In his series of books on strange disappearances called "Missing 411," investigator and former police officer David Paulides highlights the case of a 10-year-old boy named Damian McKenzie who disappeared without a trace from Australia in 1974. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance were unusual.
During a trip in September of that year, McKenzie and about 40 other teenagers were on a youth camp in the mountains of Victoria, Australia, near Victoria Falls and the Acheron River in Taggerty. The camp, run by the Young Australia League, was meant to be a 5-day excursion for the students to go hiking and participate in outdoor activities. It was well-supervised and had never had any issues in the past. However, this trip would prove to be different.
On September 4, 1974, a group of teenagers, including Damien McKenzie, went on a hike to Steavenson Falls in Marysville, Victoria as part of a youth camp organized by the Young Australia League. The hike was challenging, but the group was closely monitored and all members were within sight of each other. However, at some point during the hike, Damien moved ahead of the group and briefly went out of sight. When the group came around the bend, Damien was nowhere to be found. He had vanished without a trace.
Authorities were unable to locate a young boy, Damian McKenzie, after searching the area and calling out to him. It was as if he had vanished from the earth. When authorities were notified, a massive search operation, involving over 300 people and various agencies such as the police, Search and Rescue Squad, the Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs Search and Rescue Section, the Forestry Commission of Victoria, the Red Cross, and local volunteers, was launched to find him. The search included the use of aircraft and tracking dogs to comb the rugged wilderness. Despite these efforts, the search went on for over a week and was ultimately halted due to poor weather conditions without any sign of Damian being found. His fate remains unknown.
There were some strange oddities during the search, according to David Paulides. For example, he claimed that the tracking dogs were unable to pick up any scent of the boy. It wasn't that they picked up a trail and then lost it; rather, the dogs couldn't detect any scent of the boy at all, and they were confused, unsure of what they were supposed to be searching for. Another peculiar clue, according to Paulides, is that the boy's tracks were found leading up to one side of a waterfall, but then stopped as if he had disappeared on the spot. This is an unusual and mysterious clue, although it is uncertain how reliable it is. An investigation specialist on the case, Valentine Smith, stated: "I have found that there have been several reports of child footprints found a considerable distance from where Damien was last seen. However, all of these messages are contradictory and do nothing. I also read the remarks of Investigator David Polids. He writes that the boy's footsteps suddenly appear elsewhere and also suddenly have strange traces … "
There is growing curiosity about what happened to Damian. Despite the strange disappearing footprints, which may or may not be true, the fact remains that Damian and any trace of him have never been found. This has led to numerous theories about what could have happened to him. One possibility is that he became lost in the bush. The area where they were hiking was hilly and densely forested, with thick brush and foliage that was almost impassable in some areas. Even search and rescue personnel admitted that Damian could have been a few feet away and they might not have noticed him. If he had fallen unconscious, died from hypothermia in the freezing temperatures, or otherwise been incapacitated and unable to call for help, it is possible that the search operation could have missed him.
The issue is that Damian was only out of sight for a short time, so how could he have wandered so far from the group, and why wouldn't he have responded when his name was called shortly after he vanished?
Another theory is that he fell down a steep slope and into the nearby Steavenson River, where he may have drowned. Although searchers thoroughly searched the relatively shallow and slow-moving river and were confident that he was not there, it is possible that they could have missed him.
There is also the possibility that Damian fell down an old mineshaft in the area, which was used for gold prospecting. While all known mineshafts have been sealed off to prevent accidents like this, it is possible that there are more that have been forgotten and are hidden. An even more disturbing possibility is that Damian was abducted, but witnesses say there was no evidence of anyone suspicious in the area, and the terrain would have made it difficult for an abductor to take the boy and then move him far from the scene, with the only easy way to do so being down the trail.
In the end, we don't know what happened to Damien McKenzie. It is puzzling how he could be out of sight for a few moments and then disappear without a trace. We are left with Paulides' statements that there were tracks that disappeared in the middle of the hike and that tracker dogs were completely baffled, but it is uncertain how reliable this information is. Did this boy get lost, abducted, attacked by wild animals, or perhaps fall victim to some unknown forces? Whatever the case may be, the boy was never found and his case remains unsolved to this day.
