Corey O’Connell: Haylee O’Connell’s determined search for missing brother and the discovery that led to him

The sister of a man missing for two years in dense bushland played an intricate role in finding his remains after using a drone to photograph the area he disappeared in. The Sunday Times can reveal how an eagle-eyed Good Samaritan spotted bones in one of the photos posted online, which led police to Corey O’Connell’s final resting place. His death is not being treated as suspicious. Haylee O’Connell had started to believe she may have to spend the rest of her life looking for her little brother. But on Tuesday, Ms O’Connell’s 34th birthday, she received a phone call from detectives confirming the search was finally over. Ms O’Connell has led extensive searches for her younger brother after he went missing while walking on the Brockman Highway in Jalbarragup, near Nannup, two years ago. Her latest effort was to enlist a drone operator to photographically map the dense bushland to capture the area that could not be covered on foot. Astonishingly, this week it led to a stranger finding remains that Ms O’Connell strongly believes belong to her brother. After posting a message on Facebook, calling on anyone who could suggest or provide ideas in the search for her brother, Daniel Wood, from Working Drones Australia, offered his help. Mr Wood flew over from the Eastern States in March at his own cost, and the pair used his drone to snap more than 41,000 images of the area Mr O’Connell was last seen in. Mr Wood did not allow Ms O’Connell to get her hopes up as he had done many missing person searches with drones but had never found anyone. “I’ve got to try, then I can cross it off,” she told The West Australian. “That’s what it’s about when you’re trying to find someone you love, that you start eliminating the things you can do. “Then you can say that you tried everything. And Corey could have said, ‘I know you tried’.” The images were subsequently posted online. The website was only made public last week, and just days later, on Monday, Ms O’Connell received a tip-off from a stranger who had scoured the thousands of images. In a set of pictures, the man had discovered what looked to be bones in the bushland where Mr O’Connell went missing. Ms O’Connell passed the images on to the detectives, and a day later, Ms O’Connell heard back from the detectives as they were on their way to Nannup, telling her that the photo she sent through showed human remains. While talking on the phone, she stared at the supplies she had prepared to take on the fifth foot search for her brother, which she planned to undertake on Saturday. “I was just staring at it like I can’t believe it worked, and I can’t believe I don’t have to do this anymore,” she said. “That chapter of my life has ended, and we as a family can start the grieving process because when someone’s missing, you get stuck.” Ms O’Connell said she believed her brother, who was painfully shy and struggling with mental health issues, had been on his way to Manjimup, where he was living, from Busselton, when he vanished. The last time she heard from her brother, she had received a message saying, “I love you too. I’ll call you after work”. Having not heard from Mr O’Connell for days after that last contact, the O’Connell family were worried but believed the 26-year-old might not want to be found after hearing he was living off the grid with someone else. However, after the police tracked down the man Mr O’Connell was supposedly living off the grid with. It soon became apparent that was a rumour, and he was missing. This prompted a search around Corey’s car — six months after he went missing — where his bag and doona were located. The O’Connell family became increasingly disheartened. Corey’s determined older sister led exhaustive searches for her beloved brother, who she described as a “shy, gentle boy”. They included extensive community searches on the ground and recruiting the help of K9 Trackers Perth before exploring the option of a drone search. Ms O’Connell described how her mind had spiralled and how she dreamt of her brother over the past two years — of the possibilities of what may have happened to him. However, she had always believed he was still where he was last seen. She said one of the hardest parts of her brother’s disappearance was the lack of answers. “When someone goes missing, you don’t get a ‘sorry for your loss’ or friends rocking up delivering food — you’re very lost,” she said. Ms O’Connell expressed her disbelief that the drone images were successful in helping to find her brother. She said, as heartbreaking as it was, she could now begin coming to terms with never seeing her little brother Corey again. “I thought I would have just to live my whole life looking for him,” she said tearfully. “I thought I would have to learn how to live with it. “I’m so grateful for him putting in that time to help. We can’t believe that it worked.”