# Ep 3 - Those Left Behind

An episode of [What Happened To…](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1812362613), 26 May 2026, 21 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8c185e62-46f1-4292-81b7-b2d00059655d/4fc38b19-8d10-4c38-a4dc-b450006e929f/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=fcf80ea6-cd25-4daa-b194-b2d000596ad2

Zac's disappearance didn't just impact the family, it impacted those left behind in the community around them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Approche production.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Every year in Australia, over fifty thousand missing persons reports
[0:14] Speaker 2: are submitted to police. A long term missing person is
[0:18] Speaker 2: someone that's been missing for three months. In Australia right now,
[0:23] Speaker 2: there are over two thousand and seven hundred of them.
[0:26] Speaker 2: Zach Barnes has now been missing for almost ten years.
[0:31] Speaker 1: This is Julie. Julie. Julie is a very good friend.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Her son Cam and Zach were best mates. And Julie's
[0:40] Speaker 1: been on this journey along with me, you know, every search,
[0:45] Speaker 1: every event for me, when Zack's friends still turn up
[0:53] Speaker 1: at my door just to drop in and say, hey, Cas,
[0:56] Speaker 1: how you going. And each time they do that, they
[0:59] Speaker 1: bring a little bit of Zach with them, like we'll
[1:01] Speaker 1: have a conversation about some stupid he died or something
[1:04] Speaker 1: they you know, and it shows me what his friends
[1:10] Speaker 1: thought of him. These people are still remembering, you know,
[1:14] Speaker 1: so he obviously had an impact lots of people.
[1:17] Speaker 3: Some of Zach's maze. I think it's just the most beautiful,
[1:20] Speaker 3: bloody humans I've ever met, you know what I mean?
[1:23] Speaker 3: Coming around and seeing my mum may message may you
[1:25] Speaker 3: know what I mean? Like I see every day it's
[1:28] Speaker 3: spend three years, they still message we gon, hey, how's
[1:30] Speaker 3: he work done? So I think they're both aspects and friends.
[1:34] Speaker 3: The only thing to get you through this sort of thing,
[1:37] Speaker 3: you know, the family it's given. But it's really awesome
[1:41] Speaker 3: to say, it's real hard as well, especially when the
[1:44] Speaker 3: last birthday has been like Connor Mollstone birthdays. You know,
[1:48] Speaker 3: I've been looking forward for years for him to hit.
[2:03] Speaker 3: So it's it's awesome and it's all our kicking and
[2:07] Speaker 3: not at the same time.
[2:07] Speaker 4: In Lane.
[2:14] Speaker 1: Twice a year we lose it as a family. May
[2:18] Speaker 1: is when Zach's birthday is and November is when he
[2:21] Speaker 1: went missing, so we just sort of recover from one
[2:24] Speaker 1: and then we get smashed.
[2:32] Speaker 2: On Zach's birthday. What do you do?
[2:35] Speaker 1: So it's a day that obviously it's quite hard for us,
[2:42] Speaker 1: but it's an opportunity to create exposure again and hope
[2:48] Speaker 1: for more information to come through. The first year, we
[2:53] Speaker 1: had three hundred people turn up, and that was certainly
[2:57] Speaker 1: an eye opener because we thought that we were the
[3:01] Speaker 1: only ones suffering. It was our kid and our family
[3:05] Speaker 1: and our problem, and we sort of thought that if
[3:11] Speaker 1: we have this birthday party that Zach wasn't at if
[3:15] Speaker 1: he or the photos and with that all went on Facebook,
[3:19] Speaker 1: and if Zach was out there, he'd go, oh, my friends,
[3:22] Speaker 1: miss me, I've got to go home, and he would
[3:24] Speaker 1: know that it would be safe, or that if we
[3:29] Speaker 1: didn't get a reaction, something's wrong. But when we were
[3:33] Speaker 1: sort of just going through the process of this birthday
[3:36] Speaker 1: and Cody, you'll seat on a video on Facebook, he
[3:42] Speaker 1: catch the whole room and Zach's personality.
