"That's true. He told me. Family members told me," his son Ian Seeley said.

But he was no standover man.

"No, no. He was a gingerbread man," Mr Seeley said.

"He would sneak in, do something and piss off before anyone knew he had been there," he said.

"No leads. No evidence. He was a sneaky little fellow."

In the 1970s and '80s in south-east Queensland, the Bellino family ran clubs, nightclubs, illegal casinos and restaurants in the pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry era of Brisbane.

However, Mr Mulvihill was known as a jovial, friendly man who played Santa Claus at Christmas and coached football teams at St Marks' Inala and was also a Scout leader.

"He could walk down a dead end and return with two mates," Mr Seeley said.

He was a staunch, determined Catholic.

But Mr Seeley on Friday told again how he, as a 19-year-old, had become involved in Sharron Phillip's abduction by his father, Raymond Peter Mulvihill.

It is this version that has largely been corroborated by detectives and will be put to a new coronial inquest.

Mr Seeley said late on May 8, 1986, he was driving along Ipswich Road, following his father, who was driving his Ascot cab.

Eventually, the pair would drive further west along Ipswich Road to where the cab was stored at night, behind a convenience store on Wacol Station Road at Wacol.

Just before this, they had met outside the Princess Alexandra Hospital on Ipswich Road.

"He pulled up outside the PA Hospital and he had all this cash with him and he was drunk," Mr Seeley said.

He remembered being very worried when he drove off.

"He was in a taxi and he was driving drunk. We got near the (Queensland) Police Academy and he saw a police car and he just took off."

Raymond Peter Mulvihill's Ascot cab eventually drove off Ipswich Road and went down the laneway behind the Wacol convenience store, on Wacol Station Road.

Mr Seeley said he arrived later.

Sharron Phillips had just used a telephone booth nearby. She had just driven a girlfriend home after going shopping and was driving home to her first flat in Archerfield when her yellow Datsun Bluebird ran out of petrol on Ipswich Road.

She was looking forward to a date with a new boyfriend.

She walked down Ipswich Road - towards Ipswich - to Wacol Station Road, near the train station.

"He told me, years later - and I don't know if it's true or not - that she approached him as a cab driver and told him she had run out of petrol.

Mr Seeley said there were police present when he arrived to meet Mr Mulvihill.

"There were police there. Right there in Wacol Station Road. So he said ???You're driving, I'll keep a look-out.

"He asked me to drive my car. The brown-and-white car. The Holden. He didn't own a car at that stage; he just used the taxi or my car.

This car is the old brown-and-white Holden HK sedan, which in 1986 had registration number plates of PES 308. Police want to find this car.

Mr Mulvihill then shifted from his Ascot cab, to Mr Seeley's HK Holden.

He said he had no idea where Ms Phillips was.

"I mean, I had been pulled over by police. I get there and I'm harassed by police. Then I'm harassed by him (his father) and then I'm driving down Ipswich Road."

"He just transferred from the (his) taxi to the Holden," he said.

"Then he drove me home, kicked me out, did what he did to her, came back in the morning and said 'here's your car'."

Mr Seeley said he had heard a "thump" noise from the car, but wasn't sure what it was. He assumed Mr Mulvihill may have received money for stolen goods.

"I knew he was up to no good, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't think he had abducted somebody."

About 12 months later, the brown-and-white Holden HK was sold to a family friend who lived at Goodna, he said.

He still remembers his father drunk and excited with the money.

"And it just so happened to be that this girl who had run out of fuel, was at that phone box.

"She had no idea that this man was as bad as he was."

In May 2016 he came forward to detectives, giving police information about the drains at Carole Park, where police searched in June 2016.

Mr Seeley said he had tried six times to give evidence to police about his father's involvement in Ms Phillips' disappearance.

"I've got six Crime Stoppers numbers," he said.

"And I also went and gave a full three-hour interview with a detective at Hendra Police Station."

Mr Seeley said he understands a coroner's inquest will go ahead, but is sure his father killed Sharron Phillips.

"It's not over, there's a coroner's inquest to go," he said.

"I think it must be really hard on her family. Just reading so much stuff that wasn't true," he said.

Henry Palaszczuk, the father of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and former politician himself, was a teacher before entering politics and had taught a young Ms Phillips.

Mr Palaszczuk said he hoped Friday's announcement by detectives who bring a sad case to a close.

"Today's announcement by the Queensland Police Service is the most significant development since Sharron Phillips went missing at Wacol on 8 May 1986," Mr Palaszczuk said.

"For three decades, Queenslanders have asked, 'what happened to Sharron Phillips?' For the sake of Sharron's family, her loved ones and her community, I hope that answer is close.

"Before entering politics, I taught Sharron at Serviceton South State School. It was one of my saddest duties, as the local of Member of Parliament, to make representations to the Police to offer a reward for information about her disappearance."

Sharron Phillips' family still have doubts.

Her older sister Donna Anderson says without Sharron's body, evidence from the Ascot cab and with Mr Mulvihill dead, it is difficult to accept.

"We just think they are trying to close the case," she said.

Fraud squad Detective Inspector Damien Hansen insisted his team had investigated Sharron's father, Bob Phillips.

He said detectives "knew where Bob Phillips was" on the night Sharron disappeared, when asked if police had checked Mr Phillips' alibi that he had driven to Gilgandra and back to collect a truck.

"We are confident we know where he was. I can tell you categorically there is no evidence that implicates Bob Phillips in this."