Ross Warren was a weatherman and news anchor for Channel WIN4 in Wollongong when he vanished in July 1989, after a night out with friends.
His disappearance was probed on Thursday by the NSW special inquiry into LGBTQI hate crimes.
Mr Warren spent the night drinking with mates in inner-city Redfern before driving to Oxford Street to meet a colleague, who last saw him driving towards Paddington.
When he failed to show up for work on July 23, his friends reported him missing to police at Paddington.
The pair then searched for Mr Warren and found his car near a well-known gay beat, Marks Park at Bondi.
Mr Warren's keys were discovered on the rocks below the park the next day.
His family and employer knew Mr Warren was gay and friends were aware he occasionally attended beats like Marks Park.
More than 20 per cent of gay hate crimes in NSW in 1989 to 1999 happened at beats, according to a 2005 inquest into Mr Warren's disappearance.
Police were also aware the area where Mr Warren disappeared met that description.
Detectives thought Mr Warren had "fallen into the ocean in some manner and it is anticipated that in the near future his body will surface and be recovered", according to then sergeant Ken Bowditch in a written submission to the inquiry.
Sgt Bowditch reported the airwing and water police searched for Mr Warren's body, but no record of the activity exists.
Assisting Senior Counsel Peter Gray described the investigation into the disappearance as "negligible".
"It was his friends who took action when they realised Mr Warren was missing," he said.
"They, not the police, did a doorknock and spoke with residents."
Mr Warren's body has never been found.
The case was reopened in 2000 when Detective Sergeant Steve Page became aware of numerous letters written by Mr Warren's mother.
Sgt Page's inquiries led to the formation of Operation Taradale and to the inquest.
John Russell and Gilles Mattaini also disappeared in similar circumstances to Mr Warren.
Mr Mattaini was a 27-year-old Frenchman who lived with his partner in Bondi and was last seen walking there in September 1985.
Mr Russell was a barman at the Bronte Bowling Club who lived with his brother Peter at Bondi.
On the evening of November 22, 1989 he went for drinks with friends but after leaving the Bondi Hotel about 11pm, wasn't seen alive again.
It is believed both men were murdered.
The inquiry into LGBTQI hate crimes has been examining the unsolved deaths of 88 gay men between 1970 and 2010.
The latest block of hearings concludes this week.
The commissioner, Supreme Court Justice John Sackar, will deliver a final report in August.
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