Police believe Sally may have been heading for a hike after buying water and protein bars on the day she vanished.
Investigators also released CCTV of the clothes she was believed to be wearing that day: a grey-blue sweatshirt, denim shorts, black-and-white sneakers and a purse.
KNOWS SOMETHING…! – THE SISTE…
SOMEBODY KNOWS SOMETHING…! – THE SISTERS OF A MISSING MELBOURNE WOMAN HAVE MADE AN EMOTIONAL PLEA AFTER RETURNING FROM LAS VEGAS WITHOUT HER.
Sally Contarino’s sisters have returned to Australia after flying to Las Vegas to help search for the missing 26-year-old, with their emotional pleas now at the centre of a growing international effort to find her.
Nearly a month after the Melbourne woman vanished, her family is still clinging to hope, with sister Amy Contarino telling 9News: “We just want our sister home safely.”
The 26-year-old from Officer was last seen in Las Vegas on June 20 during what was meant to be the final leg of her US trip.
She had been due to catch a bus back to Los Angeles and then a flight home to Melbourne, but never made either journey.
Sally Contarino was last seen in Las Vegas on June 20 before she was due to travel home to Melbourne. Picture: Facebook
Her sisters, Amy and Lauren, travelled to Nevada as the search intensified, retracing parts of Sally’s final known movements and working alongside a wave of local support. They have since flown back to Australia.
Amy told 9News the family believed someone may hold a crucial piece of information about what happened after Sally set out that day.
“We believe that somebody out there does know something,” she said.
Police in Las Vegas have focused their inquiries on the area near West Skye Canyon Dr on the city’s northwest fringe, where Sally was last seen after buying water and protein bars.
Her family believes she may have been preparing for one final hike before heading home.
Amy and Lauren Contarino travelled to Las Vegas to help search for their missing sister Sally before returning to Australia. Picture: 9News
A Nevada police K9 unit tracked Sally’s scent part of the way towards nearby mountains, before losing it along a roughly 20km stretch of road.
Investigators and her family now suspect she may at some point have been in a vehicle.
Her scent was later picked up again on a hiking trail, but that lead also ended without answers.
“It’s hard to say whether she made it back down and got a lift back into town or not from there,” Amy told 9News.
The uncertainty has deepened the family’s anguish, with Amy also describing the overwhelming emotion she felt at the thought of Sally being found.
“I don’t know how to express how it would feel to have her back, other than my heart would explode with happiness and relief,” she said.
Police believe Sally may have been heading for a hike after buying water and protein bars on the day she vanished. Metropolitan Police Department
Before she disappeared, Sally had messaged a friend, “I fly back tomorrow”, a detail that has reinforced her family’s belief that she intended to return to Australia as planned.
Sally left her luggage at her hostel but took her passport with her when she went out.
Investigators also released CCTV of the clothes she was believed to be wearing that day: a grey-blue sweatshirt, denim shorts, black-and-white sneakers and a purse.
