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<\/p>\nStephanie Cordery vanished seemingly without a trace almost a month ago.<\/p>\n
The 42-year-old was last seen on August 5, and her car later turned up on her boyfriend\u2019s remote property in northern NSW.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stephanie Cordery vanished seemingly without a trace almost a month ago.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n
Police told her family they\u2019ve called off the search, so they\u2019ve gone looking for themselves deep in dense bushland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve searched, I don\u2019t know, probably 50 to 60 kilometres through the bush. Can\u2019t really find any leads, any clues to her whereabouts out here,\u201d Stephanie\u2019s cousin Jamie told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust no evidence of anything, or track of her. And it\u2019s not the easiest terrain, as you know, around here,\u201d her friend Justin added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer family has all sorts of scenarios going through their head and we just want her home,\u201d best friend Tennille said.<\/p>\n
Stephanie\u2019s family is desperate for answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLove you, Steph. Always have. Always will. I miss you. You are my soulmate. Please come home. I love you so much,\u201d Stephanie\u2019s mother Joyce tearfully pleaded during her interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone knows something, if they\u2019re holding back, we need to know. Make it anonymous,\u201d her sister Monique added.<\/p>\n
After weeks of scouring the area, police have scaled back the land search, but Stephanie\u2019s loved ones aren\u2019t giving up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were told that the search was over,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou search for someone until they\u2019re found. You don\u2019t give up and say, OK, that\u2019s the end,\u201d Monique told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Stephanie\u2019s family is desperate for answers.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n
Stephanie\u2019s trail runs cold deep in the Nightcap Range in the state\u2019s north.<\/p>\n
Her car was found abandoned on her boyfriend\u2019s property with her handbag, wallet and keys still inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd each day we get further from August 5, we know the chances of finding Stephie safe and well is becoming more and more unlikely,\u201d Monique said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to hold hope that she\u2019s still out there somewhere, but it\u2019s not looking good, and we can\u2019t even grieve because we don\u2019t know.\u201c<\/p>\n
Monique, Joyce and father Barry have been living in agony.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want Mum and Dad to pass away not knowing where Steph is,\u201d Monique tearfully told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s taken a terrible toll on Barry, I think, health-wise, and that\u2019s a real worry for all of us,\u201d Joyce added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough. Yeah, it\u2019s not getting much better,\u201d Barry said with a heavy heart.<\/p>\n
Stephanie grew up in the nearby town of Lismore, where she was school captain and very popular.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t have children herself. She\u2019s the fun aunty, the life of the party, and incredibly caring.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Police have released CCTV to A Current Affair of the last known sighting of Stephanie leaving temporary accommodation in Ballina about 5am on August 5.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the floods, she was out there just helping everybody, helping people clean their houses, delivering food,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was my best friend, and she will always be my best friend. I just hope that she knows that, wherever she is, and I can\u2019t imagine a Christmas, birthday, or Easter not having her around,\u201d Monique said, breaking down in tears.<\/p>\n
Police have released CCTV to A Current Affair of the last known sighting of Stephanie leaving temporary accommodation in Ballina about 5am on August 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe got up, put some clothes and things in the boot. She didn\u2019t seem panicked. She didn\u2019t seem in a rush,\u201d Monique explained.<\/p>\n
Road cameras then tracked her car driving west through Lismore, then north through Nimbin at 6am, before it was abandoned outside her boyfriend\u2019s home in the Nightcap Range, with Stephanie nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was found in the driveway of her boyfriend\u2019s property. I mean, it\u2019s been an off-and-on relationship for eight years, but they do care about each other a great deal,\u201d Monique told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he lives up here with his family, you know, it\u2019s almost like a closed community where the family lives together on different properties. They\u2019re very private people.\u201c<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until 1.19pm on August 5 that Stephanie\u2019s boyfriend called Monique telling her Steph\u2019s car was there, but she wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
