A BORDER man’s long-running search for his missing brother may have had a breakthrough.
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Darryl Floyd believes a shoe discovered under tonnes of gravel in an Avoca mineshaft may belong to his brother Terry, who went missing in 1975.
Mr Floyd has been excavating the mine site, believing it’s the 12-year-old’s final resting place.
He has handed the shoe over to police.
The shoe, which Mr Floyd believes was worn by Terry when he went missing on June 28, 1975, was wedged underneath tonnes of gravel and cement dumped down the Morning Star Mine.
Mr Floyd said the discovery at the bottom of the mine was the most significant breakthrough in the historic cold case since he began searching the mine almost a decade ago.
“We have found a small leather shoe – a kid’s sized-six shoe – the same size as Terry and very similar in style to what Terry was wearing the day he disappeared,” Mr Floyd told Fairfax Media this week.
Brass shoelace eyelets on the old shoe have led Mr Floyd to believe it came from the 1970s era.
“Brass hasn’t been used in eyelets for decades,” Mr Floyd said.
Terry disappeared from the corner of the Pyrenees and Sunraysia highways on June 28, 1975.
In 2001, a coroner determined Terry was abducted and murdered, but his body has never been found.
Convicted paedophile Raymond Jones has been confirmed by police as a person of interest in the case.
A $1 million reward is being offered for information in the case, which has haunted the Floyd family for four decades.
Mr Floyd has spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own money, as well as several state government grants, in an effort to find his brother’s remains.
A gofundme page has also been set up to help fund the extensive mine search.
Each weekend, weather permitting, the Border man leads a team of specialist miners and volunteers who have dug out hundreds of tonnes of debris from the mine during the search.
Last year a silver chain necklace, similar to the one 12-year-old Terry was wearing when he vanished, was found 42 metres down the Avoca mine being excavated in the search for the boy’s remains.
Investigators said the chain was too contaminated to conduct thorough forensic testing.
Anyone with information about the Terry Floyd case can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.