# After all these years...Lily's brother opens up

An episode of [What Happened To…](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1812362613), 14 Jun 2026, 21 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8c185e62-46f1-4292-81b7-b2d00059655d/00aa85db-d124-4f83-8d40-b46500271688/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=fcf80ea6-cd25-4daa-b194-b2d000596ad2

In this episode, we talk to Danny O'Shea, who was just 16 when his mother vanished without a trace. He hasn't spoken to anyone over 20 years until now See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Approche production.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Over the past few episodes, we met Lily, whose mum Katie,
[0:14] Speaker 2: went missing over twenty years ago in far North Queensland.
[0:20] Speaker 2: We spoke to the police officer in charge of the
[0:22] Speaker 2: investigation into Katie o'shet's disappearance. Over those years, there have
[0:28] Speaker 2: been two significant persons of interests. Lily's brother Alan was
[0:33] Speaker 2: one of them.
[0:34] Speaker 3: You know, he's never once attempted to contact, to my knowledge,
[0:39] Speaker 3: police and find out what's happening. He was a vasive
[0:44] Speaker 3: from the word go, and you know, probably the information
[0:48] Speaker 3: he had at his disposal would have been of great
[0:52] Speaker 3: benefit to our investigation. But it's not to be.
[0:59] Speaker 4: You put the scare Carrie to the mountain, my friend.
[1:11] Speaker 4: You see again, You're happy, happy, and that same.
[1:26] Speaker 1: Ah away.
[1:35] Speaker 2: For all of those years, Katie's little brother Danny has
[1:37] Speaker 2: never spoken about his mum's disappearance until now.
[1:41] Speaker 1: My name is Danny o'sha. I am the third child
[1:45] Speaker 1: of Katie O'shay. This is the first time I've ever
[1:48] Speaker 1: done anything like this. I know Lily has been the
[1:51] Speaker 1: forefront of everything, so you know, I guess, you know
[1:56] Speaker 1: it's been a long time. I guess I'm more than
[1:57] Speaker 1: happy to you know, talk about it for a little
[1:59] Speaker 1: bit and have a different voice behind it.
[2:02] Speaker 2: So you may remember in an early episode, Danny's birthday
[2:07] Speaker 2: was nine days before Katie went missing.
[2:09] Speaker 1: So I just turned sixteen. So my birthday is December twenty,
[2:14] Speaker 1: so not obviously nine days before it all happened. So
[2:19] Speaker 1: as it's well known that you know, mom went up
[2:22] Speaker 1: for the birth of her first grand kid, which was
[2:25] Speaker 1: super excited about those new mom. She's really fiercely loyal
[2:29] Speaker 1: for us five kids.
[2:30] Speaker 2: Katie didn't have phone reception on the day of Danny's birthday,
[2:34] Speaker 2: twentieth of December. Danny remembers his last call with his mom.
[2:40] Speaker 1: So my last interaction with Mum would have been like
[2:43] Speaker 1: the twenty third or twenty fourth of December. She called
[2:45] Speaker 1: me to sort of wish me happy birthday and see
[2:47] Speaker 1: how's going on sort of stuff. And I just remember,
[2:52] Speaker 1: obviously I think, you know, one thing with Mum, she
[2:54] Speaker 1: cerentsly only had one rule, was just to call him mom.
[2:57] Speaker 1: And I'm a bit of a smart ass in a
[2:59] Speaker 1: way sometimes and well I get it from m I guess.
[3:03] Speaker 1: And on the phone she's just like calling your mum,
[3:07] Speaker 1: like not like the thought of a joke, and then
[3:11] Speaker 1: my list interaction with her hanging up with the phone
[3:13] Speaker 1: from me, which is angry about me not calling him Mum.
[3:19] Speaker 1: So you know that's I guess in a way, like
[3:22] Speaker 1: you won your last memory of you, you know, anyone coach,
[3:25] Speaker 1: you did good one unfortunately, and I wasn't the case unfortunately.