After weeks of scouring the area, police have scaled back the land search, but Stephanie\u2019s loved ones aren\u2019t giving up.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n
Monique eventually called police when the family couldn\u2019t find Steph.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very forthcoming with answering any questions. He opened up his property and his family member\u2019s property with no hesitation at all. His vehicle, everything. The police were pretty adamant in speaking with us that they were comfortable he was being honest,\u201d Monique said.<\/p>\n
A Current Affair asked Stephanie\u2019s boyfriend for an interview, but he declined. A Current Affair isn\u2019t suggesting he\u2019s involved in Stephanie\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is concerned just about how private a lot of the people are in this area, that him and his family may be targeted by unwanted, I guess, media attention, online trolls,\u201d Monique said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t put blame on anybody. We can\u2019t be suspicious of anybody. We\u2019ve got to leave that to the detectives,\u201d Joyce added.<\/p>\n
Forensics seized Stephanie\u2019s car, which has since been released back to her family.\u201cAnd they couldn\u2019t find any clues from her car?\u201d A Current Affair asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing. We haven\u2019t heard anything at all from the forensics,\u201d Monique said.<\/p>\n
With Stephanie\u2019s phone missing, Monique tracked its location.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe left it in her accommodation in Ballina. It\u2019s very strange. Who leaves their phone? Who doesn\u2019t notice they don\u2019t have their phone?\u201d Monique said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police have done a search. They\u2019ve had drones out here, some police dogs, SES,\u201d cousin Jamie said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Steph\u2019s car later turned up on her boyfriend\u2019s remote property in northern NSW.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (police) said they did a very comprehensive search of a 300-metre radius of where the car was,\u201d Joyce told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut by the tenth day, they (police) were adamant she wasn\u2019t there. So if she\u2019s not there, where is she?\u201d Monique said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe detectives are still working on the case, but the search, the search is finished,\u201d Joyce added.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough with the number of missing people around this area. It\u2019s not just women, but it is predominantly women. Why is it this area? Is there someone out there that is potentially hurting people? <\/p>\n
\u201cOr is it a lack of resources in finding these people? But when the number gets to 70 over the last 20 to 30 years, that needs to be looked into,\u201d Monique said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just miss her, and I just want to know what\u2019s happened,\u201d Joyce pleaded.<\/p>\n
Full statement from NSW Police:<\/p>\n
The search for Stephanie Cordery has involved a significant and sustained multi-agency response since she was reported missing on Wednesday 5 August 2026.<\/p>\n
Search operations in Nimbin have been conducted across 13 days, including 5-7 August, 9-14 August, 16 August, 19-20 August and on Wednesday 26 August 2026.<\/p>\n
Those searches have involved local police attached to Richmond Police District, assisted by Police Rescue, the Police Dog Unit, Marine Area Command, NSW SES, NSW SES Bush Search and Rescue, NSW RFS, VRA Rescue NSW Specialist Operations Rescue Unit, and Queensland Remote Area Tracking personnel.<\/p>\n
As part of the investigation, the NSW Police Force issued a geo-targeted text message to thousands of mobile phones in the Nimbin and Lismore areas on Thursday 6 August 2026 and has made public appeals for information through social media and traditional media channels.<\/p>\n
Specialist capabilities have been used throughout the operation, including drones and other specialist search resources to assist in difficult-to-access areas.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday (26 August 2026), police divers attached to Marine Area Command conducted searches of dams and waterways in the vicinity of where Stephanie\u2019s vehicle was located. <\/p>\n
Despite extensive search efforts, Stephanie has not yet been located.<\/p>\n
Further discussions are underway with specialist search and rescue personnel regarding future search activity.<\/p>\n
The NSW Police Force remains committed to all appropriate lines of inquiry and search opportunities aimed at locating Stephanie under Strike Force Lumina.<\/p>\n
Police urge anyone with information about Stephanie\u2019s whereabouts to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephanie Cordery vanished seemingly without a trace almost a month ago. The 42-year-old was last seen on August…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-874932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874932","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=874932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}