Family of missing woman wants $1m reward to help solve 13-year-old mystery

Monique Clubb was the quintessential older sister, a strong person with a heart of gold.  

“She always stuck up for us, always had our back,” younger brother Timothy Clubb said. 

For more than a decade, the Clubb family has been haunted by unanswered questions about her disappearance.  

The 24-year-old Indigenous woman went missing 13 years ago during a trip from Hervey Bay to Brisbane with three acquaintances.  

Despite a coronial inquest examining the circumstances, Monique has not been found.  

The family is calling on police to issue a reward for any new information that could help solve her case. 

“Our family has been serving a life sentence of unanswered grief. We just want to bring our sister home,” younger sister Minnie Clubb said. 

Investigation issues

It was June 22, 2013, when Monique entered a Beenleigh shopping centre.  

During the 2021 coronial inquest, an attendant working at a shoe store inside the shopping complex claimed Monique had been acting erratically, but this was disputed by security guard Red Apolo. 

Mr Apolo told the inquest he watched Monique leave the centre and walk through a park. 

That was the last confirmed sighting of Monique. 

A senior detective told the State Coroner’s Court police had concluded that Monique died shortly after her last sighting. 

But the inquest uncovered several issues with how officers handled the initial investigation. 

One of these concerns was with the security footage collected from the Beenleigh train station, which a senior detective admitted to the inquest had been misplaced. 

Martin Hodgson, a co-founder of The Disappeared Project, said the mishandling could have impacted the investigation. 

“It could have captured which rail station she might have departed [from], if she’d used a public phone or who else she might have been with,” he said. 

The inquest also found police did not interview the workers from the shoe store and were unable to receive a completed version of Monique’s phone records. 

Darumbal and South Sea Islander researcher Amy McQuire said while writing her book, Black Witness, she had noticed a difference in how police treated missing persons cases involving Aboriginal people.  

"They're always seen first as perpetrators rather than victims of violence,"

she said.

Monique had developed a dependence on opiates after a car accident left her with serious injuries. 

This led police to believe she died of an overdose, but search and rescue experts testified that would have been highly unlikely. 

Dr McQuire said a narrow perspective could lead authorities to lose "crucial insights [that] can't be recovered".

A Queensland Police spokesperson said any new information "is reviewed and investigated accordingly".

Unique type of grief

But for those left behind, the lack of answers can lead to emotional turmoil.  

According to missing persons researcher Sarah Wayland, this is known as ambiguous loss. 

“Families live in this space of the person may come back or might not come back, and they have to live with the tension,” Professor Wayland said. 

Navigating these emotions is a complex process for First Nations people. 

“The intergenerational impacts, as well as current-day disconnection, meant that the loss was not the first time they’d experience this,” Professor Wayland said.  

Historical tensions between law enforcement officers and Indigenous people can also make it difficult to reach out to police for assistance. 

“Police are unintentional support providers for families because they’re the first port of call, but they can potentially solve the trauma for the family,” Professor Wayland said, adding that a strong support network was vital. 

“Asking people, ‘How are you? What can I do to help?’ will be far more effective than asking for transactional information.” 

'Bring our sister home'

Monique’s family and The Disappeared Project have launched a campaign urging police to implement a $1 million reward for her case.  

Mr Hodgson said it could motivate people with crucial details to come forward. 

“We know there’s individuals out there who hold the answers and it allows us to ramp up the pressure on people to say this case is being taken seriously,” he said. 

Ms Clubb said the financial incentive may be the key to "shatter the wall of silence".

A Queensland Police spokesperson could not comment on rewards for individual cases, saying rewards played "an important role in the investigation process" but were "just one of many strategies undertaken to solve crime".