Rachael O'Keane, Harmony O'Keane (1 month old) and Katrina O'Keane with a photo of Donny.
AT 8.30pm tonight, exactly eight weeks will have past since Linton teenager Donald “Donny” Govan disappeared from an Echuca campsite.
His family are beyond desperate in their mission to get him home. But they’ve run out of ideas – and so have the police.
The 16-year-old old had been enjoying his Saturday on the river with his sister and four Ballarat friends on September 1, having arrived the night before from his mother’s home in Linton.
On the Saturday night, he became paranoid, began shouting at others at the campsite and sprinted off into the darkness towards a billabong adjacent to the Murray Valley Highway.
By 6am on that Sunday, police called in helicopters, sniffer dogs and scuba divers in a huge coordinated search with the SES, Donny’s family and concerned locals, but no trace of the teenager was found.
Yesterday, police told The Courier they had no new leads in the search. Nothing to report.
The only clue so far has been a woman’s claim that Donny knocked on her door that Sunday morning.
The woman said a boy she believes to be Donny emerged from the bush near her Pakenham Street home and told her he was cold and hungry.
She cooked him a hot breakfast – bacon and eggs – and said he stayed for about an hour, before telling her he was heading to Bendigo.
Donny’s sister Jacinta Jackson now plans to use the first few days of her brother’s ordeal to raise awareness of his plight.
Ms Jackson said she is planning a walk from Ballarat to Echuca to remind communities along the way – and the media – that her brother is still missing and needs to be found.
She said her brother’s disappearance had fractured her family and devastated her little brother, who was still coming to grips with Donny being missing.
Anyone with information should call police.
jordan.oliver@thecourier.com.au