LOSING DAN

loren searched for her beloved younger brother for five years after he disappeared, and now helps others with missing loved ones

- Emma Babbington

Loren and Daniel O’Keeffe always had the kind of close sibling relationship parents dream of for their children. “There’s two-and-a-half years between us and he was the baby boy – I was besotted with him,” Loren, 36, tells Woman’s Day.

“We had a really similar sense of humour – we were always looking across the dining table and rolling our eyes at the same things Mum and Dad were saying. He was my little sidekick.”

The pair remained close as they moved into adulthood and although Loren admits she remained protective of her brother, she was “really proud” of the young man Dan was becoming.

But at 24, Dan – who ran a successful Brazilian jujitsu academy in Melbourne – was struggling with his mental health. Suffering from depression and anxiety, he turned to Loren for support.

“He became increasingly reliant on me to help and I was privileged to do so. I would have done anything for him – he always knew that.”

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When Dan went missing on July 15, 2011, Loren, then 26, couldn’t comprehend how her brother could have suddenly disappeared, seemingly without a trace.

“We were always very close,” Loren says, “Which is partly why I was so stunned when he vanished. I didn’t feel like I had any hint.”