A Teen Waited at a Bus Stop, Then Vanished Forever. 8 Years Later, an Undercover Sting Finally Revealed What Happened to Him

On Dec. 7, 2003, Daniel Morcombe set off from his family’s home on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The 13-year-old walked less than a mile to a bus stop, planning to head to the Sunshine Plaza shopping center to shop for Christmas gifts and get a haircut, according to a report on the case from the Coroners Court of Queensland obtained by PEOPLE.

Daniel had made this trip more than a dozen times before, but this time, he never made it onto the bus. 

The boy was last seen wearing a red t-shirt and standing at the unofficial bus stop near an overpass just after 2 p.m., authorities said. The bus he planned to catch had broken down. But by the time a replacement bus arrived, it blew past the stop since it was late on its route.

Daniel’s family became concerned when he hadn’t returned hours later and initiated a search for him. Daniel was reported missing that evening, launching one of the biggest police investigations in Queensland’s history, as reported by local news outlets.

“Over 100 police officers were involved in the investigation and over 10,000 individuals were interviewed,” the report states. Authorities also identified over 33 persons of interest who may have played a role in Daniel’s disappearance. 

One of those persons of interest was Brett Peter Cowan, then 29, whose vehicle was seen in video footage traveling near where Daniel disappeared. However, authorities did not have enough evidence to identify Cowan as a suspect at the time. 

The case eventually went cold and Daniel’s parents called for an inquest into his disappearance, which began in 2010. Prior to the inquest, “no account of Daniel’s movements from the Kiel Mountain Road overpass had proven sufficiently reliable to locate Daniel, or to commence criminal proceedings against any person,” the report states. 

During the inquest, Cowan was questioned about his criminal history, which involved sexual offenses against young children. He asserted that neither of the two previous crimes involved violence, per the report.

In July 2011, the Queensland Police Service launched a covert operation into Cowan that resulted in his arrest and confession to undercover officers. Cowan admitted to abducting Daniel after seeing him at the bus stop. He said he’d parked in a parking lot at the Christian Outreach Center and walked down to the bus stop, where he offered Daniel a ride to the shopping center, according to the report.

Cowan said he then drove Daniel to an abandoned house and invited the boy inside to have a glass of water. Once Daniel was inside, Cowan said he sexually assaulted the boy and choked him after he resisted and tried to escape, per the report.

Authorities said Daniel was killed within an hour of being abducted and his cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation. 

Cowan told authorities he put Daniel’s body in the back of his car and disposed of the remains in thick bushland near an old sand mining site, the report states. He later threw Daniel’s clothing and shoes from a bridge into Coochin Creek. Cowan added that he returned to the area a week later with a shovel to dispose of the remaining evidence.

In addition to the confession, Cowan led authorities to where he left Daniel’s remains. “[Cowan] offered no insight into his actions other than saying that he was an ‘opportunistic offender,’” authorities said in the report. 

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Cowan was arrested in August 2011 and charged with Daniel’s murder, indecent treatment and interfering with a corpse, the report states. He was convicted of those offenses in March 2014. 

According to the Australian Broadcasting Company, Cowan was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years without parole.

“You knew if he ran away, you’d be caught. So you killed him. You killed him because you didn’t want to get caught,”  Brisbane Supreme Court Justice Roslyn Atkinson said at Cowan’s sentencing, per ABC.

“Everything you did to that boy is horrific and disgraceful. I’ve seen no evidence in the months you’ve been in this court that you ever felt any remorse for what you did,” Atkinson added.

Daniel was finally laid to rest in 2012 at a memorial service attended by hundreds of people in the region. the The Brisbane Times reported.

Daniel’s parents, Bruce and Denise, have since launched the Daniel Morcombe Foundation to ensure others don’t experience the tragedy they went through. 

The foundation “provides personal child safety education to children and young people to prevent abuse and promote lifelong health and wellbeing,” its website says. “We support educators, parents and carers through the provision of resources and education and also directly support young victims of crime.”

The organization also honors Daniel’s memory through an annual walk known as “Day for Daniel,” which has become Australia’s largest child safety and awareness event.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.