Markets 
Weather 
An inquest into the suspected death of a prospector who went missing in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt has revealed his private health battles, including that he turned down treatment for cancer on multiple occasions leading up to his disappearance.
Barry John Podmore was 73 years old when he was last known to be alive on December 5, 2024.
The Victoria Park-born roof carpenter was an avid prospector and moved to Beacon, a small town in the north-east of the Wheatbelt region more than 300 kilometres from Perth, which allowed him to pursue his passion, the inquest was told.
On the day he went missing, he sent a message to his daughter that read: “Lauren dear Gal, I’m going out for the day tomorrow. So if you want, you can call me on your way home today.”
“It ended with a beer cheers emoji, a peace sign, and a laughing face,” Lauren later told the ABC.
But Podmore was never seen or heard from again.
Over the following days Lauren attempted to contact her father multiple times, the inquest was told, but his phone did not ring and messages went unanswered.
Six days later he was reported missing to police after a search of his home found his vehicle was also gone.
Triangulation data from Telstra showed that Barry’s phone had not been active since 7.57am on December 6.
A two-day air search was conducted in the Karroun Hill area where Podmore told a friend he would be heading to, but there was no sign of the 73-year-old or his vehicle.
Karroun Hill is the same remote corner of the Wheatbelt where German backpacker Carolina Wilga was found after spending 11 nights alone in the bush, and this masthead has previously revealed a search for Podmore was derailed as police focused their resources on the hunt for Wilga.
The inquest was told on Monday that, seven months later, and frustrated with the lack of answers, Podmore’s family engaged independent missing persons tracker Rick Heaton to search the same area.
Heaton, a former ADF member who is due to give evidence at the inquest, found Podmore’s vehicle in May 2025. It was located 100 metres off a bush track near Mount Jackson.
It was locked and inside were his mobile phone and an unused personal locator beacon.
The vehicle had a punctured rear passenger side tyre. The spare wheel was present, but there were no signs of any efforts to change the defective wheel, the inquest heard.
A second official two-day police search for Podmore was conducted at that time, but no trace of Podmore was found.
Following police scaling down the search, Heaton continued to search at the site for a further 19 days without success, the inquest was told.
Heaton spent 70 days in the area searching for Podmore.
Police then turned their investigations towards his health and discovered that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013 and in 2016 was diagnosed with superficial bladder cancer.
He also had a damaged heart from childhood rheumatic fever and a history of irregular heartbeats and second-degree heart block as recently as 2021.
In 2020, tests revealed the cancer had progressed and, despite a very high cure rate, Podmore declined treatment.
In 2022, Podmore attended Royal Perth Hospital as he was passing blood in his urine. Tests revealed a likely progression of the prostate cancer, but he once again declined any future treatment, the inquest heard.
“Family was aware that Barry had prostate cancer but state he was private about his health,” the inquest was told.
“Background information obtained from a close friend of 30 years states that when he last saw Barry in early October 2024, he was in good spirits but thought he was physically ageing and saw a decline in his health.”
Heaton is expected to tell the coroner he believed Podmore became disoriented while trying to return to his vehicle, and inadvertently turned in the wrong direction, continuing on in search of shelter and shade, and ultimately perishing in remote bushland.
“In a statement provided by Jacqueline she recalls on a previous occasion being worried when her father was a day late returning from a prospecting trip and when she eventually heard from him, he told her that he had walked too far from his car without enough water and became lost along the emu-proof fence,” Senior Constable Craig Robertson told the coroner.
“He had become disorientated and walked past his car and not seen it parked in the bushes.”
Prospecting associates described Podmore as a competent bushman and the inquest was told his family believed he was dead as they are confident he would have contacted them had he still been alive.
A witness from the missing persons team was the first to give evidence on Monday.
From our partners
Read the full article here
