Police scour bushland as search for missing man enters second month

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Police and the SES are combing through bushland near a tropical Queensland city as part of the search for a local man last seen more than a month ago.

Mackay local Wayne Pedro Morseu was reported missing by family on November 10, but was last seen several weeks earlier.

The 71-year-old man is described as First Nations, with a slim build, grey hair and brown eyes.

Wayne Pedro Morseu, 71, was reported missing on November 10.

In an update on Tuesday, police said the search had turned to the bush around West Mackay, but no items of interest had yet been found.

Nobody had been taken into custody over the disappearance, but police continued to speak with people who knew him.

“He hasn’t been seen now since mid-to-late October … [so] we’re treating it as suspicious until we know otherwise,” regional crime co-ordinator Detective Superintendent Darrin Shadlow said last week.

He stopped short of saying he expected the investigation to become a homicide case, but said police had no reason to suspect Morseu had knowingly cut off contact with those known to him.

“We’re obviously very hopeful that Mr Morseu will walk back through the door to his family,” Shadlow said.

“It’s very out of character for Mr Morseu not to have contact with his family – he generally had contact every couple of weeks.”

Investigators established two crime scenes on November 28 – three weeks after Morseu was reported missing – at a property on River Street, near Pioneer River, and Morseu’s home on Griffin Street.

Police declared the Griffin Street crime scene after discovering that someone had moved into the house after Morseu disappeared, and said last week they were no longer investigating the River Street property.

Anyone with knowledge of Morseu’s whereabouts, or information that could be linked to his disappearance, has been urged to get in contact with police.

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