[3:45] Speaker 2: This is all he'd.
[3:46] Speaker 3: Ever wanted for a birthday from him there. How are
[3:50] Speaker 3: we ship thank you to everyone in this fucking.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Room, But he'd be fucking threads right now.
[4:03] Speaker 3: But I just really want to really just you would
[4:07] Speaker 3: have made that everything, and thank you so much.
[4:13] Speaker 1: The room broke down. And when I thought that we
[4:18] Speaker 1: were the only ones hurting the kids, the youth, like
[4:26] Speaker 1: there was hundreds of them there, to see them hugging
[4:31] Speaker 1: each other and crying about Zach. It didn't impact us,
[4:36] Speaker 1: only it impacted the community, and it showed there was
[4:41] Speaker 1: a real need, Like no one was counseling these kids,
[4:46] Speaker 1: No one's helping them, you know, like they're all eighteen,
[4:49] Speaker 1: they're all nineteen, they're all in this stage like you
[4:54] Speaker 1: know who's going to help them, like, who helps them
[4:56] Speaker 1: through their grief? And you know, and I was the
[5:00] Speaker 1: strong one that night. I'm hugging all these kids and
[5:04] Speaker 1: being that mum and and it's okay, you know, drop
[5:06] Speaker 1: in and see me. But they offloaded. And even with Mick.
[5:12] Speaker 1: Mick was really against having this birthday. He thought it
[5:15] Speaker 1: was such a silly idea. Why would I do something.
[5:18] Speaker 1: And for all of Zack's friends and the community, total
[5:25] Speaker 1: strangers to acknowledge him and say, mate, we're thinking about
[5:29] Speaker 1: you and made him feel part of it. And for
[5:32] Speaker 1: the first time him and my eldest son Jared broke
[5:37] Speaker 1: down and hugged each other and cried and let that out.
[5:41] Speaker 1: And I was like, this is real. We're really going
[5:43] Speaker 1: through this. So I just thought, from what I've seen there,
[5:47] Speaker 1: not only to try and continue to help to find Zach,
[5:50] Speaker 1: but there's got to be another way we can help
[5:52] Speaker 1: the kids in the meantime, and you know, raise awareness
[5:58] Speaker 1: of mental health with the kids as well. And then
[6:03] Speaker 1: the second birthday we did a similar event. It was
[6:05] Speaker 1: just an open event. Whoever turns up come Zack's birthday,
[6:09] Speaker 1: and again all the kids come and tragically there was
[6:13] Speaker 1: another girl that was of Zack's age that went to
[6:15] Speaker 1: Maitland High and she had taken her life by suicide
[6:20] Speaker 1: and her funeral was the same day as Sach's birthday,
[6:23] Speaker 1: so you can imagine the double bash of grief where
[6:28] Speaker 1: kids were grieving their friend that took their life and
[6:31] Speaker 1: still missing Zach. And then this year we had a
[6:41] Speaker 1: black tie event for his twenty first birthday and we
[6:47] Speaker 1: tried to acknowledge the other missing people and we had
[6:50] Speaker 1: a table of ten of other missing people. So we
[6:53] Speaker 1: had as a statement at an empty table with a
[6:57] Speaker 1: four plarques with a face and their story on the back,
[7:01] Speaker 1: so it looked like they were sitting at the table,
[7:03] Speaker 1: but nobody was was there.
[7:08] Speaker 4: While the police investigation into Zach's disappearance is still very
[7:12] Speaker 4: much on going, Zach's mum is also searching for answers,
[7:17] Speaker 4: which she hopes may come through a coronial inquest. Helping
[7:21] Speaker 4: her achieve that her work colleagues who are helping raise
[7:25] Speaker 4: one hundred thousand dollars for legal fees.