[3:30] Speaker 1: That's like, so when I first found out it would
[3:37] Speaker 1: ring on the thirteenth of January, so pretty much at
[3:40] Speaker 1: the same time when it was she was reported missing,
[3:43] Speaker 1: and I was in I was staying at John McKenzie's house,
[3:48] Speaker 1: and so I was in Boxville where he was living,
[3:51] Speaker 1: and I was thinking getting some food or saying I
[3:54] Speaker 1: get this text from Mum's from Loma, and I don't
[3:58] Speaker 1: know what exactly said. It was on the lines like
[4:01] Speaker 1: Mum's missing, I hope you're okay XX. And I just
[4:05] Speaker 1: remember I was walking the street and all like in
[4:07] Speaker 1: the street where I'm back to McKenzie's house, and I
[4:10] Speaker 1: was just like I was taking it back because like
[4:14] Speaker 1: you don't really know what to what to sort of
[4:18] Speaker 1: feel when you sort of hear that for the first time,
[4:20] Speaker 1: it was pretty numbing. And I just remember running back
[4:23] Speaker 1: to McKenzie's house. I was like, what's going on sort
[4:27] Speaker 1: of things. So it's a whole range of them, especially
[4:32] Speaker 1: as a sixteen year old kid, like you know, having
[4:33] Speaker 1: your mum there your whole life. She did like she
[4:37] Speaker 1: did everything for us kids, and obviously with dad, I'm
[4:42] Speaker 1: I'm estranged from my dad. I don't really have much
[4:45] Speaker 1: to do with and that's through choice, and so she's
[4:49] Speaker 1: done everything for us, and it's just it was just weird,
[4:53] Speaker 1: like you know, you just don't know how to take
[4:55] Speaker 1: it the first time. And you know, as a kid,
[4:58] Speaker 1: like at that stage, like at the start of I
[5:02] Speaker 1: sort of struggled. I was starting to do just about
[5:04] Speaker 1: to do start my base eight so year eleven and twelve,
[5:08] Speaker 1: and you know that sort of affected me a lot
[5:12] Speaker 1: as a younger kid. Now I'm you know, unfortunately, I'm
[5:16] Speaker 1: a lot better. But you know, like I think, for one,
[5:19] Speaker 1: one thing for myself, I think, which really gets me
[5:21] Speaker 1: vice perspective, like there's so many more people worse off
[5:25] Speaker 1: in this world. For me, you know, I've got good friends,
[5:29] Speaker 1: good family, I've got roof over my head, and I've
[5:33] Speaker 1: got it so much better compared to a lot of people.
[5:35] Speaker 1: So that's I guess that's how I sort of get by,
[5:39] Speaker 1: and you know, learning from my sixteen years have been
[5:44] Speaker 1: around my mum sort of treat how she went about
[5:49] Speaker 1: life towards other people.
[5:50] Speaker 2: So Danny realizes his mum was no angel, as has
[6:09] Speaker 2: been stated before by police and even Lily. She was
[6:13] Speaker 2: a little transient, like she's like weed.
[6:17] Speaker 1: But I never really I never found out about like
[6:22] Speaker 1: the heroine sort of stuff until the inquest. Like I remember,
[6:28] Speaker 1: like at home in Melbourne, she'd have like these spoons
[6:32] Speaker 1: and needles and all that sort of stuff, and she was saying,
[6:34] Speaker 1: it's subspider bite. Mum had a got bit bus byers
[6:38] Speaker 1: a lot, so she's sort of like if you got
[6:40] Speaker 1: like a supider bite. She sort of I got bit one.
[6:42] Speaker 1: She used one of a syringe and then sort of
[6:44] Speaker 1: sort of stucked it out like that. But yeah, I
[6:47] Speaker 1: wasn't really aware of the that the I guess, the
[6:52] Speaker 1: heaviest sort of stuff like heroin until the inquest, which
[6:56] Speaker 1: is a bit sort of taken her back because I
[6:57] Speaker 1: know how how bad that can effect you know, people
[7:04] Speaker 1: and that sort of stuff. So that was a bit
[7:06] Speaker 1: sort of confront him when I first found that out.
[7:08] Speaker 1: Because parents are pretty it's not a good drug sort
[7:12] Speaker 1: of thing.
[7:12] Speaker 2: So how close were you when your mum went missing
[7:19] Speaker 2: to your other brothers Allen and Tim.
[7:23] Speaker 1: We're always close, you know, especially liked him. We always
[7:28] Speaker 1: played sport, We played cricket, foot year tennis. Alan, we're
[7:33] Speaker 1: like Alan was sort of I guess the protector in
[7:37] Speaker 1: a way, and I guess when mum disappeared, it's pretty
[7:41] Speaker 1: much she was like the Gloys because after you disappeared, Like,
[7:45] Speaker 1: you know, Jim's been in a jail a few times.
