Jayden Penno-Tompsett - a Newcastle man who vanished in a remote town in northern Queensland on New Year's Eve 2017 - had a "sudden and acute decompression in his mental health", a Cairns court has heard.
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Mr Penno-Tompsett, who lived in Birmingham Gardens, was 22 and on his way from Newcastle to Cairns to celebrate the New Year when he was last seen at Charters Towers, about 130km from Townsville. And now, more than three years later, Mr Penno-Tompsett's mysterious disappearance will be the subject of a five-day coronial inquest in Cairns Coroner's Court in May.
A pre-inquest conference, held on Thursday, heard from Counsel assisting Joseph Crawfoot, who said Mr Penno-Tompsett had a "sudden and acute decompression in his mental health" while he was in Charters Towers early on the morning of December 31.
He said Mr Penno-Tompsett drove a red Nissan Pulsar "erratically" around the town before he was last seen by a friend walking off into a fenced paddock on the outskirts of town.
