by Bonnie Collings
As the three year anniversary of her disappearance approaches, Victoria Police will launch a renewed search for missing woman Lucinda Miller next week.
In October 2022 Lucinda Miller went missing in bushland near Neerim South.
It is believed Lucinda, 24, caught a rideshare from Melbourne and after leaving the vehicle, was walking towards her home when she went missing.
There are no known suspicious circumstances, and Lucinda's family are still searching for answers.
An extensive search of bushland at the time with resources including Victoria Police Search and Rescue, SES, and cadaver dogs from Queensland was unsuccessful. More than 50 local residents and emergency services personnel were involved in the initial search.

Lucinda Miller

Detective senior constable Michael Fowler of Baw Baw CIU said police never closed missing persons cases.
"We never close missing person cases, they may remain inactive for a period of time but we don't close them," he said.
"The main investigators who worked on the case three years ago have retired, and there's a new group of experienced detectives working here in Warragul. We appreciate the previous search efforts and decided that it was worth having another look at. Lucinda deserves our attention."
"The lack of answers has weighed heavily on Lucinda's family and the Neerim South community, and we'd love to provide some closure for them," he said.
The new search will be conducted between October 14 and 17 in bushland about three kilometres from the original search area.
Det sen const Fowler said the new search area "wasn't as thoroughly explored three years ago."
"This was an area that was looked at in a minor way three years ago," he said. " A visual search of the bush was conducted from the road, but no in depth search was conducted off road. Because there was such an extensive search done of the area around Ingleman Rd, we believe more of a look needs to be made of this area near Whitelaw Track."

Victoria Police will be supported in the search by SES, Search and Rescue, personnel from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and Australian Federal Police who have canine searching capabilities that are not available in Victoria.
"The Australian Federal Police are assisting us with their technology detection dogs," det sen const Fowler said.
"We're very fortunate to have their assistance and we can't wait to work with them. They have search capabilities that weren't available three years ago. We've got really high hopes that the dogs may be of use to us."
Final numbers for the personnel involved in the search are yet to be confirmed but det sen const Fowler expected  there to be between 25 and 50.

Police asked community members to stay clear of the area during the search.
"There will be a number of residents that reside within the search area, we'll be touching base with them just to see whether we can have a look through sheds and maybe have a look under houses," det sen const Fowler said.
"Other than the residents that live within a kilometre radius around Whitelaw Track, we would ask that other members of the public stay clear of the area for those few days."
"We need to give the technology detection dogs room to be able to do their thing and not get tricked by other smells."
Det sen const Fowler urged community members who had walked in bushland around McDougal Rd in Neerim South, near the intersection of Whitelaw Track in the past three years who may have come across clothing or vodka bottles that Lucinda was known to be carrying, to contact Warragul Police or Crime Stoppers.

Police have created a mock-up of items of clothing worn by Lucinda on the day she went missing as well as the two vodka bottles.

"We call on anybody that's been up bushwalking or trail bike riding, even doing things that they may not want us to know about, like hunting or firewood cutting - if you've seen clothing, the vodka bottles, anything that you think is of interest that we may need to know about, we want to know about it," he said.
"No bit of clothing that you've seen could be too big or too small, we would like to know about it. Any information that may seem irrelevant, may be of great importance to us."
Anyone with information is urged to call the Warragul Police 5622 7111 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.