It’s been more than six months since Jayden Penno-Tompsett went missing in the Australian outback.
The 22-year-old was road-tripping from Newcastle to Cairns when he vanished without a trace near the town of Charters Towers in remote northern Queensland.
Rachel Penno, his mother, has been searching for him ever since – and she has some unsettling theories about her only son’s mysterious disappearance.
Rachel Penno (pictured) has been searching for her son Jayden Penno-Tompsett for more than six months – and has some unsettling theories about his disappearance
Jayden, 22, (pictured, left, right) was road-tripping from Newcastle to Cairns when he vanished without a trace near the town of Charters Towers in remote northern Queensland
Jayden and his friend Lucas Tattersall were driving the 26-hours north to meet friends and family for New Year’s Eve.
On Friday December 29 2017, Ms Penno received a call from Jayden: he and Lucas were almost at the Queensland border and the drive so far had ‘been good’, he said.
The next day she messaged him asking ‘R u ok’ and received a one-word reply: ‘Yeah’.
Speaking to A Current Affair in May, Ms Penno noted how that message had struck her as strange.
‘He normally would have elaborated,’ she said. ‘He would have said ‘Yeah, I’m at blah blah’ or ‘Yeah, I’ll call you later’.
‘It was the last I heard from him.’
A statement from Queensland Police has revealed that he was last seen in the area of a roadhouse on Thompson Street on the Flinders Highway in Charters Towers on December 31
It was on that same day and in that same area that his friend Lucas Tattersall claims to have seen Jayden
Now she suspects that someone else may have sent that text from her son’s phone.
One of Jayden’s cousins, who was waiting to meet him in Cairns, also received a series of unusual messages.
One, sent at about 9pm on December 30, claimed his phone was busted and the car had broken down – but stressed that he and Lucas were on their way.
The cousin sent a series of messages asking after Jayden, but received no reply until 11.59am on December 31, when another message came through from Jayden’s number: ‘Hey have you been in contact witty (sic) Penno since last night??’
‘Nah, army (sic) you with him?’ the cousin replied, and quickly followed the message up with ‘what happened’ and, finally, ‘Herd (sic) anything?’
‘Hey bro still haven’t been able to contact or find anyone who seen…’ read the response – sent at 2.24pm.
Lucas told police the pair had allegedly been in argument before Jayden (pictured) stopped their red Nissan Pulsar sedan by the side of a dirt road and abandoned the vehicle
Lucas would later tell police that he last saw Jayden in the early hours of December 31, near the outskirts of Charters Towers.
The pair had allegedly been in argument before Jayden stopped their red Nissan Pulsar sedan by the side of a dirt road and abandoned the vehicle.
Mr Tattersall drove off and when he returned later there was no sign of Jayden, he told investigators – who have described Mr Tattersall as ‘more than helpful’.
Jayden was reported missing three days later, triggering a search of bush and farmland within an 85 kilometre radius, but police found no sign of him.
A statement from Queensland Police has revealed that he was last seen in the area of a roadhouse on Thompson Street on the Flinders Highway in Charters Towers on December 31, as shown in CCTV footage.
Mr Tattersall (pictured) drove off and when he returned later there was no sign of Jayden, he told investigators, who have described Mr Tattersall as ‘more than helpful’
Ms Penno has since gone to extraordinary lengths to find her son, hiring a private investigator and even asking psychics for help.
She forwards all relevant information on to police – and, to date, has sent a report in dot-point form of around 20-pages.
Another interesting piece of information came from a nurse at Charter Towers Hospital, who claims she took a phone call from a panic-stricken man who had asked for Jayden by name and enquired whether he was a patient on December 30.
A spokesperson for Queensland Health has since revealed to Nine.com.au that the nurse has made a statement to police.
Now, Ms Penno is worried that there may have been some kind of violent threat that led to Jayden’s sudden disappearance.
‘My son would only run if my son was outnumbered or if there was a gun,’ she said.
‘There was a rifle range where he went missing.’
Ms Penno went on to explain that she has been in contact with Lucas, who has agreed to meet and speak with her.
Mr Tattersall has co-operated with the police fully in their investigation.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Mr Tattersall is in any way involved in Mr Penno-Tompsett’s disappearance.
Lucas has previously posted about the incident on social media, responding to people who said he should never have left his friend alone in the bush.
‘I’m sorry to tell you but if someone wants to just up and leave and f*** off then that’s what they are gonna do,’ he wrote on Facebook, according to News.com.au.
‘[You] don’t understand how hard I tried to help Jayden when I with him and calm him down so we can sort this out.
‘He is my mate and I’m hurt too please stop making out I’m just some heartless p**** that left him out there to die.’
Jayden is described as Caucasian in appearance, 175 centimetres tall and has mousy brown hair.
He was last seen wearing a black singlet, navy blue board shorts and black and red thongs and was travelling in a red Nissan Pulsar with NSW registration CN3 2ZB.