Family of dad who vanished 'see him in car park' 11 years later

A missing father who left home 11 years ago and was never seen again, was reportedly sighted by his family in a car park recently.

Russell Jenkin's wife, Sanie Gillette, and one of their sons, Ethan, claim they saw the missing man walking towards them in a Sunshine Coast car park last summer. Though they did not meet each other and the man remains missing, the woman and her son swear it was him they saw.

Police is now renewing their appeal for information on Mr Jenkin, who was last seen previously more than a decade ago at the home he shared with Ms Gillette in suburban Melbourne.

Russel and Sanie had a fight in September 2006 that led him to walk out of the family home and drive away, leaving his two sons behind - then aged two and four. His car was later found the following day on September 23, 2006, at the Lara football ground, about 40 kilometres away.

However, on a trip to Queensland this year Ethan, now aged 15, saw his father inside a shopping centre car park. Sanie also claims she saw him too but did not approach him because she felt "numb".

"It was a bit numbing ... realising it was him. We could have approached him, but he could have approached us," she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ethan and his 12-year-old brother Charlie were so young when their father left but when Ethan looked up the missing person's poster of his father, he was 100 percent certain it was him he saw in the car park on January 27.

Ms Gillette said."He looked up the missing person's poster and he was 100 per cent positive. There's no reason for him to be there. He may have been passing through, but it was definitely Russell."

she continued: "I've never been in another relationship, so the boys have never had that male figure, but in saying that they've turned out very good, they're good boys," she said.

Mr Jenkin would now be 47 years old and Ms Gillette said she hopes, if it was him in the car park, that he lets the authorities know that he is alive.