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The plea was heartbreaking: “Have you seen my sister?” former McLeod’s Daughters star Simmone Jade Mackinnon asked her 85,000 Instagram followers in an emotional post.
The Aussie actress’ 51-year-old sibling, Kym Mackinnon was missing, having last been seen on a road at Tamborine Mountain in Queensland.
Hours later, on September 1, police confirmed tragic news. Kym had been found dead.
“Police will prepare a report for the Coroner following the non-suspicious death of a woman at Tamborine Mountain,” a police spokesperson said.
“There is no further information at this time.”
It was a gut-wrenching ending. One that led Kym’s daughter Rayne Johnsen to share a moving tribute to her mum on social media.
“Thank you for raising me, teaching me discipline & diligence, driving me to dancing Monday to Friday after school for 15 years, the endless weekend road trips to Byron to visit good old aunty Maggie,” she wrote.
“You taught me how to be an independent young lady and shaped me into the young woman I am today.
“You always believed in me and in every dream and ambition I had. You made me believe that I could do anything, and you were always there cheering me on as I picked up yet another hobby or chased another dream.
“To the showgirl, the dancer, the star.
“You sure knew how to put on a show, both on stage and off.”
Simmone – who played Stevie Hall-Ryan on McLeod’s Daughters from 2003 to 2009 – is understood to have been desperate to do whatever she could to ensure her sister’s safe return.
After learning of her tragic loss, she shared her own poignant tribute.
“The showgirl, the dancer, the STAR.” – Dance in peace Mimmy…. see you in my dreams,” she wrote.
The devastating family loss marks another heartbreaking chapter for the Simmone, who also said goodbye to her McLeod’s Daughter’s co-star and friend Rachael Carpani in December 2025 after the star died, aged 45, following a battle with a chronic illness.
And it comes and a half after Simmone shared candid details about her own health struggle.
It was an ordeal she discussed in January 2025 after she was asked by her postman about why she’d lost her full head of dreadlocks, eyelashes and eyebrows.
“Is it cancer?” he asked her.
Simmone told Woman’s Day that a combination of events – her father becoming sick, her niece being involved in a “horrific” accident and a difficult business venture – had led her to develop alopecia.
“It was scary,” she told the outlet. “No one I knew had lost their hair from stress. Once I came out and said it online though, I realised I wasn’t alone.”
It’s not the health struggle the actress has suffered through over the years.
“I also suffer from panic attacks,” Simmone told Woman’s Day. “I had massive ones on the set of McLeod’s. Since starting a business, living off my credit card, being a single parent and living rural, it’s been hard.”
In May 2021, via social media, Simmone shared harrowing details of one such panic attack – one that hit her as she prepared to portray her character getting her dream wedding on McLeod’s Daughters.
“It was the summer of 2006, a few days before our Christmas holidays. My beautiful makeup artist @jodee_lenainesmith was trying to put me back together and it wasn’t because of the heat,” she shared in an emotional post.
At the time, Simmone’s on-screen character was getting married, but in real life her relationship with her actor fiance Jason Momoa had ended abruptly after six years.
“I’ve always been an anxious and nervous person. Flying freaks me out, I’ve walked out of auditions crying because I couldn’t remember my lines, thanks to my anxiety and public speaking is my greatest fear of all,” the star admitted.
“But even though I’d had anxiety issues, it was nothing compared to what was to come when he left.”
With sister Kym’s daughter Rayne, then aged three, by her side for a while after the heartbreak the star tried to remain strong.
“I never cried in front of her. I never cried at work. I was “playing” a giddy loved-up bride to be, I couldn’t,” the actor shared, adding that she had tricked herself into thinking she was ok.
But when someone told her she looked “better today” and Simmone allowed herself to “feel a little bit of something good”, she was hit by panic.
“I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move a muscle, although the longer it went on, my body started to contort into a weird buckled up shape,” she shared.
“My hands curled up like eagle talons, my toes did the same in my boots. I remember a lot of movement around me but my blood was pumping so hard I couldn’t hear anything but muffled sounds.
“I was sure I was about to die….”
Doctors confirmed what she was going through was a panic attack, and she still doesn’t understand why it was triggered.
“I guess it was my body’s way of saying you may have tricked your mind but you certainly haven’t tricked me and you are not getting through this without “feeling it”,” she shared.
Now, as Simmone mourns the loss of her sister, loved ones are rallying around.
Simmone’s McLeod’s Daughter’s co-star Bridie Carter put it simply in a poignant message to her friend.
“Just want to send you big love. Big, big love. And comfort, and more love. Go gently ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️,” she wrote.
If you or someone you know needs support, help is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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