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the stuff of nightmares for any parent. Forty years ago, fifteen year old Annastaes (Anna) Banitskas caught a bus to work and hasn't been seen since.
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started her day on Tuesday August 27th 1974 like any other, by getting up and getting ready for work. Her older brother Chris offered her a lift but she turned it down saying she would rather get the bus.
But mysteriously she got off the bus a few stops early and never made it to work.
She is remembered by her siblings, Lorretta, Chris and Peter as a happy and good girl who was dedicated to her family
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'We had only lived in Australia for a few years before Anna went missing,' Anna's youngest brother Peter Banitskas told
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'but she had a good group of friends and as far as I knew she was happy.'
Forty years on and her family are still perplexed as to why their beloved daughter and sister disappeared.
'We haven't given up on her, we're not resigned to the fact that she may be dead,'
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who was just seven years old when she went missing, 'She might be out there and we just want to know if she's okay.'
Anna's younger sister Loretta who was eight at the time, even went to a psychic who told her that Anna was alive and living in the nearby suburb of Doncaster.
'It’s the not knowing that’s the worst.' Loretta Pentou told
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'We just don't know what happened. We don't have closure, we think about her every day.'
'It was a normal rainy day, my brother Chris offered her a lift to work that morning but she said she wanted to get the bus, she got on that bus but a workmate of hers told us that she got off a few stops early to get some stockings.'
She never arrived at work and she was never seen again.
Anna caught a bus from nearby Kingsway Drive, Lalor, on Tuesday August 27th 1974 onr way to her job at Rolex, a factory she worked at near Thomastown
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'We know it’s been a long time, but we still believe there is someone out there with information relating to Anna’s case.' Detective Senior Constable Craig Hall
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Anna's family do not believe she is dead and hope that she will get in contact if only just to let them know she is safe.
'It was hard for our parents,'
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'I was young but I remember the crying.'
The family have also been subjected to many rumors about Anna's disappearance including that she was pregnant and ran away because she was ashamed, and one that she'd met a man and run off with him.
'It was quite weird, we don't have much of her left. She took all of our photo albums with her that day, she said she wanted to show people at work,
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'It's weird that she took them,'
[..]
Anna has brown eyes, black hair and an olive complexion. She was last seen wearing grey pants, a white jumper and brown shoes.
'Hopefully with the help of the public, we’ll be able to give some long overdue piece of mind to the Banitskas family,'
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