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Inquest into woman's mysterious disappearance

An inquest has begun in a renewed bid to find answers regarding the disappearance and suspected death of a 20-year-old Perth woman in 2000.

The last confirmed sighting of Parkerville woman Sarah McMahon was of her talking on her mobile and getting into her car to leave her Claremont workplace about 5pm on November 8, 2000.

Moments earlier she had said she was meeting a man in Bassendean at 5.30pm.

Her car was later found at Swan Districts Hospital.

Two police investigations and a review of materials had been unable to shed light on her disappearance despite a specific focus on a man named Donald Victor Morey who had been a friend of Miss McMahon’s who was later convicted of an attempted murder of a sex worker at Helena Valley in 2003.

Evidence uncovered by the investigations had been unable to substantiate a charge being laid.

Today, counsel assisting the coroner, Philip Urquhart said police efforts had previously been hampered by some witnesses’ reluctance to cooperate but it was hoped that the use of special coronial legal powers would lead to more information being made available.

Morey, who is serving time in Bunbury Regional Prison, has been summonsed to give evidence.

The inquest today heard that other friends and associates of Morey would also give evidence including his former boss who claimed to have once found a bag owned by Morey containing rope, gaffa tape, knives and pornography.

Another witness, who can only be identified as “witness A”, had told police previously that they had been called to the home Morey had shared with his former boss one night and been shown Miss McMahon’s body lying on the bed.

The same witness had given previous inconsistent accounts of what happened that night.

Mr Urquhart said that a work diary belonging to Morey had suggested he was servicing trucks between 4pm and 6.30pm on the day of Ms McMahons’s disappearance. But his mobile phone records case doubt on his whereabouts.

The inquest continues.