According to Australia’s National Missing Persons Coordination Center, over 50,000 people are reported missing annually, and there are currently over 2500 long-term missing persons. While most of those reported missing are located safely, the long-term ones leave families with unanswered questions.
Who Was Tej Chitnis?
Tej Chitnis was born in Australia to Jayant and Reva Chitnis in 1994. He has one brother, Rudra Chitnis, now in his 30s.
Tej, 21, graduated from Melbourne High School, a strictly all-boys school, and later attended Deakin University in Geelong, studying Science and Biomedicine. Tej planned to study medicine at Monash University after graduating from Deakin. He worked part-time at Officeworks in Vermont South, a suburb of Melbourne.
The Chitnis family resided on Bonview Crescent in Burwood East, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 2016.
The Disappearance of Tej Chitnis
Tej departed home at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, allegedly on his way into the city. He told his family he’d be back later to change clothes. Tej typically drove his silver 2005 VW Golf with the registration number TTF 517 to nearby Blackburn Railway Station, parked his car on a street near the station, and took public transportation to Geelong to attend classes.
Tej planned to be home by 4 p.m. to attend his father’s 60th birthday party, which had been planned months in advance, and texted his family that day saying not to leave without him.
Tej failed to return home at 4 p.m. and never attended his father’s birthday celebration. He and his car have not been seen since.
Investigation
When Tej never came home, his family contacted the local police, who launched an investigation. That investigation revealed Tej’s car was spotted near Green Street in Healesville, about 45 minutes from the Chitnis home, on CCTV footage heading east on Maroondah Highway at 11:34 a.m.
“His Vodafone records show his mobile phone was switched off at 11:26 a.m., but we found out on Saturday there was a ping from his phone near Healesville at 11:49 a.m., so we’re looking around there now,” Rudra told The Age in May 2016.
Police launched a massive search for Tej without success. The Chitnis family and 70 friends searched various locations in Victoria but never found any sign of Tej or his car. Tej’s bank cards have not been used since, and there has been no activity on his cell phone since the day he disappeared.
There have been other sightings of Tej. One was at Berwick Railway Station and another at a McDonald’s in Melbourne. However, police could not confirm these sightings. (Meehan, 2016)
Police said there were no signs that Tej had planned his disappearance or been in trouble. He had a good relationship with his family and coworkers. Additionally, Tej’s father has said there were no signs of depression or withdrawal and that he had a good circle of friends.
Shortly after Tej’s disappearance, his coworkers at OfficeWorks launched a social media video plea for his return. The group played basketball together in Knox at the State Basketball Center, and his friends vowed not to play until his return. (Gough, 2016)
Startling Discovery
Investigators discovered that Tej had not attended college classes since 2014, two years before he vanished. They do not know what he did for the two years he was supposed to be going to school. His parents never knew he quit attending. (Houston and Vedalago, 2016)
“He told us he didn’t know what to do in his life. We told him to take a break. You don’t need to worry about your whole life when you are just 21,” his mother said shortly after his disappearance. (Houston and Vedalago)
Campaign of Coffee Cups
Much like the milk carton campaign in the U.S. in the 1980s, the Missing Person’s Advocacy Network (MPAN) “arranged for the faces of eight long-term missing people to be printed on 100,000 biodegradable coffee cups distributed to cafes around Australia.” (Webb, 2019)
MPAN contacted the Chitnis family in 2017, wanting Tej to participate in a campaign called The Unmissables to make missing persons ‘unmissable’ by connecting families with artists. (news.com.au, 2019)
About 20,000 coffee cups were sold at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) during a Richmond versus Melbourne game and a match between Collingwood and Gold Coast Suns in August 2019.
Author Benjamin Law wrote a short text about Tej on Tej’s cup, about how the missing man loved hip-hop music, played basketball, and loved to make his mother breakfast. Law and local artist Heesco created a mural of Tej on a wall outside the Queen Victoria Market that helped lead to the coffee cup campaign due to the amount of exposure the mural received from the public. (Webb)
Aftermath
After Tej’s disappearance, his family launched a Help Find Tej Chitnis Facebook page. Although it has generated some leads, the page is only active on Tej’s birthday and the anniversary of his disappearance.
There has been little publicity on Tej’s disappearance since the coffee campaign.
If you are in Australia and have any information that may assist Victoria Police in locating Tej Chitnis, please call Crime Stoppers at 1800 333 000 or make an online report (under the category ‘suspicious activity or other crime,’ per Victoria Police).
Sources
Gough, Deborah. ‘Hey Tej, It Is Just The Boys … We Want You Safe.'” The Age via Australian Missing Persons Register, May 12, 2016. Https://australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/Chitnis.htm
Houston, Cameron and Chris Vedalago. “Missing Student Had Not Attended University Since 2014 as Mystery Deepens.” The Age, May 15, 2016. Https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/missing-student-had-not-attended-university-since-2014-as-mystery-deepens-20160515-govlzh.html
Meehan, Melissa. Parents Scour Victoria for Lost Son: ‘We Just Want Him Home. It’s Been Too Long for a Time Out.'” The Age via Australian Missing Persons Register. https://australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ampr/Chitnis.htm
“Missing Melbourne Man Tej Chitnis Featured in MPAN Unmissables Coffee Cups Campaign for National Missing Persons Week.” 9News.com.au. August 7, 2019. Https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/what-happened-to-tej-chitnis/news-story/face1244d49e5e7f3c5bae6d96fe2ae7
Webb, Carolyn. Where is Tej? Devastated Father Hopes Solution Lies in a Coffee Cup.” The Age, August 2, 2019. Https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/where-is-tej-a-devastated-father-hopes-solution-lies-in-a-coffee-cup-20190730-p52c8u.html