Woman missing from Queensland beach town found dead in dunes

September 16, 2026 — 3:20pmThe last four days of Payge Leembruggen’s life are at the centre of a police investigation into the 31-year-old woman’s death near Mackay.Shortly after 8am on Tuesday, a local dog walker discovered Leembruggen’s body in bush growing along the dunes near the Mackay Harbour North Wall.Payge Leembruggen lived about 40 kilometres from Mackay, where she was last seen on September 11.Queensland PoliceDetective Inspector Emma Novosel said Leembruggen was last seen four days earlier near a hair salon on Celeber Drive, in the northern suburbs of Mackay.Leembruggen was mother to a five-year-old boy and lived with extended family in a multigenerational home at Mount Jukes, about 40 kilometres north-west of Mackay’s city centre.“Payge would often travel from her Mount Jukes address to the Mackay city and take up with associates,” Novosel said.She was not living with a partner at the time of her disappearance.Novosel said the investigation was focusing on the four-day gap between the last known sighting of Leembruggen and the discovery of her body.The detective inspector said police had classified the mother’s death as “unexplained” and were treating it as suspicious.Officers had yet to determine a cause of death, but an autopsy had been scheduled.Novosel said police combing the dunes and beach around the harbour wall had not uncovered any clothing or items they believed were linked to Leembruggen’s death.She did not say whether officers suspected the 31-year-old’s body might have been moved after she died.When Leembruggen was last seen, Novosel said she was wearing a white top tucked or tied in the front, white shoes, a red bow or scrunchie in her hair, and “distinctive” red yoga-style pants patterned with dark markings.“She had a small backpack-style handbag, which she was wearing on her back as well,” Novosel said.Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.From our partners