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HAPPIER TIMES: Mick Peet with his daughter Lateesha Nolan when she was younger.Last words to dad: I love youINGRID BOWNWednesday, 31 August 2005When Lateesha Nolan was growing up her father was "pretty strict" with his "precious girl".
He'd make sure she was home before dark and when she didn't arrive one evening, he searched all over town before finding her at a friend's place.
"I had a premonition something was going to happen to one of my children," he said yesterday.
Now Mick Peet's Queensland home is a "shrine" to his daughter, the young Dubbo mother of four who vanished eight months ago in bizarre and tragic circumstances.
"My heart stops every time the phone rings, I wake up during the night in a sweat and I've been losing my hair from stress," he said.
"Sometimes I sit at my computer until the sun comes up thinking of things I could do to try and find her."
Mr Peet remembers a beautiful girl growing up who loved fishing, camping and trips to the coast.
"She loved camping with her pop and we'd go driving to the coast, the kids loved Movieworld," he said.
"She had so much life yet to live ... and her whole future has been taken away from her.
"It's been taken away from her children, too."
The last contact he had with his "baby girl" was a phone call in the days before her disappearance.
"The last thing she ever said was, 'I love you Dad," he said.
"I hadn't seen her and the kids for five years but we had great old chats on the phone - we were still very close."
When Lateesha went missing, Mr Peet was in anguish over what to do.
"I wanted to come down straight away and look for her," he said.
"I had the car packed but the police and the family talked me out of it - they said there was nothing I could do.
"I went into shock and felt pretty useless being up here. My clothes went mouldy sitting in the car while I was waiting for news."
He said "all his heart" now went to Lateesha's four young
children.
"They haven't let go of the security blanket of having their mother," he said.
Mr Peet was on the verge of abandoning hope of ever knowing Lateesha's fate, but said the manhunt for her cousin, Malcolm Naden, had renewed it.
"I hope they find him to give us some clue," he said.
Mr Peet said he simply wanted his and his family's nightmare to come to an end.
"I have dreams about her all the time," he said.
"She's trying to contact me but the dream ends before I can speak to her.
"We just need to find her. All I want is to lay my girl down to rest, to bring her home."
Anyone with any information on Lateesha Nolan's disappearance, or the whereabouts of Malcolm Naden, should call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

me and my daughter lateesha

It has been almost eight months since my daughter Lateesha went missing from Dubbo, NSW. Since that terrible day when I was told she was missing, I have been unable to sleep, my hair is falling out, I feel I am living in a nightmare I can't wake up from. Every time the phone rings, I think maybe they have found her, which is a mixed blessing - have they found a body or have they found my precious girl alive, by some miracle? Will she one day walk back through that door, the beautiful girl I have watched grow up and blossom into a beautiful young woman? Will I ever get to tell her again how much I love her?

Waiting one week to hear any news about Lateesha was so hard. Waiting eight weeks was torture. Waiting eight months is an absolute nightmare. To know that she is out there somewhere and we can't find her is the worst feeling you could imagine. It gets worse, not better with time. It has been a long and painful process, waiting for the news, letting the police do their job, hoping that I'm wrong about her being murdered.

Lateesha used to phone me all the time and we'd have great old chats. I missed her so much, as I was living in Queensland and I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked to. But she was still my little girl and we were still very close. I was so proud of her, all that she had achieved at such a young age, her four beautiful children.

Parents are not supposed to bury their children, they should bury us. I was looking forward to watching Lateesha grow older, watching my grandchildren grow up with such a great Mum. She had so much life yet to live, she was only 24, and her whole future has been taken away from her. It's been taken away from her children too, they'll never get over losing their Mum.

And I'll never get over losing my baby girl. She will be in my heart forever, locked away where no one can ever hurt her again.

Somebody, somewhere MUST know what happened to Lateesha. Someone saw what happened that night, knows where she is, overheard a conversation. I can understand you being too scared to come forward but what if this was your daughter, your sister, your wife, your girlfriend, your Mum? Walk a mile in my shoes and feel my pain. All I want is to lay my girl down to rest, to bring her home. One anonymous phone call, saying where she is, no one will ever know that you called. We just need to find her, please.

If you have any information to give please call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000. You do NOT have to give your name or any details, just provide that one bit of information that will end the nightmare for us all.

