LEELA MCDOUGALL
It’s been a decade since Chantelle Mcdougall and her six-year-old daughter Leela disappeared from their small-town home in Nannup, WA, with her boyfriend Simon Kadwell – who was the leader of an online doomsday cult.
Back in 2007, Chantelle told her mother that the family was going on an extended holiday to Brazil to live in a commune near the Amazon and ‘help people’.
They left behind wallets, credit cards and dirty plates on the table.
A note scrawled with the words ‘Gone to Brazil’ was found by their landlord a few days later, stuck to the front door. But despite an extensive, decade-long search by police, Chantelle and her daughter haven’t been heard from since.
Neither has Simon and a friend who was with them when they vanished.
Speaking about the last time she saw her daughter and her granddaughter, Chantelle’s mum Cath (with husband Jim, right) admits her gut told her something was not right.
‘A passport for Leela had come while I was there, but they didn’t say anything about it. Simon took it and put it away,’ she told Insight host Jenny Brockie. ‘I wish I had asked more questions and tried to find out more, but I thought: “She’s an adult. She’s got her life.”’
Chantelle, 27, was last seen in the neighbouring town of Busselton on July 13, 2007, where she sold her car to a local dealer for $4000 and drove away in a waiting vehicle.
It was later discovered that Simon was, in fact, a man by the name of Gary Felton – an illegal immigrant, who had stolen his name from a former associate in Britain. While police initially thought that they may have left the country, immigration authorities have no record of that happening and the group’s bank accounts have remained untouched – raising fears the party of four are dead, possibly even murdered.
It’s something Chantelle’s family has rejected – believing they are still alive and hiding somewhere in Australia.
Nannup Shire deputy president Robin Mellema, who has lived in the town for 37 years, said the case remained one of the region’s most puzzling.