Are mum and son on 'black magic' boat still alive? The critical missing clue fuelling speculation Freemason pair 'faked' their own disappearance - after daughter denied mother was 'already dead' in final photo
- 'No one' has come forward over second boat man bought before vanishing at sea
- Victoria Police still investigating bizarre disappearance from Frankston wharf
- Felicity Loveday, 83, and son Adrian Meneveau went missing on 'spiritual' trip
- But detectives still have questions more than nine months after the fact
- '(The second boat) is just a line of inquiry that needs to be closed off'
- Comes after daughter denied mother was 'dead' in final photo on board boat
Weeks before a middle-aged man and his elderly mother headed out to sea on a bizarre boat trip and disappeared, he purchased a second, similar vessel from an online salesman.
What for? And where is it?
Those are the questions that have Victoria Police investigators intrigued, nine months after Felicity Loveday, 83, and son Adrian Meneveau, in his 50s, pulled on their life vests and jetted out to sea from Frankston Wharf on December 11, never to be seen again.
Police have said Mr Meneveau was planning to 'cleanse' Felicity - the South African-born former 'worshipful master' of a sect known as the Co-Freemasons - of evil spirits on a three-day boat trip.
Adrian Meneveau, in his 50s, and his mother Felicity Loveday, 83, vanished at sea on December 11. Their boat was later found capsized and a police investigation is continuing
A senior police investigator said 'no one' has come forward with information that could solve the mystery of what happened to Mr Meneveau's second boat, purchased weeks earlier
This is the separate boat that Victoria Police officers found at sea last December. Its discovery brought with it many questions
Four days after their departure, their boat was found capsized.
Their bodies have never been found and family members presume that the pair perished.
And despite an appeal for information, Senior Constable Chris Obst from the Marine Investigation Unit said witnesses are yet to come forward with information about the boat Mr Meneveau's recently purchased.
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'The first boat in relation to the incident, no one's come forward in relation to that,' Mr Obst told Daily Mail Australia.
He added that Mr Meneveau had bought it 'a few weeks prior' to departing Frankston and that police wanted to know where it was and whether it itself had been sold.
The 'mere fact its a few weeks prior to heading out and capsizing and them disappearing' was of interest to the investigation, which is still active, he said.
'it's just a line of inquiry that needs to be closed off,' he said.
When asked if the missing second boat left open the possibility the mother and son could be alive, just elsewhere, Mr Obst said there was no evidence to suggest that may be the case.
'Ghostly' photo: How daughter was forced to debunk speculation her mother WASN'T dead in final photo and just 'pale' due to dementia
It's not the first time interesting theories have surfaced about what happened to the pair.
Earlier this year, Ms Loveday's daughter Christina was forced to debunk further speculation that her mother was dead in the final photo she took.
Months after her loved ones were last seen, Christina went on the record to definitively state her mother was alive when she took the photo from Frankston Wharf.
'For the sake of accuracy, I took the photo and Felicity was very much alive,' Christina Loveday said. Daily Mail Australia accepts that Felicity was not dead in the image.
'She has dementia, and had spent a lot of time indoors, so she generally looked pale, and was mostly napping.'
Last photo: Felicity Loveday, 83 (on right) and her son Adrian were lost at sea during a bizarre three-day boat trip to 'cleanse' Ms Loveday of evil spirits
Ms Loveday's daughter Christina insists her mother was alive and simply clammy and pale when this picture was taken
Christina came forward with an explanation after a report was published stating that investigators had considered the possibility Felicity was dead in the image.
Senior Constable Obst told Melbourne's Herald Sun: 'There are many aspects to this investigation that appear suspicious and strange.
'We just can't rule anything out at this stage.'
Christina witnessed the pair's departure in the small boat - which lacked a cabin or sleeping quarters for shelter.
She raised the alarm after her relatives failed to return home on schedule, with Mr Meneveau reportedly last messaging his sister on December 13 to say they were having a 'good time together' - only to be never heard from again.
Emergency crews after retrieving the boat in December last year
Christina Loveday, above, was the last to see her loved ones from the wharf
The mother and son's first boat was found submerged near Ricketts Point, some 24km north of where their voyage began, on December 15, two days after Adrian was last heard from.
Police launched 'extensive' air and sea searches but could not find the pair.
A single life jacket was found inside their boat.
Likewise, the nature of the ritual the mother and son were hoping to perform remains unknown, but a family friend was told Adrian had been planning to perform a 'spiritual exercise' upon his mother.
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Felicity was once the 'worshipful master' of a Gold Coast branch of the secretive fraternal society, Co-Freemasonry. Co-Freemasonry is an offshoot of Freemasonry which admits both men and women.
A leading figure in the Australian Federation of Freemasons was later quoted saying Felicity's ties to the Masonic Order was in no way related to the events of last year.
A spokesperson said: 'The personal beliefs and practices are in no way associated with Freemasonry nor are they associated with her role as a former presiding officer of one of our Lodges.
'Freemasonry has nothing to do with ''evil'', ''black magic'' and ''cleansing rituals".'
Felicity Loveday (centre) is pictured with other members of the Co-Freemasonry lodge at Southport, on the Gold Coast, where she previously lived
Ms Loveday was known on the Gold Coast for participating in a local choir and yoga, but suffered severe dementia and moved to Melbourne to be with her two children.
Asked earlier this year for her thoughts on claims her mother could be dead in the picture released by police, Christine Loveday said she had 'no control over speculation.'
She said she had been cooperative with the police investigation into her relatives' sudden disappearances.
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Christina was in any way involved or complicit in the incident involving her family members, including their disappearance.
'I have told the police everything I know, and don't wish to discuss it further,' she said.
