The nation's missing persons files remain large and mysterious and many individual circumstances were highlighted over the past week - National Missing Persons Week.

Some are believed to have been murdered, others may have succumbed to mental illness while a few are believed to have simply upped and left.

What links them all is the constant grief and pain being suffered by their loved ones, some of whom have not had answers for nearly 40 years.

An estimated 35,000 people are reported missing to police each year, which equates to one person every 15 minutes.

According to figures from the Australian Federal Police, 99.5 per cent of these people are found and 85 per cent are found within a week of being reported missing.

About two-thirds of missing persons are under the age of 18 and most are found at a friend’s house.

►THE MISSING in SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Click the interactive below to see if you recognise anyone.

►THE MISSING in NSW: See if you recognise anyone registered as missing in NSW this year. Click here

►THE MISSING in VICTORIA: Check the interactive below

►THE MISSING in TASMANIA: Click the interactive map below

►THE MISSING in QUEENSLAND: See if recognise anyone. Click here

►The MISSING in the NORTHERN TERRITORY: To see if you recognise anyone, click here

THE parents of Bathurst man Andrew Russell, who was last seen alive in June 2009, believe National Missing Persons Week has been an opportunity lost for them.

They had hoped his case would be included in media coverage of National Missing Persons Week, which ended on Saturday. It wasn't

They thought it might encourage someone to come forward with information about where the 23-year-old’s remains are buried.

Because a man, Tony Simmons, was charged and acquitted of Mr Russell’s murder, technically Mr Russell is not a missing person, and is subsequently not on a missing persons register.

This is despite the fact his remains have never been found. Read the full Western Advocate article