[7:28] Speaker 5: We're prepared to do whatever we have to in order
[7:30] Speaker 5: to get Karen the resources that she needs to get
[7:34] Speaker 5: her the answers that anyone would want under those circumstances.
[7:38] Speaker 1: When I heard that was going to happen, I sat
[7:40] Speaker 1: in the car for ten minutes crying. Put myself together.
[7:43] Speaker 1: I think I can't believe that they would do this
[7:46] Speaker 1: for me.
[7:49] Speaker 5: Blood.
[7:49] Speaker 1: People question why would we raise money for a coronial inquest.
[7:53] Speaker 1: A coronal inquest is generally free, but often have a
[7:55] Speaker 1: body to tell the story and we've only got information
[8:01] Speaker 1: that comes through and we may have to fight that information.
[8:04] Speaker 1: And that's the case, well then we need legal representation.
[8:08] Speaker 1: So people didn't understand that.
[8:11] Speaker 5: My name is Robert Myers. I'm a barrister practicing in Brisbane.
[8:16] Speaker 5: A coronial in quest is based on probability supported by fact.
[8:21] Speaker 5: You see, by the time you get to Corona's inquest,
[8:23] Speaker 5: that all of the statements are being prepared and all
[8:25] Speaker 5: of the people that are relevant and I'm not talking
[8:27] Speaker 5: about everyone that's got a bit of a theory on
[8:28] Speaker 5: how what might have happened to him, but all of
[8:30] Speaker 5: the people that saw him, you know, the day before
[8:33] Speaker 5: up to that evening, and she'd have a right to
[8:35] Speaker 5: appear and to cross examine witnesses and all of the
[8:39] Speaker 5: evidence would come out.
[8:41] Speaker 1: And if it was correlated, really well, well, it would
[8:46] Speaker 1: be easy to go yeah, I think that happened. Close
[8:49] Speaker 1: the case.
[8:50] Speaker 5: If he makes the decision and you don't like it,
[8:53] Speaker 5: you'd take the next step. You can obviously appeal the
[8:56] Speaker 5: decision by going to you probably get a judicial review.
[8:59] Speaker 5: Under the judicial review actually go to the Supreme Court
[9:02] Speaker 5: and say, look, we think there was a sufficient evident,
[9:05] Speaker 5: but they'd have to be sufficient evidence.
[9:10] Speaker 2: In July of twenty twenty five, there was a coronial
[9:12] Speaker 2: inquest in the New South Wales Coroner's Court following the
[9:15] Speaker 2: last episode of this podcast, will update you on the outcome.
[9:20] Speaker 2: How are you raising money at the moment.
[9:22] Speaker 1: So we have a go fundme page find Zach Barnes
[9:26] Speaker 1: and we've had the twenty first fundraising event and we
[9:29] Speaker 1: raised seven thousand dollars from that night. But a barrister
[9:33] Speaker 1: can cost us ten thousand dollars a day, if you know,
[9:36] Speaker 1: depending on how how involved. I mean, the brief might
[9:40] Speaker 1: be an exercise book that might be five you know,
[9:45] Speaker 1: telephone books thick. So we don't know what we're up
[9:47] Speaker 1: against until and that's what we're just trying to get
[9:49] Speaker 1: to that point. So that's what this birthday was all about.
[9:55] Speaker 1: And as a tribute to remember him, and it was
[9:57] Speaker 1: just so heartwarming. It meant meant everything that they made
[10:01] Speaker 1: an effort and total strangers turn up and support it.
[10:05] Speaker 1: Mikayla and Miya sex little sisters. They quiteened the room.
[10:12] Speaker 1: They sang a song for Zach, and they sang the
[10:15] Speaker 1: song Hey Brother by a vincing and yeah, everyone had
[10:21] Speaker 1: sparklers on the table, and yeah, the room was just
[10:25] Speaker 1: silent and for the tears as these two little girls
[10:28] Speaker 1: bounced around on stage and were so proud to sing
[10:32] Speaker 1: for their brother.
