Missing backpacker Owen Rooney’s mum reveals the moment she knew he was dead

A thirst for adventure took Australian Owen Rooney on a dream trip halfway around the world. 

Like a lot of young Australians, the 24-year-old backpacker embarked on a working holiday that brought him to the rugged mountains of British Columbia — the wild west of Canada.

Only Owen Rooney never made it home. 

After walking out of Boundary Hospital in Grand Forks seven years ago, he disappeared without a trace.

In the months following his disappearance, 60 MINUTES joined Owen's family in British Columbia as they searched in vain for their son.

“It is unexplainable,” Owen’s parents Steve and Sharron told 60 MINUTES in 2011. 

“Totally out of character that he would not get in contact with us. He is gorgeous and that is not just a mother's point of view. He is a good boy.”

There were no answers in 2011, and in the years that have passed his fate has remained a mystery. Until now.

Just days ago, Sharron and Steve Rooney confirmed they news they always feared might come; Owen’s remains had finally been found.

Sunday on 60 MINUTES, for the first time, the Rooney family speak to Peter Stefanovic on the emotional turmoil they have endured in their search, and the moment they finally discovered their boy had died.

“One minute you're grieving for a missing person… then you are grieving for a son who has passed,” Sharron tells reporter Peter Stefanovic.

In August 2010, after a year working away from home, Owen decided it was time to return. But before he left Canada he set out on one last backpacking pilgrimage. It was a 4-hour road trip to a music festival called Shambhala, the start of a baffling, ill-fated journey.

Owen, who’d never been a drug user, spent most of that weekend in a medical tent suffering the hallucinogenic effects of magic mushrooms.     

“Are you angry at him for taking drugs?” 60 MINUTES asked Sharron in 2011.

“No, no,” Sharron reaffirmed. “Disappointed he would do that? Yes. Angry? No. I was 22 once too and young and stupid.”

When the weekend drew to a close Owen was due to catch a ride with friends for the four-hour journey home but for some reason he set off on foot — and hitchhiked — in completely the wrong direction. 

He booked into hostels at night and even sent a Facebook message to his mum. He gave no indication of a problem. 

Finally, he ended up in the sleepy picturesque town of Grand Forks, and it was here Owen's mysterious road trip takes a sinister turn. 

In the middle of the night Owen attempted to climb through a window of a random house and the two men inside attacked him thinking he was an intruder.

Owen was picked up by police and admitted to the Boundary Hospital where he was treated for a head injury he sustained in the assault, but before he was discharged, he disappeared without his belongings. 

“He just walked away and nobody has seen or heard from him since,” Sharron told 60 MINUTES. “There has been absolutely nothing.”

The Rooney family travelled to Canada to search for Owen, however the small town authorities were slow to act which only made Owen’s case harder to solve.  

For seven long years the family have been forced to question; did Owen simply go missing in the wilderness, or did he meet with foul play?

On June 10, Owen’s remains were found by members of the Grand Forks Search and Rescue Unit, just three kilometres from the hospital where he was last seen alive. 

This Sunday the Rooney’s tell 60 MINUTES there is still so much to this story that doesn’t add up.

Finding Owen airs this SUNDAY on 60 MINUTES, 8.45pm on Channel 9.