[7:49] Speaker 1: I know he does. He's on icens, says my brother.
[7:54] Speaker 2: And how's your relationship with him?
[7:55] Speaker 1: Now? With Alan and Tim, I think I was. I
[7:59] Speaker 1: thought I thought Alan was in two thousand and maybe
[8:06] Speaker 1: he'd just been beaten up really badly. He got jumped
[8:12] Speaker 1: and pretty much got beaten too an into his life,
[8:14] Speaker 1: like he got my jumped baseball bats and all that
[8:17] Speaker 1: sort of stuff. And apparently he was very lucky, very
[8:20] Speaker 1: lucky to survive that. And I took him out to
[8:24] Speaker 1: the pub for lunch and that was it. And Tim
[8:31] Speaker 1: got nothing to do with Tim twenty seventeen, when he,
[8:36] Speaker 1: after his first stint in jail, came over to my
[8:40] Speaker 1: house on one time and had a few beers n
[8:42] Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. And I think it was a
[8:44] Speaker 1: day or so later he's called me up and he's
[8:46] Speaker 1: like asking for money, and and I'm more more way
[8:48] Speaker 1: to work. I'm pretty much now at work and he
[8:51] Speaker 1: calls me up. So he got your money, I'm up, Yeah,
[8:54] Speaker 1: there's I've got some cash on my bedroom table. I
[8:58] Speaker 1: think it was a couple hundred dollars or whatever. And
[9:00] Speaker 1: my back doors open, so I had an apartment with
[9:03] Speaker 1: the house mate. I was like, yeah, my back or
[9:05] Speaker 1: side doors open, so it took the obviously had the cash,
[9:09] Speaker 1: and then he found he found some more money. He
[9:11] Speaker 1: found some more pretty much crashed my house and might
[9:14] Speaker 1: robbed me and my housemates. So he found some more money.
[9:19] Speaker 1: I had a tablet that he stole, and then he
[9:21] Speaker 1: took my what my housemates watching his spare iPhone. So
[9:26] Speaker 1: ever since then, I've sort of dust my hands off with.
[9:28] Speaker 2: Him, and Daddy has not spoken to his brothers for years.
[9:35] Speaker 2: Lily has also struggled to get hold of Alan.
[9:38] Speaker 5: I tried it on a couple occasions to get him
[9:42] Speaker 5: to come and like to talk to the police, but
[9:49] Speaker 5: both times he refused, and his state of mind is
[9:55] Speaker 5: not what I would call from from my standpoint anyway.
[9:59] Speaker 5: His state of mind wasn't exactly stable, we'll say, and
[10:07] Speaker 5: he seemed a bit overly aggressive towards towards me. So
[10:12] Speaker 5: it's just it's better if I just stayed away.
[10:15] Speaker 2: Lily sent me a Facebook connection to her brother Allan,
[10:19] Speaker 2: so we reached out via Facebook messenger to see if
[10:22] Speaker 2: Alan would be willing to give his side of a
[10:25] Speaker 2: story that's lasted fifteen years. Alan isn't very active on Facebook.
[10:30] Speaker 2: He last updated his profile in October twenty nineteen, and
[10:35] Speaker 2: it's not one of the most complementary photos and actually
[10:38] Speaker 2: looks quite scary. Danny doesn't like my chances of hearing back.
[10:43] Speaker 2: I've reached out to Alan via Facebook via messenger and yeah,
[10:47] Speaker 2: good luck with that, and sent him a text what
[10:49] Speaker 2: do you think my response will be?
[10:52] Speaker 1: Good luck? If you do, I'll give you two hundred bucks. Yeah,
[10:56] Speaker 1: he's impossible to get a hold of them.
[10:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie O'Shea's disappearance feels like it's ripped this family apart.
[11:05] Speaker 1: Mum was the glue and since she disappeared, it's just,
[11:11] Speaker 1: you know, a lot of things have happened between Alan Timmy.