[10:35] Speaker 2: Lots of rumors and theories have been talked about when
[10:38] Speaker 2: it comes to the case of Zach Barnes. I wanted
[10:41] Speaker 2: Karen to respond to some of those, like the rumors
[10:45] Speaker 2: around Zach's money situation at the time he went missing.
[10:48] Speaker 1: He did owe somebody money and that was another friend
[10:53] Speaker 1: of his who was of similar age, and that has
[10:57] Speaker 1: been addressed with that person and they have been fully
[11:02] Speaker 1: cooperated with the police. Wasn't love amount of money, and
[11:07] Speaker 1: this person wasn't concerned about the money. New Zach was
[11:11] Speaker 1: good for it, so there was going to be no
[11:13] Speaker 1: one coming after him to collect or anything like that.
[11:18] Speaker 1: So on the Tuesday, he was very agitated, and I said,
[11:23] Speaker 1: do you need money? And he's like, yes, so and
[11:26] Speaker 1: it was only a small amount. It was like a
[11:28] Speaker 1: thousand dollars. So my question immediately would be, if you
[11:33] Speaker 1: don't get this money, are you going to be in danger?
[11:36] Speaker 1: Is somebody going to hurt you? Like, because I'd rather
[11:40] Speaker 1: give him the money than spend ten grand getting his
[11:43] Speaker 1: teeth fixed or something like that. And his direct response
[11:48] Speaker 1: to me was I'm not going to get hurt, but
[11:51] Speaker 1: my friend will. So makes me wonder was he trying
[11:55] Speaker 1: to help somebody? That's my far Because we agreed to
[12:02] Speaker 1: give him the money and he had the money, he
[12:05] Speaker 1: had it when he went to work. He was giving
[12:07] Speaker 1: it to whoever on Friday, and we didn't know who
[12:10] Speaker 1: at that point because he was being a bit guarded.
[12:13] Speaker 2: After Zack went missing, and during her own discovery, Karen
[12:18] Speaker 2: found out he seemed to have been in his work
[12:20] Speaker 2: clothes all weekend, something that felt a little off to her.
[12:26] Speaker 1: He left work on Friday in his work clothes. He
[12:31] Speaker 1: went missing on Sunday in his work clothes. Now, Zach
[12:37] Speaker 1: he liked things orderly. I mean, he started to get
[12:40] Speaker 1: this hippie look going on that made him look a
[12:43] Speaker 1: bit grungy and scrungy, but he boiled his toothbrush. He
[12:48] Speaker 1: liked things orderly. He would not have stayed in the
[12:52] Speaker 1: same clothes or weekend unless he thought it was all
[12:57] Speaker 1: the one day, if you know what I mean. He
[13:02] Speaker 1: was definitely having a big weekend. And you know why
[13:07] Speaker 1: I questioned and doubt, and because I question everything, Like
[13:13] Speaker 1: when I was questioning about the clothes, what clothes did
[13:16] Speaker 1: he have on when he went missing? And then realized
[13:19] Speaker 1: that the same clothes that he had on on Friday,
[13:22] Speaker 1: And then that no one was talking about this big
[13:25] Speaker 1: fun weekend that they were having. It made me question
[13:29] Speaker 1: why was he still in the same clothes, Because Zach
[13:32] Speaker 1: would have had a shower and he would not put
[13:35] Speaker 1: dirty clothes back on, so he would have said to
[13:38] Speaker 1: his mate, give me some clothes. You know, they share
[13:41] Speaker 1: clothes and whatever, and he should have been in his
[13:44] Speaker 1: friend's clothes, but he was in his own clothes. And
[13:47] Speaker 1: when I casually questioned the friends that he was with,
[13:51] Speaker 1: I said, did Zack sleep on Saturday night? And they
[13:55] Speaker 1: said yes, And then I just asked the question, did
[13:57] Speaker 1: he have a shower? And they said yes, So that
[14:00] Speaker 1: sort of sent a red flag to me.
