Inquest into woman's disappearance hears of final conversation with daughter

The daughter of a woman who disappeared in Far North Queensland almost three decades ago has tearfully recounted their last conversation, at a coronial inquest into her mother's suspected death.

WARNING: This story contains discussion of suicide and self-harm.

Skye Lemon, nee Linton, was 16 when her mother Joanne Butterfield, a Mossman resident, disappeared in late June 1998.

Ms Butterfield quit her job in the days before she went missing, telling people she needed to leave town and that she intended to hitchhike south.

The then-37-year-old was last seen leaving a home on foot at Mowbray, near Port Douglas, late on June 26.

Some of her belongings were found on June 28 near a lookout along a cane railway in a rural area more than 160 kilometres away.

An inquest into Ms Butterfield's disappearance began today in Cairns, examining whether she may still be alive, and the adequacy of the police investigation into her suspected death.

'Very close' but 'fractured' relationship

On June 24, 1998, two days before her disappearance, an "upset" Ms Butterfield called her daughter and asked her to come to her house to collect photographs of her siblings, the inquest heard.

The day before, Ms Butterfield had quit her job at a supermarket.

Ms Lemon told the court when she arrived at her mother's home, Ms Butterfield was packing and seemed "very distressed".

Ms Lemon choked up as she gave evidence about what she told her mother the last time they spoke.

"I told her that if she was going to leave, not to come back, and that if she was going to kill herself to do it properly," Ms Lemon told the inquest.

When Ms Lemon returned to school after the holidays, she was given an envelope addressed to her from her mother, which contained Ms Butterfield's driver's licence, a chequebook, a rent book, and a key card.

The then-teenager reported her mother missing to police on July 7, 1998.

Ms Lemon told the inquest she and her mother had a "very close" but "fractured" relationship at the time of her disappearance.

She did not live with her mother but would see her at least a couple of times a week.

Ms Lemon was asked about other times her mother had left home, the longest lasting for about six months.

She told the inquest Ms Butterfield had returned each time.

Detective changed approach, inquest hears

Ms Lemon gave evidence that a "committed" detective's approach to the investigation changed dramatically in 2021, after he became aware of what Ms Lemon had told her mother in that last conversation.

Ms Lemon said there was "definitely a change" in Detective Senior Constable Kevin Spies's line of inquiry after a national media appeal in 2021.

Ms Lemon told the inquest that Detective Spies called her and said he had found out what she had said to her mother in their last conversation.

She later had a formal recorded conversation with the detective but did not sign the statement that came from the interview.

"A lot of the wording that had been put into there had been not what I was trying to get across," Ms Lemon told the inquest.

Distressed before disappearance

The inquest heard Ms Butterfield was a patient of the Cairns mental health service from 1995 until January 1998, when she was observed to be well and a psychiatrist recommended her file be closed.

But in the days before her disappearance, she appeared distressed.

The inquest heard Ms Butterfield told her corrections officer she had been experiencing episodes of paranoia.

Counsel assisting the coroner Peter Ah Gee also told the inquest about a conversation Ms Butterfield had with her doctor on the street.

"My children have to live in this town and I have to leave for their sake," Ms Butterfield said, according to the doctor.

"I had a job at Woolworths and they called me immoral and I quit.

"My children will have a better chance if I disappear. People in this town are very mean."

Passport handed in

The inquest has heard multiple locals at Pin Gin Hill, near South Johnstone, about 90km south of Cairns, reported finding personal belongings, including clothing and underwear, at a lookout beside a cane railway on June 28, 1998.

Then-police officer Darryn Casson went there that afternoon but told the inquest he did not have immediate concerns for whoever owned the items.

However, Mr Casson did not know Ms Butterfield's passport, a one-page typed written resume, Corrections appointment slip and part of a hospital bracelet with Ms Butterfield's name on it had also been found in a handbag nearby that the same day.

Damien Bayliss, then 18, took the items to his stepfather, Wilson Forbes, who handed them into a police station the following day.

Mr Casson told the inquest he would have checked missing persons reports had he known other identifying material had been found there.