[11:16] Speaker 1: I haven't really bridget I know, I think I think
[11:19] Speaker 1: she's I don't really speak to her much, but I
[11:22] Speaker 1: think she's doing okay. So she'd keep the head out
[11:24] Speaker 1: of trouble, which is good. But yeah, Alan and Timmy
[11:27] Speaker 1: is sort of Yeah, they've gone down the wrong path
[11:32] Speaker 1: in a way. It's pretty shitty, but there's nothing you
[11:36] Speaker 1: can really do. You just try and do the best
[11:40] Speaker 1: you possibly can, be the best person you can be.
[11:42] Speaker 1: And I know, looking down, I know Mum would be
[11:45] Speaker 1: proud of what I'm doing. And yeah, you can't really
[11:49] Speaker 1: control anyone else. You can control yourself and do what
[11:53] Speaker 1: do the right thing.
[11:55] Speaker 5: I think that's it's definitely fractured us, but I think
[12:04] Speaker 5: it's it's not irreparable.
[12:11] Speaker 1: You know.
[12:11] Speaker 5: I try and be there for her, for all my
[12:14] Speaker 5: siblings because I love them matter what. So yeah, I
[12:20] Speaker 5: think it's just I think it's actually isolated us from
[12:26] Speaker 5: I guess the rest of the world a little bit
[12:27] Speaker 5: as well. We sort of we tend to keep people,
[12:30] Speaker 5: we all do. We tend to keep people a little
[12:32] Speaker 5: bit of an arms reach. Now.
[12:34] Speaker 2: Much like Lily, Danny also believes that foul play was
[12:38] Speaker 2: involved in his mum's disappearance.
[12:43] Speaker 1: Oh, I know for a fact that nothing's happened. She's
[12:49] Speaker 1: not the kind of person that runs away like that,
[12:53] Speaker 1: especially from the main The main reason she was there
[12:55] Speaker 1: was to see the birth, be there for the birth
[12:58] Speaker 1: of our first kid. She's so excited about it, Like
[13:01] Speaker 1: it's definitely wasn't in her nature to run away like that.
[13:05] Speaker 1: Is it a nature to sort of disappear for a
[13:06] Speaker 1: nine or so do whatever, But definitely not in a
[13:11] Speaker 1: way that she just sort of disappear off the face here.
[13:14] Speaker 2: So she didn't disappear. Then you're thinking something on towards
[13:18] Speaker 2: happened to her.
[13:19] Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, I can. I can put my life on
[13:23] Speaker 1: if something's happened. So I'm that certain that that's the
[13:27] Speaker 1: way that's happened.
[13:28] Speaker 2: And we've talked about this a lot in the podcast.
[13:30] Speaker 2: There are two persons of interest that the police have
[13:33] Speaker 2: looked at over the last fifteen years. One of them
[13:37] Speaker 2: is your brother Alan. Yep, how possible do you think
[13:41] Speaker 2: that is.
[13:43] Speaker 1: Kind of wind thing out? Really? I guess in a way,
[13:49] Speaker 1: as bad as this sounds, that Alan hasn't been very
[13:52] Speaker 1: cooperative with police. He was the last person to see
[13:56] Speaker 1: her alive, which means that something could have happened, And
[14:01] Speaker 1: I guess in a lot of not just misimpersonal case,
[14:04] Speaker 1: at the murder cases, the person who's been murdered ninety
[14:06] Speaker 1: percent knows from the time the victim nurs the person
[14:11] Speaker 1: who did it and.
[14:13] Speaker 2: The other person that interest is actually in jail right now.
[14:16] Speaker 2: His name is Frank Walk. He's in jail Western Australia
[14:19] Speaker 2: for rape and murder, which he's now appealed and he's
[14:23] Speaker 2: trying to get out of jail.
[14:25] Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen that, which is pretty awful.
[14:28] Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on Frank Walk.
[14:31] Speaker 1: He's definitely not a suspect. I know that he was
[14:38] Speaker 1: friends with my brother and I'm sure when my mum
[14:41] Speaker 1: would have gone up to Queensland previously, I'm sure I
[14:47] Speaker 1: heard that she might have met him like a party
[14:50] Speaker 1: or something. So he's definitely a suspect. So you know,
[14:54] Speaker 1: I know his crimes espectually the rape, knowing the story
[14:59] Speaker 1: of what he did was pretty heinous, and yeah, I
[15:07] Speaker 1: guess the way that if he was the person, it
[15:11] Speaker 1: would not have been very pretty. But yeah, saying I
[15:18] Speaker 1: just want to answers, and.
