3 months without her. A family’s desperate plea continues for their beloved 60-year-old grandmother, who vanished after going for a walk on the NSW Central Coast. “To the world, she may be missing. To us, she is mum, wife, daughter, sister, grandmother and friend.” Three months on, they are still waiting for one thing: to see her walk through the door again
To the world, she is a missing person. To her family, she is Mum — a wife, daughter, sister, grandmother and friend. Three months after she stepped out for what should have been an ordinary walk, 60-year-old Rita-Marie Collin remains unaccounted for on New South Wales’ Central Coast. Her loved ones continue to hold on to hope that someone, somewhere, holds the key that will bring her home.
Rita-Marie Collin was last seen around 10.45am on Tuesday, 5 May 2026, walking south along Woy Woy Road in the vicinity of Geoffrey Joseph Close in Kariong. She left her home on Tudawali Crescent dressed in denim jeans and a denim-style jacket over a black T-shirt, carrying a white bag. She has not been seen or heard from since.
Police describe her as Caucasian in appearance, approximately 165 centimetres tall, of slim build, with blonde hair and green eyes. Her car remains parked in the driveway of the family home she and her husband have owned for 37 years. Her keys, handbag and wallet were left inside. The bag visible on CCTV is not her usual handbag, and its contents are unknown. She made no entry in the diary she meticulously kept of her daily life for the day she vanished.
The disappearance is entirely out of character. Rita-Marie was the full-time carer for her husband of 40 years, who lives with dementia. In the months since she went missing she has missed his birthday, Mother’s Day and the birth of a granddaughter. Her daughter Amy Collin has stepped into the role of full-time carer for her father while the family waits, day after day, for answers that have not come.
“To the world she may be a missing person, but to us she is Mum — a wife, daughter, sister, grandmother and friend,” Amy Collin said in a heartfelt public appeal. “She is loved, she is missed, and we think about her every single day. We wake up each day wanting answers, wanting to know where she is, and wanting to bring her home. Please don’t let another day pass without coming forward if you know something. Even the smallest detail could help us find Mum and give our family the clarity we’ve been desperately waiting for.”
Those words, first issued around the one-month mark and repeated as the case entered its third month, capture the quiet agony of a family suspended between hope and dread. Amy has described her mother as having “quite literally vanished into thin air.” The lack of any trace — no phone activity that has publicly advanced the investigation, no confirmed sightings after the initial CCTV, no personal belongings recovered in the bush — has left investigators and relatives alike searching for explanations that still elude them.
From the earliest days, the response was substantial. Officers from Brisbane Water Police District led multi-agency searches involving the State Emergency Service, Rural Fire Service, police dog units and local volunteers. Bushland around Kariong and along Woy Woy Road was scoured repeatedly. Respected Central Coast bushcraft teacher and tracker Jake Cassar joined the effort almost immediately. He and other searchers spent long days in the rugged terrain without finding a single trace of the missing grandmother.
Cassar examined the available CCTV images and noted something that has lingered in discussions of the case. In successive frames, Rita-Marie appeared to lengthen her stride and move more quickly, her arms possibly swinging with greater purpose. “It could suggest she was trying to get somewhere by a certain time or that she was trying to get away quickly,” he observed. Whether that reflected a deliberate destination, a response to something unseen, or simply her natural walking style remains unknown. What is clear is that she was not known as a bushwalker or nature enthusiast. Family members have suggested she may have accepted a lift or boarded public transport.
Further targeted searches continued into June. On 17 June 2026, police assisted by the Dog Unit again searched bushland along Woy Woy Road. Detectives repeatedly appealed for dashcam footage from the area around the time she was last seen. Despite these efforts and several public appeals, no breakthrough has occurred.
By early August 2026, as Australia marked Missing Persons Week under the theme “Answers Still Matter,” Detective Inspector Paul Fenwick of the Missing Persons Registry reiterated the seriousness of the situation. “Rita-Marie has now been missing for three months, and despite extensive searches and public appeals, her whereabouts remain unknown,” he said. “Multiple coordinated searches have been conducted across bushland in Kariong and along Woy Woy Road, but without new information, the investigation cannot move forward. We are asking anyone who recognises her description or recalls seeing her that morning to contact police.” Investigators hold serious concerns for her welfare.
The Central Coast community has responded with the kind of local solidarity often seen in these cases. Neighbours, SES volunteers and ordinary residents have walked the tracks and bush edges. Yet the landscape itself — steep slopes, dense scrub and the proximity of Mount Penang — presents challenges. A person can disappear quickly in such terrain, whether by accident, misadventure or something more deliberate. Without fresh information, the search area cannot be meaningfully expanded or refined.
Rita-Marie’s life before 5 May was defined by quiet constancy. She cared for her husband in the home they had shared for decades. She was known in the Kariong and Mount Penang areas. She kept a diary. She left the house that morning without the usual markers of a longer absence — no keys, no wallet, no explanation recorded. The white bag she carried has become one of the few tangible details investigators and family continue to highlight. 
For Amy Collin and the wider family, the months have been measured in missed milestones and the daily work of caring for a father who still asks how a wife of 40 years can simply walk out the door and not return. The emotional toll is compounded by the absence of answers. Hope persists because the alternative is unbearable, yet every day without contact deepens the uncertainty.
Missing persons cases on this scale test both families and the investigative system. NSW Police maintain that the file remains active and that even the smallest piece of information — a dashcam clip, a recollection of someone matching her description near public transport, a detail about the white bag — could reopen avenues that have closed. Crime Stoppers (1800 333 000) and Brisbane Water Police District remain the points of contact. Information is treated confidentially.
The story of Rita-Marie Collin is, at its core, a story of ordinary life interrupted. A grandmother steps out for a walk on a Tuesday morning in early autumn and does not come home. Extensive searches, specialist resources, community effort and repeated public appeals have so far produced no resolution. Her family continues to issue the same plea that has defined the three months since she vanished: she is not just a missing person. She is Mum. She is loved. She is missed every single day. Someone may hold the detail that brings her home. That person is asked, once more, not to let another day pass without coming forward.
As the calendar moves further from 5 May 2026, the Central Coast case stands as a reminder of how quickly certainty can dissolve and how long the waiting can last. Police, family and community remain united in one goal — to locate Rita-Marie Collin and end the silence that has surrounded her since that morning on Woy Woy Road. Until then, the door remains open, and the hope that she will walk through it again has not been abandoned.