[14:02] Speaker 2: What did Breeze say?
[14:04] Speaker 1: She saw him man work clothes, so the other people
[14:07] Speaker 1: told me he got changed into his work clothes.
[14:09] Speaker 4: On Sunday, Zach was last seen wearing a faded blue singlet,
[14:14] Speaker 4: dark blue board shorts, and work boots.
[14:17] Speaker 1: Which is the same clothes he wore when I drove
[14:19] Speaker 1: him to work on Friday.
[14:21] Speaker 2: There was some talk that Zach fought with his mum
[14:24] Speaker 2: then lost his job on Friday, so I was afraid
[14:27] Speaker 2: to go home that weekend. I asked Karen, was there
[14:31] Speaker 2: a fight?
[14:32] Speaker 1: No, when this girl went and seen Zack and offered
[14:36] Speaker 1: him a lift home because Zach said no, the police
[14:41] Speaker 1: has seen that as confirmation. Well, he must have had
[14:44] Speaker 1: an argument with his mum, and if he hadn't of,
[14:47] Speaker 1: he would have gotten in the car and gone home
[14:49] Speaker 1: with her. So he must have wanted to stay away.
[14:52] Speaker 1: And my question is, well, maybe he was rude to
[14:56] Speaker 1: bree because she may have been in danger and he
[15:00] Speaker 1: wanted her gone.
[15:02] Speaker 4: I hope it was protecting or protecting self.
[15:05] Speaker 3: Maybe I'm not sure.
[15:13] Speaker 2: When you're eighteen year old son goes missing and there
[15:15] Speaker 2: are no clear answers after a long period of time,
[15:19] Speaker 2: you resort to any means necessary to find out what happened.
[15:25] Speaker 2: Over the last three years since Zach went missing, Karen
[15:29] Speaker 2: has received information from all sorts of places.
[15:33] Speaker 1: I'm not chasing the psychics of psychics are coming to me.
[15:36] Speaker 1: I believe in God where Christians have my own particular faith,
[15:41] Speaker 1: but then I'm challenged by this psychic realm, which I
[15:45] Speaker 1: don't want, you know, believe in, and like it goes
[15:48] Speaker 1: against everything I have faith in. But I've been in
[15:51] Speaker 1: positions where I've had people come to me with information
[15:55] Speaker 1: that they could not know. None of this is public.
[16:00] Speaker 1: And one particular event was I was selling a house
[16:04] Speaker 1: in cesnot it wasn't even under my name. It was
[16:08] Speaker 1: listed in one of my colleagues names, so my name
[16:11] Speaker 1: was not there, so no one could have just turned up.
[16:14] Speaker 1: This lady came back, he bought the house, and she
[16:16] Speaker 1: bought a friend with her, and he kept staring at me,
[16:21] Speaker 1: and he eventually came up to me and said, you're
[16:23] Speaker 1: going to think I'm crazy, but I have to tell
[16:25] Speaker 1: you something. And moment okay, he didn't even know my name,
[16:31] Speaker 1: and then he said that he sees things then he's gifted,
[16:35] Speaker 1: and he said, well, I have to share something with you.
[16:39] Speaker 1: And he said, there's this boy and he's been coming
[16:43] Speaker 1: to me for the last week. He's so strong willed
[16:47] Speaker 1: and he's scary. And I said, well, what does he say?
[16:49] Speaker 1: And he goes, he's like he harasses me. He says,
[16:52] Speaker 1: you've got to tell my mom. You've got to tell
[16:55] Speaker 1: my mom. And he just comes back saying that all
[16:56] Speaker 1: the time. And then this goes on for days, and
[17:00] Speaker 1: then the guy says, what do you want me to
[17:03] Speaker 1: tell your mom? And you know, what are you dad?