[15:22] Speaker 2: We set out to tell the story of Katie O'shay's
[15:25] Speaker 2: life and answer the question is she missing or was
[15:28] Speaker 2: she murdered? I don't know if that's any clearer now.
[15:33] Speaker 2: What is clear is the family needs and desperately wants answers.
[15:40] Speaker 1: Let me say what you know, she did everything for us.
[15:49] Speaker 1: She sucksficue so much for us kids, and you know,
[15:53] Speaker 1: to I guess have her gripped away in such sudden circumstances,
[16:00] Speaker 1: You know, you do think about it, As I was
[16:01] Speaker 1: saying before, when I was younger, I really sort of
[16:03] Speaker 1: struggled with it.
[16:08] Speaker 5: I kind of I feel stuck. I guess. I guess
[16:14] Speaker 5: it's sort of like pushing it. Like I always just
[16:17] Speaker 5: think it's pushing like a really heavy rock up a
[16:20] Speaker 5: really really really steep hill, and you're sort of struggling
[16:24] Speaker 5: to make it up, to get to the top. You know,
[16:27] Speaker 5: you take one step forward and then you just get
[16:29] Speaker 5: pushed right back down to the bottom. To bring my
[16:33] Speaker 5: mum home, to lay it to rest. No one deserves
[16:37] Speaker 5: to be buried in an anonymous grave when no one
[16:39] Speaker 5: knows who you are. That's and I mean, ideally I'd
[16:48] Speaker 5: like to bring her home and to get justice for it.
[16:50] Speaker 5: But I guess I want that person to end up
[17:03] Speaker 5: in a little page where I know exactly where they
[17:06] Speaker 5: are for the rest of their lives. I don't believe
[17:08] Speaker 5: in capital punishment. I believe in making them sit in
[17:12] Speaker 5: a jail cell because they've done to our family, They've
[17:15] Speaker 5: put us through a present. We can't do anything. We're
[17:17] Speaker 5: sort of serving a life sentence, so to speak. Dayda
[17:21] Speaker 5: are the same.
[17:26] Speaker 2: We'd like to thank Danny and Debbie Gifford for their
[17:28] Speaker 2: memories of Katie. I'd also like to thank Breck Divine,
[17:33] Speaker 2: who has spent the last fifteen years as a police
[17:35] Speaker 2: officer trying to find an answer for the family, and
[17:39] Speaker 2: finally Lily Palminser, who has dedicated her adult life into
[17:44] Speaker 2: finding out what happened to her mum.
[17:50] Speaker 5: I'm now studying criminology and criminal justice from hairdressing. I'm
[17:56] Speaker 5: still hairdressing, and eventually I hope to join the missing
[18:01] Speaker 5: persons in the federal Police. I guess my one thing
[18:05] Speaker 5: that I've always wanted was to help other families that
[18:11] Speaker 5: have had to have gone through this as well, because
[18:14] Speaker 5: it's not that it makes it worth it, but it
[18:17] Speaker 5: makes it easier by doing it in Mum's name. I
[18:21] Speaker 5: guess rather than just sort of. I want to make
[18:27] Speaker 5: her proud, so I want to help people that I
[18:30] Speaker 5: have to go through this too. I wish I'd told
[18:46] Speaker 5: mum that the kind of mum that she was. I
[18:50] Speaker 5: wish I didn't take her for granted, and I wish
[18:55] Speaker 5: she knew how much I loved her and ironically how
[18:59] Speaker 5: proud of her I am. I just I feel like
[19:05] Speaker 5: sometimes maybe I took over granted. I wish i'd told
[19:11] Speaker 5: her thank you for just being an awesome mum, just
[19:16] Speaker 5: to thank her for everything. There's not a day that
[19:21] Speaker 5: I don't think about it.
[19:26] Speaker 4: You open the sky, Carrie, pull to the mountains, my friend.
[19:38] Speaker 4: You see the lookain wa She'll love me the wall,
[19:47] Speaker 4: She'll love me, and that'll save for you all the way.
[19:59] Speaker 2: If you know anything about the disappearance of Katie o'she
[20:04] Speaker 2: these contact Crimes Shoppers anonymously one three hundred, triple three
[20:09] Speaker 2: triples in it. Thanks for listening to this episode and
[20:22] Speaker 2: supporting this story. Independent storytelling that shapes the world is
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