Fears for missing tourist

[Oz]

aeaston@northernstar.com.au

"Something strange has happened to me and I don’t know how to cope with it ... I am vanishing ... no tears."

 

With those words, Swedish tourist Max Castor, 20, mailed his belongings back to his parents, closed his bank accounts and disappeared.

 

Of course, there were tears and, for nearly a year now, a desperate search by Max’s family to learn what became of him.

 

Now the family’s hopes have settled on the Nimbin area, where Max’s father Rolf says his son maybe happily immersed in the alternative lifestyle he had come to love.

 

Speaking from the family home in Sweden, Mr Rolf yesterday told The Northern Star looking to Nimbin was a long shot, but that it could be the family’s best bet after 12 months of searching by Victorian police in the area Max disappeared failed to turn up any clues.

 

Mr Castor said he was happy for his son, whose tourist visa would by now have expired, to settle in Australia and live whatever life he chose, but that the family needed to know whether he was alive — or if that fateful letter was, in fact, a suicide note.

 

Max was last seen a year ago today, when he was spotted near Apollo Bay on the coast west of Melbourne, six days after his last contact with his family.

 

The strange disappearance sparked a rush of media interest in Victoria, traces of which still linger on the Internet.

 

The case even caught the attention of the International Rewards Centre — a private organisation that offers rewards to people who help find missing and wanted people.

 

The centre, which also has a $25 million reward posted for Osama Bin Laden, is offering $5000 to anyone who can tell them where Max is.

 

Mr Castor said he could not imagine what Max’s final letter and last known actions meant.

 

Some experts who had analysed it announced it was a classic suicide note while others said the letter, combined with the closing of bank accounts, indicated it came from a person who did not plan to die.

 

Mr Castor said Max had always had a good relationship with his family and seemed relatively happy, but that high unemployment in his native Sweden, combined with the dissatisfaction of youth with the conventional work-aday life of their parents could mean he did not want to come home.

 

Mr Castor said Max embraced alternative lifestyles and was a light smoker of cannabis.

 

And while travelling Australia he would have seen plenty of opportunities to abandon the life awaiting him in Sweden for the alternative lifestyle he craved.

 

After arriving in Australia on October 19, 2004, Max had bought an old car and driven to Byron Bay and then Brisbane, picking apples for money, diving and surfing the North Coast’s beaches and meeting people.

 

After arriving in Brisbane, Max split from his friends and went to Victoria. Soon after he sent the letter to his parents and disappeared.

 

A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said that every police station in Australia had been alerted to Max’s disappearance, but that police would not try to detain him if he was found.

 

The spokeswoman said police only wanted to confirm Max’s safety and would pass that information on to police if they found him.

 

Anyone with information about Max should call the National Missing Persons Unit on 1800000634.

Author: ALEX EASTON

Date: 05/04/2006

Source: Lismore Northern Star

Copyright: © APN News & Media Ltd 2006

[everest]

if ya need help in brisbane max ....

 

pm me .....

 

ev

[WantDaChronic]

i can understand ditching sweden for nimbin but the least he could do is send an email or something to his parent to let them know if he is still ok

[raverspec]

Hmmm, Nimbin VS Selling Ikea and Volvo's for the rest of your life.

 

 

Tough choice....