25/11/2021
❗️Missing, presumed dead teen - Port Adelaide SA, Australia.
Daniel Sheppard was just 19 when he, his twin Michael, and other mates started to bring in the new year on Saturday the 31st of December, 1994. The brothers and their friends started their celebrations by having pre-drinks at a friend’s house before using public transport to do the pub and club rounds, starting at Lennies Tavern, Glenelg, SA. However, after midnight Daniel, his brother, and their friends went their separate ways. Daniel left Lennies Tavern with a friend and his girlfriend to Rave nightclub in Hindley St, followed by Empire, a pool joint in nearby Rose St. Daniels friend and his friend’s girlfriend left Empire at about 3am while Daniel stayed chatting to a woman for about half an hour. The woman later told police that she last saw Daniel at about 4am.
It was around 4am that Daniel left the club and walked to Adelaide Railway Station, just a few minutes away, where he ran into three girls he knew from school. Daniel and the three girls boarded the train at 4.13am, Daniel planned on getting off at Outer Harbor and then walking the rest of the way home. While on the train Daniel told two of the girls: “I’m partied out... I’m going home to crash” not long after this, Daniel waved goodbye to the girls when they got off the train of Alberton. At 4.35am Daniel got off the train at the Port Adelaide Train Station and was seen on the southern pedestrian ramp walking towards Baynes Place. Daniel was described as being moderately intoxicated but still in control of his faculties.
The walk home should have taken 10 minutes but Daniel was never seen again.
The Sheppard boys grew up in West Lakes and spent their afternoons and weekends fishing, swimming in the lake, riding their bikes, and catching lizards. They loved football and regularly went to Alberton Oval to barrack for Port Adelaide. A slight boy, Daniel didn’t play much sport himself – he left that to his bigger brother, Michael. The boys had five sisters, too, but the girls were so much older than them and had already left home by the time the twins were born. Daniel has been described as loyal, reliable, and trustworthy. Daniel's workmates said he was "a good laugh, a funny bloke to be with”, Daniel had heavy metal, was into Pearl Jam and Silverchair was a fan of Port Adelaide Football Club and an enthusiastic fisherman.
Police did a re-enactment of Daniel’s last known movements using Daniel's twin brother, Michael this was shown on TV in a bid to extract more information from the public. The public did come forward with more information and police followed up every lead, tip-off, and rumour. The police also did numerous searches for Daniel Sheppard, including police divers searching the Port River, and in April 1995, police raided the city homes of known s*x offenders after information Daniel had been seen with them. "It seems he walked into oblivion,” retired detective Alan Arthur, who spear-headed the Investigation, said. Police now believe it likely Daniel was snatched and murdered.
There was a possible sighting of Daniel on Grand Junction Road, Rosewater at 6:30 - 7:00 am on 1/1/95 and another sighting in 1997, a friend reported seeing him at the Norwood Hotel in 1997 and, despite locking the hotel's doors, police could not find the young man.
Police have investigated multiple leads and theories, such as Daniel was murdered by an occult group and another suggestion, he was kidnapped by s*x offenders. Police were also told that a man from the Port Adelaide area, after consuming an intoxicating mix of cannabis, co***ne, and amphetamines, allegedly implied that he had been involved in Daniel’s disappearance. “He was a suspected drug dealer and there was a suggestion Daniel was supposedly buried in his backyard under concrete,” May says. “Police searched the area using ground-penetrating radar. They found that old asbestos was buried there, which suggested the ground had not been disturbed for some time. There have been a number of those types of scenarios, but they’ve all been discounted.” More specifically, one suggestion linked Daniel’s disappearance to The Family, a group whose members abducted, drugged, s*xually abused, and murdered young men aged 14 to 25 in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Only one “member”, Bevan Spencer von Einem, is serving time behind bars, and that’s for the 1983 murder of Richard Kelvin, the son of Adelaide’s favourite newsman, Rob Kelvin. Unfortunately, all leads and tip-offs have led to dead ends.
In 2005, South Australia’s coroner, Mark Johns, found that Daniel had died. Mr. Johns did not determine a cause of death but said there was no evidence to support numerous theories, including that Daniel had been murdered by people with links to the occult or that he was bashed because he had substantial drug debts. Mr. Johns said Daniel had enjoyed a good relationship with his family, including his twin brother, and would have contacted them if he were still alive. The inquest heard that Daniel Sheppard's bank accounts had been untouched since the day he went missing.
A woman known only to the public as “Carol”, spoke to the Sunday Mail saying: she would never forget the commotion on Jane Flaxman Court about 4.45am after she woke to attend to her sick young daughter. “I’d heard someone screaming along the lines of ‘I don’t need a lift’ and ‘f … off, f … off’ and it sounded distressed, but then there was nothing but a bit of a muffled noise,” she said. Startled and alarmed, Carol went outside and sat on a stool, where she had a view of the street and the large, “square-shaped” car which was similar to a Holden Statesman or Ford Falcon. She was surprised to see one man in the driver’s seat with nobody in the front passenger seat. “I thought that was odd, then I saw the car had no lights on and thought that’s weird, why haven’t they got their lights on?” she said. At the time Carol thought the figure in the middle of the rear seat was a female but learned later that Daniel was small with long wavy blonde hair. “All of this happened within a minute and it just didn’t feel right and I just couldn’t process it and went to my husband and said ‘something really weird has just happened in our street’,” she said. “He reminded me that it’s New Year’s Day and everyone is drunk and people are doing stupid things. But something just didn’t sit right and I rang Port Adelaide police station after I got up around mid-morning.” Carol was bewildered and frustrated by the lack of interest shown by uniformed police and homicide detectives, despite the incident happening 10 minutes after he was last seen, and a two-minute walk from his home. Carol said she had spent years “pulling my hair out” as a 2005 Coroner’s Inquest passed without her evidence ever being made public or delved into by police. This came as a devastating shock to Daniel's family who only found out about this information after Carol reached out to them over Facebook.
Daniel has been 26 years and would now be 46 years old. At the time of Daniel’s disappearance, he was described as a 19-year-old boy with a fair complexion, a slim build with Blonde/Red hair, and blue eyes standing at 165cm (5′4) tall. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a maroon denim shirt.
There is a reward of $200,000 offered by the South Australian Government for information that leads to the apprehension and conviction of the person, or persons, responsible for Daniel’s disappearance.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Daniel Sheppard, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Please remember that you can remain anonymous if you wish and rewards are offered.
