Furnissdale mother speaks about daughter Raelene Eaton's disappearance 43 years ago

But that’s how long 93-year-old Furnissdale resident Jean Eaton has waited so far to find her daughter.

16-year-old Raelene Eaton and her 17-year-old cousin Yvonne Waters vanished without a trace just before 7pm on April 7, 1974, after attending a concert at the White Sands Hotel in Scarborough.

The two teenagers were last seen leaving the hotel in company of three unknown men and approaching a white Holden panel van with Queensland number plates.

Ms Eaton started to worry about Raelene’s welfare when she failed to come back home from the concert that night.

“I don’t think she had ever stayed at her cousin’s place, I thought it might have been an accident or something like that, that’s the first thing that comes into your mind,” she said.

The next morning, she went to the local police office in Bayswater to report her disappearance but she was told she was probably with a man and would come back home in the next few days.

But 43 years later, Raelene still hasn’t come back home. A mother’s worst nightmare.

“It never entered my mind really but I did say to her one time don’t hitch and they did, both of them, to get where they went,” Ms Eaton said.

She said she holds no hope of her daughter being alive, but would like to find her body to have some closure.

“They may have not got in that van and try to hitch with somebody else, there’s so many things that could’ve happened,” she said.

“The police have got exactly what we’ve got: nothing. No leads whatsoever.”

While Ms Eaton was still trying to come to terms with Raelene’s disappearance, she lost her son to an accident, losing both her children in a span of 20 days.

But, she was determined not to let her loss define her.

“We did our little mourning when it happened, it’s another lifetime,” she said.

“You have to make another life, it comes gradually I think.

“I always say that we went into a decline for two years and then we dug ourselves out.

“Just shut the rest of the world out and handle what you can, and don’t blame anybody because who is there to blame?”

Over time, Ms Eaton said Raelene is less present in her mind, however she still answers the phone every time it rings, hoping it will lead her to finding her missing daughter.

“I never let the phone ring without answering it if I can get there on time,” she said. 

Raelene Eaton is one of 1600 long-term missing persons in Australia.

Every year, Zona Club Peel holds a special memorial service at the Mandurah missing persons memorial on Mandurah Terrace to honour the families of missing persons.

The association created the memorial in Administration Park in 2006, after realising there were no places in Mandurah that remembered missing people.

This year’s memorial will be held at 10am on August 3.

During the service attendees will be able to place flowers on the memorial before heading to Tuckey Room for morning tea.

For more information call 0417 998 706.

If you have any information regarding Raelene Eaton and Yvonne Waters’ whereabouts contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report it online at crimestopperswa.com.au.