Detectives investigating the disappearance of a young woman in remote north-west Queensland suspect she could be actively avoiding police, and may have left the state.
Tèa Wright-Finger, 19, went missing on October 16 at Richmond, about 400 kilometres east of Mount Isa.
Friends dropped the station worker outside town near a blue Toyota Prado, which Detective Inspector Jason Shepherd said had been "fraudulently obtained" from Proserpine earlier in the month.
"[Ms Wright-Finger] did find out the day before [she went missing] that the owners of the vehicle knew where she was — there was a phone call made from Proserpine," he said.
"So there is a chance that was the reason for her taking off the next day.
"That's just one of the theories at this stage."
Footage released
Police have released CCTV footage from the Richmond Roadhouse that was recorded about an hour before Ms Wright-Finger was last seen.
Detective Inspector Shepherd said he hoped the footage would help members of the community identify her.
"We're very concerned, her family is obviously very concerned," he said.
"We've had no evidence to suggest that anything suspicious has happened, but likewise we've had no confirmation of a confirmed sighting of Tèa since October 16.
"I'm hopeful that she is safe and OK and just at this stage avoiding being found.
"But we definitely need more information from the community, because at this stage all our investigations have sort of come to a dead end."
Broad scope
A major land and air search of the Richmond area last month yielded no sightings of Ms Wright-Finger or the stolen car.
"The promising thing for me is that the vehicle wasn't located, which means the vehicle has been moved — and the only reason it can be moved was either by her or third party," Detective Inspector Shepherd said.
"So I'm hopeful that Tèa is still with the vehicle and that her whereabouts are just unknown."
Detective Inspector Shepherd said Ms Wright-Finger was working at a station in the Northern Territory about six weeks before she moved to Richmond.
"So we don't want to confine the community's awareness just to Queensland," he said.
"It is possible that she has gone to another state."
