Matty

For nearly a decade, Loren O’Keeffe, founder of the Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN), watched Mark and Faye Leveson’s tireless search for their missing son Matthew, who had his whole life ahead of him until he began dating the wrong man...

On Saturday, 22 September 2007, Matt and his much older partner, Michael Atkins, went clubbing. After that night, Matt vanished, and his family began a frantic search. Atkins was strangely unhelpful until Mark and Faye forced him to go to the police.

When police found Matt’s abandoned car and a Bunnings receipt for duct tape and a mattock purchased on the day Matt went missing, suspicion fell on Atkins. A search of his home was videotaped, ensuring important evidence was captured on film.

Mark and Faye Leveson became disillusioned with the police, but finally Atkins was charged with Matt’s disappearance.

When Michael Atkins walked away from court a free man, the Levesons were left in limbo because Matt was still missing. They kept up the search themselves, even buying a mattock like Atkins did, and digging in areas he could have buried Matt.

Under the protection of a Section 61 Certificate — which meant any evidence he gave couldn’t be used against him — Atkins told the court his version of the events the night Matt died. The most important question for the Levesons was: where’s Matt?

When Atkins revealed Matt’s burial site, Mark & Faye Leveson joined the search for their son’s remains in the Royal National Park in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire. In a dramatic moment at the end of the third and final excavation, a bone was found.

Court watchers, fair‑weather friends, and dealing with the media — the Levesons experienced it all. When tragedies like Matt’s disappearance shake families, most are ill‑equipped for the aftermath. What did they learn about justice?