bernard’s inquest, by the coroner, we’re also pushing a recommendation that families are funded by the government to attend inquests for their loved ones in the future."
Family representative Uncle Teddy Bernard and lawyer Debbie Kilroy address the media. Source: Supplied
