Inquest into the death of Dion Moore

Case Number: 2019/6790

Findings Date: 6 August 2024

Magistrate: Harriet Grahame

CORONIAL LAW | missing person in a remote area; death due to methamphetamine and buprenorphine use; heat and dehydration as contributing factors; police land search and rescue (LANDSAR operation); NSWPF training with regard to working with First Nations communities in missing person matters

Responses

Recommendations

To the Commissioner of the NSW Police Force

a)    The Commissioner examine the Queensland Police Force’s search and rescue (SAR) command structure and consider implementing an equivalent command structure (described in this inquest in the evidence of Mr James Whitehead) within the NSWPF. This would provide for the SAR command assuming responsibility for managing a police response to a missing person report where the person is suspected of being potentially lost or in difficulty in a rural or non-urban environment that may be hazardous owing to its location, terrain and/or the temperatures at the time.

b)    The Commissioner give consideration to providing police in the Bourke local area additional cultural awareness training. The expertise of the Aboriginal Training Coordinator from the Aboriginal Coordination Team in the NSWPF should be sought and the facts of this inquest could be considered as a case study.