Three decades on from the 1993 disappearance of German tourist Nancy Grunwaldt, Tasmanian police investigating the case — and her family — were recently handed another glimmer of hope.
A tip-off from a member of the Tasmanian public led detectives to search a new area of bushland on the state's east coast two weeks ago, but it found no evidence.
Detective Inspector Craig Fox said the investigation into the 26-year-old's disappearance "has never closed".
"We do receive information from time to time and some of that information we received a number of months ago led us to do a search in bushland on the east coast."
Detective Inspector Fox said police "utilised search and rescue, police officers, did a ground search" of the east-coast area.
"Unfortunately that search didn't give us anything of great value," Detective Inspector Fox said.
"It's a good example of the fact that it's still an ongoing case and as information comes in we act on it."
Nancy Grunwaldt was last seen on Friday, March 12, 1993, riding a red Road Chief Marauder mountain bike south along the Tasman Highway, approximately 5 kilometres south of Scamander.
Shortly afterwards, somewhere along that road, police say the 26-year-old travel agent was killed.
Police were hampered by the fact it was not until six weeks after she was last seen that an investigation was started, giving a possible perpetrator time to hide evidence, and clouding the memories of witnesses.
No trace of Ms Grunwaldt's body, clothes or bike have ever been found — despite extensive land, sea and air searches.
Investigators believe there are two likely scenarios for what happened to her — either she was murdered, or she was hit by a passing motorist who disposed of the evidence.
The recent search, involving about 12 officers two weeks ago, came about directly from information police received from a member of the public.
"We were searching for human remains," Detective Inspector Fox said.
"We were searching bushland where information, that was received a little while ago, indicated that perhaps quite a long time ago, maybe around the mid 90s, there was some human remains sighted there.
"Whether that's related to Nancy's missing person case or something else … we've searched that area and we'd expect there would still be evidence of remains if we were in the right spot."
Police have no further plans to conduct more searches in coming weeks, but they are reviewing more information they have recently received from members of the public.
Detective Inspector Fox is in regular contact with Ms Grunwaldt's family.
"I actually met with family members of Nancy early last week … there was some family members in the state, probably coinciding with the 30 year anniversary. They've maintained contact with Tasmania Police for years."
Detective Inspector Fox said if police ever had any updates to the case "we'll always try and contact them and make sure they don't read it on the internet or be told by somebody else".
Police are continuing to call on the public for help.
"We're always asking for public assistance to get us any information and anniversaries are always a good time to do that," Detective Inspector Fox said.
"Any information, whether you've been sitting on something for the last 30 years or it's something you've heard recently, we'd rather that information come to us so we can check it.
"It might be that one piece of information we've been looking for."
For 30 years, the Grunwaldt family have had no answers to what happened to their daughter and sister.
Tasmania Police are striving to get answers for them.
"I've got a great deal of passion for solving these old cases, firstly for closure to the family and secondly to bring any offender or offenders to justice," Detective Inspector Fox said.
"Sending your daughter or your son overseas on the trip of a lifetime and then never seeing them again, it must be devastating for all the family involved."
In 2021, Tasmania Police announced an increase in the reward for information that led to an arrest from $30,000 to $500,000.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Tasmania Police on 131 444.
