{"id":484651,"date":"2026-02-17T00:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/484651\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T00:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:38:09","slug":"fathers-mystery-disappearance-now-considered-suspicious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/484651\/","title":{"rendered":"Father’s mystery disappearance now considered suspicious"},"content":{"rendered":"

A father who disappeared from Melbourne<\/a> almost 14 years ago is now believed to have met with foul play.Brendan Breen was reported missing<\/a> when he cancelled dinner with his separated wife via text message in May 2012 but there were some doubts about whether he’d left on his own accord until he missed his own daughter’s funeral four years later.<\/p>\n

Police this morning renewed their appeal for information about his disappearance, saying what happened remained a mystery.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Brendan Breen was reported missing when he cancelled dinner with his wife via text message in May 2012 but there were some doubts about whether he’d left on his own accord until he missed his own daughter’s funeral four years later. (Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

Missing persons squad Inspector Dave Dunstan said suspicions were heightened when Breen failed to show up at the October 18 funeral, describing it as the “catalyst” for his squad to get involved.<\/p>\n

“While 14 years have passed, we strongly believe there are still people out there who know what has happened to Brendan, who is involved and why this has happened,” he said in\u00a0 a statement,<\/p>\n

“Even the smallest detail could be what leads us to a breakthrough and hopefully, puts us in a position to give Brendan’s family some answers.”<\/p>\n

Police said Breen \u2013 also known as Brendan Green, Brian Greer and Brendan Lacombe \u2013 had previously been charged with fraud offences and spent “several years” in jail.<\/p>\n

“There are a number of aspects about his disappearance that continue to give us cause for concern, especially the length of time he has been missing with no trace whatsoever,” Dunstan said.<\/p>\n

“We know he had a number of associates who were also known to police, and while they have been spoken to over the years, this remains an active avenue of enquiry for investigators.”<\/p>\n

Breen, who was 55 at the time, was last seen in Melbourne on April 12, 2012, and the cancelled dinner was on May 9 that same year.<\/p>\n

Police said they were still on good terms and she became concerned when he cancelled at the last minute with a text and then stopped answering her calls.<\/p>\n

They appealed for help to find the man but said it didn’t turn up any new leads.<\/p>\n

“Despite a number of enquiries over the next few years, Brendan could not be located,” police said.<\/p>\n

“In October 2018, Brendan failed to appear at his daughter’s funeral and his family believed this to be out of character as the pair were close.<\/p>\n

“The matter was reviewed and detectives now believe Brendan’s disappearance is suspicious, and he has most likely met with foul play.<\/p>\n

“His bank accounts and phone have never been accessed, and there has never been any reported sightings of Brendan.”<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A father who disappeared from Melbourne almost 14 years ago is now believed to have met with foul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-484651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}