Families of missing WA men hope inquest will deliver answers

Families of four Western Australian men who went missing in the outback are pinning their hopes on a joint inquest to deliver answers and closure four years after their loved ones vanished.

The inquest will examine the disappearance and suspected deaths of Clinton Lockyer, Wesley Lockyer, Zane Stevens, and Brenton Shar, who all went missing in regional WA within a two-year period.

A long and difficult wait for answers

For Clinton Lockyer's family, the wait has been agonizing. "Every day you wonder where he is," his aunt, Annalee Lockyer, said. "You can't really move forward without knowing what happened."

The family has been notified that Clinton's case will be examined as part of the joint inquest, which will review the disappearance of the four men.

"I think it'll be a good thing, because we might get some fresh information," Annalee Lockyer said. "There's these men gone missing, and maybe it's linked, maybe it's not — we just don't know."

The cases of the missing men

The four men include Clinton Lockyer, last seen in the Pilbara town of Roebourne in October 2022, and his cousin Wesley Lockyer, who disappeared a week earlier from his home community near Port Hedland.

Then there is 21-year-old Zane Stevens, who went missing in April 2024 after a drive with associates in the bush near Broome, and father-of-two Brenton Shar, who was last seen in the port city of Geraldton in May that year.

Rumors of foul play and police indifference

The cases span more than a thousand kilometres, but are linked by rumors of foul play and accusations of police and public indifference.

Police have maintained their investigations have been thorough and based on the evidence available.

But the families of the missing men have welcomed the inquest and the scrutiny it will bring.

A separate case of a teenager who vanished

In January, a young Aboriginal man named Zjaequaan Sebasio vanished from his family's home in Port Hedland.

His mother, Beatrice, described him as a quietly spoken teenager who enjoyed watching movies and hanging out with friends.

"He'd told me he wanted to go away for a while, to clear his head and get away from the drugs in town," Beatrice said. "I was a bit worried, but he sounded normal and reassured me he was going to be OK."

Beatrice believes her son may have organised to meet someone. "We searched everywhere nearby and there were no footprints, and with the amount of spinifex he wouldn't have gone too far on foot," she said.

"I'm worried he might have got caught up with some bad people and met with foul play."

Concerns about the illicit drug trade

While there is no suggestion any of the men were using methamphetamine, the surging illicit drug trade in northern towns has fueled concern they may have fallen foul of those involved.

"The info I got from police was that there wasn't any criminal thing going on, but I'm worried it's got something to do with people involved in drugs," Beatrice said.

"People are too scared to talk about what's going on, as it might be their life or their families next."

A recent explosion and death

In recent weeks, a rumor spread through Broome that another man had gone missing after a purported drug lab exploded at a bush block near town.

When police visited the site, there was still police tape around the twisted and blackened wreckage.

A neighbor said: "We were woken up by the loud bang of the explosion. It was like a bomb going off."

The owners of the property say police have not told them what caused the fire.

WA Police confirmed the man who lived in the caravan was not missing — the 61-year-old had been killed in the blast.

Police described the death as non-suspicious and said there was no evidence it was a "drug lab", stating that "no drug paraphernalia was located at the scene".