The wife of a man missing since 2017 says she feels hamstrung by the fact she cannot obtain a death certificate and move forward with her life, almost five years after they were separated on a bush path in far southern Tasmania.
Key points:
- Bruce Fairfax went missing while bushwalking in October 2017, with police yet to finalize their investigations almost five years on
- His wife Louise says without a death certificate for him, she faces obstacles in organizing her life
- Under Tasmanian law, a “presumption of death” arises after seven years — but the Public Trustee says an earlier application can be made for a certificate through the Supreme Court
Louise Fairfax was with her husband Bruce when the pair set out to walk the track at Duckhole Lake, a flooded sinkhole surrounded by dense forest south of Hobart on October 14, 2017.
The pair, who were experienced hikers, were with their dog when they became separated on the path. The dog was later found.
A search involving police, SES volunteers and hikers was launched, with helicopter flyovers employing thermal detection methods to try and penetrate the thick scrub.
No trace of Mr Fairfax has ever been found.
Mr Fairfax, 66 at the time he disappeared, had Parkinson’s disease and would be unable to survive without his medication for more than a week, Tasmania Police said.
This week, police featured Mr Fairfax as one of the seven “long-term” missing people as part of Missing Person’s Week.
Speaking to ABC Hobart, Dr Fairfax said almost five years on from her husband’s disappearance, she had moved past the grief stage and was now battling with practicalities.
“There’s the grief aspect, the suggestion that the uncertainty might be an aspect; there’s also the practical dealing with the fact I don’t have a death certificate.”
Without that document, she was stuck on a number of fronts, she said.
“I’m not allowed to do a lot of things because all these companies and bureaucrats want to speak to Mr Bruce Fairfax, and I tell them that he is dead, and they say, ‘Where is your death certificate’, and I tell them I don’t have one… you go round in circles.
“I was trying to query an electricity bill and they wouldn’t speak to me, [they said] ‘No, you’re not Bruce Fairfax’ and they tell me to go to the coroner’s office to get a death certificate… golly what a great idea, as if I never thought of that.”
When contacted, Tasmania Police said in a statement Mr Fairfax’s case “will remain open until he is located (like all other missing persons), and any information received will be assessed for investigation”.
In a statement for the Public Trustee, a spokesperson said there was a “presumption of death which arises when seven or more years have elapsed since the disappearance of a person.”
“If it is proved that for a period of seven years no news has been received by persons who are likely to hear from that person if alive, and all appropriate inquiries have been made, then that person will be presumed to have died and the executor can apply to administer the estate.”
The spokesperson said “in some circumstances, it may not be necessary to wait the seven-year period” and an application can be made to the Supreme Court seeking leave to “swear to the death of a person”, but added however that “evidence is required as to the date and place of death.”
How specific the date and place of death needed to be was not detailed.
It would seem unless an application to the Supreme Court is made, Dr Fairfax will have to wait for seven years to elapse before a death certificate could potentially be issued, according to Tasmanian law.
When asked on Friday, she said she would look into it but was wary of costs.
She has continued to hike and climb across Tasmania and says she is fit, but fears what might happen if an accident happened at her home.
“If I break a bone, this house will become unliveable for me… a coroner’s certificate would be really handy so that if I need to sell this house, I can.”
Dr Fairfax said she hoped she could secure a death certificate “before I am like Miss Havisham”, a fictional character the Encyclopedia Britannica lists as the “half-crazed, embittered jilted bride in Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations”.
“[I’ll be living in living in a home where the weeds are taller than the house and the cobwebs and so great that I can barely fight my way to the kitchen,” she said.
Since Bruce went missing, the family gathers “every year”, Dr Fairfax said.
“We have climbed a mountain together, we would all converge at Dover and walk to Duckhole Lake together.
“Bruce loved mountain climbing and we do too, it’s a nice family way of remembering him.”
Currently, in Tasmania, there are 171 long-term missing persons who date back to the 1950s.
During the 2021/22 year, 193 persons were reported missing in Tasmania, with five still unaccounted for.
Anyone with information regarding Bruce Fairfax’s disappearance is asked to contact Tasmania Police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers Tasmania at crimestopperstas.com.au or on 1800 333 000. Information can be provided anonymously.
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