The family of Janine Vaughan, who went missing more than two decades ago, fear her hospitalised father will die without knowing what happened to her.
Janine Vaughan, 31, vanished in Bathurst in central-west New South Wales on December 7, 2001.
The outgoing and vivacious woman was 31 years old and known for modelling in hair and fashion shows and for playing sports like netball, basketball and softball.
Ms Vaughan, whose family is from Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley, was captured on CCTV leaving a nightclub in Bathurst and getting into a car.
A 2009 coronial inquest found that Ms Vaughan was probably murdered by an unknown person, but the cause of death remains determined as unknown as her body was never found.
Task force established
A police task force was established in 2013 to reinvestigate her disappearance and suspected murder.
In the decade since, the family has issued repeated pleas for help.
But Ms Vaughan's mother and grandparents have since passed away and her sister, Kylie Spelde, said her 74-year-old father, Ian Vaughan, was very ill in hospital.
"My dad had a fall and with that fall he had a heart attack at the same time," she said.
"It kind of hit home for us that, 20 odd years later, my dad is now sick and could potentially pass away and not know what happened to Janine."
Ms Spelde issued another plea for public help.
"It's now nearly 22 years and I just don't understand why the person who has done this hasn't even reached out just to say, 'Look, this is where she is', just so we could at least get some sort of burial for her," she said.
A burden on 'someone's conscience'
Ms Spelde said her greatest fear was that her sister laid in the elements somewhere, as she had not yet been found.
"You would think the person who has done this, or persons, has said it to someone else, so that is a burden on someone's conscious as well," Ms Spelde said.
"So I really don't understand [how] it has gone on for nearly 22 years."
A $1-million reward is on offer for information about the disappearance of Janine Vaughan.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
