Police are hoping to make a breakthrough in the two decade mystery surrounding the 'suspicious disappearance' of a hitchhiker in North Queensland. Queensland Police are hoping to crack a mystery of more than two decades surrounding the 'suspicious disappearance' of a woman while hitchhiking in the far north of the state. Joanne Butterfield was 37 when she disappeared in June 1998 near the Captain Cook Highway north of Cairns, after telling friends she planned to hitchhike south. Joanne Butterfield went missing after she went hitchhiking near Cairns in 1998 Three days later the embroidered bag she 'took everywhere with her' was found between a public lookout and the bank of a cane train track near Innisfail, about two hours south.