But the newlyweds were too distraught to speak at a press conference on Wednesday,as police announced a $500,000 reward for information over the suspicious disappearance of Matthew’s sister,Jessica Zrinski.
Police have announced a $500,000 reward for information over the disappearance of Jessica Zrinski.Supplied
It came as police also released fresh CCTV footage of Jessica the last time she was seen alive at a Blue Mountains petrol station,after she accepted a lift from a stranger at a south-western Sydney pub last November.
As her tight-knit family gathered for the nuptials months later,Jessica’s chair was left empty. It was then they were certain something terrible had happened to her.
“She would not have missed it for the world,” Jessica’s uncle Vlado Zrinski recalled,fighting back tears.
“That’s when the whole family I think had a confirmation in our heart that she’s not coming back.”
Dianne Zrinski,left,and Matthew Zrinski,centre,were married and had their first baby only months after Jessica’s disappearance.Steven Siewert
More than anything,Vlado hopes Wednesday’s reward will lead to the recovery of Jessica’s body,so her family can lay her to rest.
“Some vandal that’s abused our family and then discarded her body like she was a dishwashing rag,I think all our family … we’d just like to bring her body and her wandering spirit home.”
Jessica,an outgoing and free-spirited 30-year-old,was in the car park of a pub at Greenfield Park when she was offered a lift by an unidentified man on Monday,November 28,last year.
It was a chance encounter:police say the pair passed each other about 10pm as the male driver was on his way to leave in his blue Holden Commodore.
What happened over the next 24 hours has baffled homicide squad detectives,who fear Jessica met with foul play.
However,fragments of the Commodore’s journey have surfaced in CCTV footage obtained by police.
After leaving the pub it was spotted at 10.15pm travelling through Horsley Park before using the M4 motorway and Great Western Highway to enter the Blue Mountains.
The Commodore next appeared at a Mount Victoria petrol station at 8.50am the following morning,on November 29.
‘It’s an empty chair in a room,it’s a hole in the heart.’
Vlado Zrinski,Jessica Zrinski’s uncle
CCTV footage shows Jessica waiting in the passenger seat while the driver pays for fuel,with no obvious signs of distress.
Where the pair had been throughout the night remains a mystery but detectives are confident the vehicle went off-road and into the bushland:a tree branch was wedged in the passenger side door.
After leaving the petrol station the Commodore is not seen again until much later that day,its driver captured on camera returning to Sydney without Jessica.
The man refused to be interviewed by police and forensic examinations of his vehicle have failed to yield any clues.
Jessica Zrinski,left,has not been seen since November last year.NSW Police
Detective chief inspector Glen Browne said the driver had declined to say anything about his movements in the Blue Mountains or what happened to Jessica.
“We’d like to encourage that man today to also come forward and tell us anything he knows about what happened to Jessica,” Browne said.
In May,police conducted an extensive search of the Hampton and Jenolan State Forests in the state’s Central Tablelands,but again their efforts proved fruitless.
“We’ve done our best to try and predict where that vehicle could have gone given the timeframes that we had,” Browne said.
Jessica was last seen in CCTV footage at a petrol station in Mount Victoria.NSW Police
“They were two areas that stood out to us.
“Unfortunately,we haven’t found Jessica or anything relevant to the investigation during those searches.”
Vlado said Jessica had struggled with mental illness but was a beautiful girl who always had a good word to say about everybody.
“She just loved everybody,always had a smile,always had a hug,” he said.
“It’s an empty chair in a room,it’s a hole in the heart. She was a bit of a wanderer,but she was a big part of our family,an important part.”
He pleaded with the Commodore’s driver,who lived in south-western Sydney at the time of Jessica’s disappearance,to share anything he knew with police.
“To the man that has spat in the face of my family’s grief for a year,I hope he comes forward,” Vlado said.
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