Inquest into Ben Chisholm's disappearance on Magnetic Island concludes

The family of a man who vanished from a tropical island in 2022 says the inquest into his death ends a horror four years, while maintaining hope of one day finding his body.

Ben Chisholm, 22, was last seen on Magnetic Island, 8 kilometres off the coast of Townsville, in July 2022.

His mother, Jackie Burgess, this week told a Townsville inquest into his disappearance that her son was full of life and that Magnetic Island was "Ben's island home".

The island, measuring roughly 7km long and 5km wide, became the focus of an extensive, year-long search for Mr Chisholm, which included SES volunteers, Australian Defence Force members, sniffer dogs, cadaver dogs, drones, helicopters and water police.

The inquest heard police trawled through hours of footage — particularly at the island's single port, to see if Mr Chisholm had caught a ferry off the island — and found no strong leads.

The search party found his clothing spread on a rock off a walking track in bushland, but his body has never been found.

He had no working phone at the time of his disappearance, the inquest heard, and he had no money and no bank card.

Drastic change in days before disappearance

Mr Chisholm's sister, Shiralee Rosario, told the inquest she was her brother's closest friend.

In the weeks leading up to his disappearance, she said something changed.

"He was not acting himself," she told the inquest.

"He changed drastically."

She said when talking to him, it was like "the lights were on, but no-one was home".

She recalled incidents in the fortnight before he disappeared, including finding Mr Chisholm asleep in her bed at her unit and awake at what she said were "unusual" hours of the night.

"There were signs that he didn't want to be in his own unit," she said.

Three individual witnesses, who were the last known to have seen him alive, told the inquest that he appeared to be under the influence of something, dishevelled and talking to himself, when they saw him in the Nelly Bay area.

One of the witnesses, Sandra Durie, said she was disappointed at the time it took police to respond after she reported seeing Mr Chisholm.

Ms Rosario told of a similar frustration with the police investigation, which she felt lacked urgency.

Police could not access Grindr account

The island's officer at the time told the inquest that police followed up on every lead but found no evidence of third-party involvement in Mr Chisholm's death.

Sergeant Brendan Nugent said the police investigation could not access Mr Chisholm's social media accounts, including his account on dating app Grindr.

The inquest later heard that police in Australia have difficulties accessing such information from corporations based in the United States because of different privacy laws between the jurisdictions.

The 'slip mark', steep cliffs and deadly snakes

Independent search and rescue academic James Whitehead reviewed the police search effort and said it was "comprehensive".

Dr Whitehead said his brief of evidence included information that a "slip mark" had been found, which led him to believe a fatal fall occurred.

The police officer who coordinated the search told the inquest she knew nothing about a slip mark.

Sergeant Kelly Goddard said the search was through dense bushland, with searchers encountering many death adder snakes, steep cliffs, and rocky crevices.

The presence of snakes delayed the use of cadaver dogs in the search, the inquest heard.

Sergeant Goddard said police "did everything we possibly could".

"This is the only person we've never located. It sits with me every day,"

Coroner Wayne Pennell will deliver his findings at a later date.