At Daniel Morcombe's family expense

Qld police say remains are Daniel Morcombe's

• Jamie Walker
• From: The Australian
• August 28, 2011 4:15PM

DNA testing has confirmed bones found at the search site for Daniel Morcombe

belong to the missing Queensland boy, police say.
 Source: Supplied

HUMAN bones found on a patch of swampy state forest north of Brisbane have been confirmed as those of missing schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, ending the seven-year mystery of his disappearance.

Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson announced that DNA testing had confirmed the three bones recovered last Sunday at the search site near Beerwah were Daniel’s.

Forensic scientists in Adelaide had worked through the weekend to make the breakthrough.

Mr Atkinson read a poignant statement from Daniel’s father, Bruce Morcombe, describing the family’s mixed feelings.

“Although we knew in our heart that the search area was Daniel’s final resting place, the scientific confirmation is still enormously difficult to comprehend,’’ Mr Morcombe wrote.
“For seven years and nine months it is that expected shock we have all been waiting for."

Mr Atkinson said the news had a “certain harshness’’ for the Morcombes’, who had fought tenaciously to keep Daniel’s disappearance in the spotlight. Then 13, he disappeared from a roadside near the family home on the Sunshine Coast while waiting for a bus to go Christmas shopping on December 7, 2003.

The renewed search for his remains was sparked by the arrest of Perth man Brett Peter Cowan, 41, who remains in custody charged with Daniel's murder and other offences related to his death and handling of his body.

Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett confirmed that a white four-wheel drive seized on Russell Island, off Brisbane, was part of the murder investigation.

However, the police have declined to describe the bones found at the remote search scene last Sunday, after shoes similar to those Daniel was wearing at the time of his alleged abduction were recovered by SES and police searchers.

Search efforts were again called off yesterday because of bad weather, with Deputy Police Commissioner Ross Barnett saying it is not expected to resume for another 24 to 48 hours.

"Obviously we're keen to resume the search as soon as possible,'' he told reporters in Brisbane.

"We're hopeful that more remains and other forensic evidence will be found; we can't be sure of course.

"As long as it takes, we're not going to walk away from that search until we have exhausted absolutely every area of search that we can do.

"It will be at least several weeks.''

Despite the foul weather, buildings on a ridge in the area where Daniel's bones were found would be searched today.

Mr Barnett said a white four-wheel drive Mitsubishi Pajero had been seized on Russell Island, at Moreton Bay south of Brisbane, as part of the investigation.

At the inquest into Daniel Morcombe's disappearance in April, a witness told of seeing a white Pajero with a vehicle snorkel near the bus stop where the Daniel was last seen.

The Morcombes will make a media statement at 1pm tomorrow in Maroochydore.

Queensland MP, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, used Twitter to urge Australians to spare a thought for the Morcombe family.

"All of us should spend a while today thinking about the Morcombe family. May little Daniel now rest in peace,'' he said.

My View

Media statements released on a Sunday; a lack of news day, usually raise my eyesbrowes as it highlights media massaging and a lack of gravity.

There is no reason why this information could not have been released on Monday...not that it had any urgency any longer as the matter lay with no one been charged for over 8 years.

It disappoints me that the Police Department has chosen to belittle this most distressing family event with releasing the information the way that it has.

Shame on the Minister for Police and the Department of Police for such blatant media management.

Author: Ross Parisi