Nova Entertainment launches new real life podcast to coincide with National Missing Persons Week

NOVA Entertainment will launch a new real life podcast series, The Disappearance of Des, to coincide with the 40-year anniversary of one man’s disappearance, available from Friday 2 August. The podcast series will support and raise awareness for National Missing Persons Week, an event held in the first week of August each year.

The Disappearance of Des is the story of Desmond Francis Carr, who was last seen at 3pm on 2 August 1979, and then…he disappeared.

The Disappearance of Des podcast looks at the unanswered questions, the impact on those left behind and raises awareness for National Missing Persons Week. Every year on average 38,000 Australians are reported missing. While most are found, approximately 1,600 people remain long term missing. National Missing Persons Week will be held from 4 to 10 August and aims to raise awareness of the significant issues associated with missing persons, as well as helping to reduce the incidence and impact of missing persons in Australia.

Des Carr drove a steamroller for the Main Roads Department, in an outback town, in Western Australia. A truck dropped him off in the morning where he worked alone. When his colleagues returned for him at 4pm that afternoon, his steamroller was still on, but Des was gone.

The Disappearance of Des is a five-part podcast series that focuses on what has happened in the past 40 years since Des went missing. With many theories and suspicions around his disappearance, family members relay the events that led up to Des vanishing and share their thoughts on what happened to their beloved brother and son. A police report showed that Des was injured in a fight, when struck by a chair to the head, just before his disappearance. His father believed Des lost his memory and was still alive but did know his identity; while others thought UFO’s were involved. The trail went quiet until 2014 when new evidence came to light. A man came forward with knowledge of where Des disappeared. He drew a map for the police and it was the exact location of Des’ last known sighting. The informant’s name and details were later removed from the case and to this day there has never been a Coroner’s inquest into Des’ disappearance. The Disappearance of Des podcast enlisted Jude Seivwright from the WA’s Police Force Missing Person’s Department to look over the cold case notes and provide feedback.

The podcast also features Suzy Radcliffe, the founder of Leave A Light On Facebook group. Leave A Light On aims to raise awareness for long-term missing persons and provides support for families suffering ambiguous loss of their loved ones. Suzy’s sister went missing in 1979. She says, “It’s a generation thing too because it affects generations to come. Not just the immediate family that have experienced it but future generations. Even though the kids haven’t known the missing person they have grown up learning so much about them. It affects them emotionally and mentally.”

The Disappearance of Des podcast series has been created in the hope it will start conversations about loved ones who have also vanished, by providing an in-depth look at one man’s case on the 40th anniversary of his disappearance.

The Disappearance of Des is a five part series available from Friday 2 August, with new episodes released each week, available on Acast or wherever listeners access their podcasts. The trailer is available here.