For third time, volunteers find missing person after police pause search

For the third time this year, it appears a person missing in Tasmania has been found not by police, but by a team of volunteers.

Michael Vrankovic was last seen on January 13 and reported missing to police eight days later.

Police and the State Emergency Service searched extensively for him around George Town over six weeks, including conducting foot, motorbike and helicopter searches around the coastline, bushland and mountains.

On Friday, a volunteer search team member found what are believed to be human remains on a bush block on the outskirts of George Town.

The private search crew had planned to spend three days looking for Mr Vrankovic.

They found the remains just a few hours into their effort.

The volunteers were from Find Our Lost Loved Ones, known as FOLLO, which was set up after the successful search for missing Belgian tourist Celine Cremer.

Ms Cremer had disappeared while hiking near Philosopher Falls, in the state's north-west, in 2023.

After Tasmania Police's 10-day search for Ms Cremer ended, her family engaged IFW Global private investigator Ken Gamble.

He recruited a team of volunteers, including some of Ms Cremer's Belgian friends, to recommence the search.

The team found Ms Cremer's phone — leading the police to join the search.

During a later solo search in January, one of the volunteers found human remains.

In May, FOLLO volunteers found human remains during the search for missing Scottsdale man Peter Willoughby, who had not been seen since October last year.

How are these volunteers consistently being successful?

FOLLO chose to take on Mr Vrankovic's case because it was recent, had good access and covered a relatively contained area.

FOLLO secretary Alex Smith said the group had been working with Tasmania Police since Ms Cremer's case.

"They have been extraordinarily supportive," he said.

"It's been a really good relationship; we've explained things, asked questions, they've helped us out."

Mr Smith said collaboration and communication were crucial to getting results.

"This time around was the most sharing out of any of the searches we've done; almost every couple of days we've been contacting them for the last three months," he said.

Mr Smith said if the group had been involved in the initial search, it would have done exactly what the police did at the time.

"It's a different type of search for a different time," he said.

Mr Smith said between police and the volunteers, hundreds of kilometres had been searched.

"It was only towards the very end that we were like, 'we need to make some adjustments here, let's look in a slightly different spot," he said.

"And it got results."

FOLLO president Jon Edmunds said the group took months to prepare for its searches, while police were operating in the immediate aftermath of a disappearance.

"We take up these cases and spend a lot of months doing recon missions and really understanding the area. We've been planning this one since April," he said.

How do the volunteers approach it?

Put simply: slowly and methodically.

Understanding of the terrain is key to their approach; they divide the search area into measured grids and walk in lines, recording their coverage live in the field.

The search for Mr Vrankovic took them from crawling through dense bushland to open areas.

The area had been burnt off since his disappearance.

"It was probably a lot thicker a few months ago, it's quite open and burnt today,"

Mr Edmunds said.

FOLLO had around 60 volunteers, split into five teams for Mr Vrankovic's search, its largest contingent so far.

The group takes registrations for volunteers, then selects the most suitable for the search based on the roles needed and conditions involved.

"There are people that just love the outdoors and bush walking, we've got nurses and paramedics and horse riders and all sorts of people," Mr Edmunds said.

Most volunteers act as line searchers, walking steadily in a line with their eyes on the ground and remaining evenly spaced.

Mr Smith said they were driven by the hope of providing answers to families.

"It just hits you what it means for the family. It's also the community, you can go to the petrol station and talk about it. Everywhere you go, this is impacting,"

he said.

Volunteers, police 'have the same common purpose'

Tasmania Police Inspector Melanie Groves said police would work collaboratively with anyone trying to find a missing person.

"We want to give answers to the family, and we want to, more importantly, give closure to the family," she said.

"We all have the same common purpose, and that is to assist the family in these times."

Inspector Groves said the public could "absolutely" have confidence in the ability of police to execute searches.

"We don't put a money value on looking for someone," she said.

"We will continue to search for someone as long as we can and with as much information that's coming to hand for us to actually act on to search for that person."

In her findings on Ms Cremer's death, coroner Madeleine Wilson recommended Tasmania Police review the use of private search groups in missing person investigations and develop protocols.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for Tasmania Police said it had been working with volunteer search groups to progress that work.

"While the protocols are still being finalised, the review has informed current practice around engagement and information sharing with volunteer search groups such as FOLLO," they said.

FOLLO already has more cases to chase.

"I've got about a dozen," Mr Smith said.

"I've already started maps for the next three people, we've got 270 volunteers now across Australia.

"We want to come up with strategies, come up with software, come up with hardware, all the things to make it work."