[17:04] Speaker 1: Are you a spirit it or whatever? And he says,
[17:07] Speaker 1: tell my mum, I didn't commit suicide. And this was
[17:12] Speaker 1: the talk roughly happening at the time, so this was
[17:15] Speaker 1: back in January February this year. And then he goes,
[17:20] Speaker 1: he tells me things, and I said, oh what. And
[17:24] Speaker 1: he starts describing this boy and I was sort of
[17:29] Speaker 1: expecting him to be describing the image or whatever he's seeing,
[17:33] Speaker 1: but he starts describing the dark hair and the olive
[17:37] Speaker 1: skin and the dark eyes, and he's very defined, like
[17:40] Speaker 1: I'm thinking he's describing Cody Zax brother. Before I could
[17:45] Speaker 1: actually say anything to him, he goes, does the name
[17:47] Speaker 1: Cody mean anything to you? He had my attention at
[17:50] Speaker 1: that point. So it's funny to say that because I
[17:52] Speaker 1: was just thinking, you're describing my son Cody. And he said,
[17:57] Speaker 1: he's worried about him. He keeps saying look out for him,
[18:01] Speaker 1: his you know, watch him. And Cody had been quite
[18:04] Speaker 1: traumatized through the whole experience, and sometimes I would wonder
[18:09] Speaker 1: was Cody gonna hurt himself, you know, because the grief
[18:12] Speaker 1: was just all all too much. And I just went okay,
[18:18] Speaker 1: and then I sort of confirmed that Cody was sort
[18:20] Speaker 1: of very vulnerable. And then he goes he shows me
[18:24] Speaker 1: stuff and I said, well, what does he show you?
[18:27] Speaker 1: And he said, I can see him getting into a
[18:32] Speaker 1: gray car. It was a silver car he got into.
[18:37] Speaker 1: That's not public knowledge. And he goes, he got in
[18:41] Speaker 1: the car, and I said, yep, and he has and
[18:43] Speaker 1: I see him running from the car and like, I've
[18:46] Speaker 1: questioned that, and I said, okay, you know, and he goes,
[18:50] Speaker 1: but he gets in the car. He gets in the
[18:51] Speaker 1: car again, I said, is it the same car or
[18:54] Speaker 1: a different car? And he goes, I don't know, but
[18:58] Speaker 1: he gets in a car. And then he said he
[19:00] Speaker 1: can see him in a house. I can see he's
[19:03] Speaker 1: in a house and there's three people there, and then
[19:07] Speaker 1: he describes a man thirty seven to forty. He's very descriptive. Again,
[19:13] Speaker 1: and I've heard this three or four other times about
[19:16] Speaker 1: this man thirty seven to forty from other people with
[19:19] Speaker 1: random stuff that they've sent. And then he said I
[19:23] Speaker 1: can feel him and his heart is racing one hundred
[19:28] Speaker 1: mile an hour and is saying in his head, I
[19:32] Speaker 1: don't want to be part of this. And then this
[19:34] Speaker 1: guy says he starts saying, I'm not like my dad.
[19:38] Speaker 1: I'm not like my dad. His dad got into heroin
[19:41] Speaker 1: and stuff, like, never a dealer or anything, but as
[19:44] Speaker 1: an addict. And that's why I know he's not a
[19:47] Speaker 1: drug addict, because he hated his dad for that. And
[19:50] Speaker 1: I'm thinking this guy could not know that, you know.
[19:54] Speaker 1: And then I said, well, what happens next?
[20:07] Speaker 2: What happened to Zach? If you have information that could
[20:13] Speaker 2: help police, call crime Stoppers on one eight hundred, triple three,
[20:18] Speaker 2: triple zero. Thanks for listening to this episode and supporting
[20:31] Speaker 2: this story. Independent storytelling that shapes the world is what
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