'Strangler' goes bush as six kids lose two mums
By John Kidman Police ReporterAugust 21, 2005The Sun-Herald
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Police have launched a statewide hunt for a man whom they believe has murdered one woman and may have vital information about another who is missing, presumed dead.
Malcolm John Naden is thought to have gone bush after disappearing in the state's west two months ago.
Homicide detectives have spent weeks searching sheds and abandoned farmhouses for the 31-year-old fugitive, but their efforts have proved fruitless. They have now publicly named Naden as a key suspect in the strangulation killing of 24-year-old Kristy Scholes, a mother of two from Dubbo, on June 23.
Police have also described him as someone they believe could help with their investigation into the whereabouts of 24-year-old mother of four Lateesha Nolan, who vanished from the same Dubbo address in January.
Naden is a cousin of the two women and was a long-term resident of the house.
"There are so many people who have been affected, not in the least six little kids under the age of six, who have lost two mums," the women's uncle Ted Lancaster said."It's been just horrendous.
"Kristy's children have at least had a funeral service to attend and a place to go and visit their mummy.
"But Lateesha's little ones are still asking where she is, whether she still loves them and if they can go and look for her.
"This is what we're going through and it is absolutely horrible. It's been one long nightmare."
A week before Ms Scholes's death, she and her two children moved into the East Dubbo home of her partner's grandparents while their own home was being repainted.
Homicide squad Detective Sergeant Shane Conant said her four-year-old daughter, Libby, was found wandering in the front yard of the house, having escaped through a window, on June 22.
Relatives searched immediately but Ms Scholes's body was not found until the following morning, when police entered Naden's bedroom.
Sergeant Conant said Ms Nolan vanished after leaving her two youngest children, 19-month-old Shaqkaila and three-year-old Jayden, with their grandmother Florence Nolan on January 4.
Naden is Aboriginal, 177 centimetres tall, weighs 85 kilograms and is of medium build. He has an olive complexion, brown eyes, a shaved head and possibly a moustache and/or beard.

Check farm sheds for wanted man: police
17:57 AEST Mon Aug 22 2005
AAP
Police are asking farmers in NSW's central west to check shearing and farm sheds and old homesteads for signs of a man sought over the death and disappearance of two women.
Detectives believe that expert bushman Malcolm John Naden may be hiding out in the Dubbo area after disappearing following the death of his cousin, 24-year-old mother of two Kristy Scholes.
Ms Scholes's body was found in Naden's bedroom at his grandmother's house at West Dubbo on June 22.
"We know he's out there somewhere. We just don't know where," Acting Detective Sergeant Shane Conant said.
"We're encouraging people to check old sheds, shearing sheds and old, unoccupied houses on their property."
Det Sgt Conant said appeals for information on Naden's whereabouts had yielded numerous calls but he refused to be drawn on whether there had been any reported sightings.
"We're getting a lot of info but we still can't find him; we're sifting through the information now," Det Sgt Conant said.
Police launched a statewide search for Naden following the discovery of Ms Scholes's body.
Another cousin, Lateesha Nolan, disappeared from the same house after dropping two of her four children off there on January 4 this year.
Naden, 31, who disappeared on June 20, the same day Ms Scholes went missing, is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, 177cm tall, of medium build, olive complexion, brown eyes, shaved head, and possibly a moustache and beard.
Dubbo police issued a warrant for Naden's arrest over the death of Ms Scholes but senior detectives say they also believe he can assist with inquiries into Ms Nolan's disappearance.

For the past 16 years Malcolm John Naden lived a hermit-like existence in a sparsely furnished bedroom at his grandparents' home in Dubbo. He kept the door bolt locked from the inside.
He would leave his sanctuary through the bedroom window, though in the past year he rarely ventured outside. His reading material included the Bible, encyclopedias and books about bush survival.
The stocky, quiet, 31-year-old unemployed shearer and former skinner and boner at Dubbo abattoir also sketched, but police will not reveal the nature of the drawings they found in his room last July 23.
They had broken into the room that day and found the strangled body of his cousin Kristy Scholes, 24, on the floor beside his single bed. She had been missing for two days and the alarm was raised when one of her two small children was found crying outside the home, in Bumblegumbie Road.
His disappearance and the murder of Ms Scholes, who had been living in the home while her neighbouring house was being painted, has also been linked with the disappearance last January of another cousin of Mr Naden, Lateesha Nolan, 24.
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Ms Nolan was last seen at 9pm on January 4, when she dropped off two of her four children at the same house. The next night her blue 1996 Ford Falcon station wagon was found in a car park in the town centre, four kilometres away.
Homicide squad detectives yesterday made a statewide appeal for information on Mr Naden's whereabouts.
The head of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Bryne Ruse, said police believed Mr Naden had fled to another town, to Sydney or had taken to living off the land with his knowledge of bush skills.
Sergeant Ruse said police also wanted to speak to Mr Naden about the disappearance of Ms Nolan.
The issuing of a warrant for Mr Naden's arrest means there are now two large but unrelated manhunts under way in rural NSW.
In the north-west of the state, police are searching for the killer of a farm manager near Warialda last Wednesday.
Queensland police have joined the investigation into the murder of Nigel Pettet, 31, at a property he managed. His Toyota Landcruiser utility was last seen in the Queensland town of Warwick. Police have not revealed how or why he was killed.
Anyone with information on Ms Nolan's disappearance and the murders of Ms Scholes and Mr Pettet are asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

missing person week

Week highlights missing persons (Google rank 4) ... but many local residents, including Amber Haige from the Young district,Bathurst's Jessica Small and Lateesha Nolan from Dubbo, are still missing. ... http://abc.net.au/news/items/200508/1426791.htm?centralwest - cached LATEESHA,S DAD MICK