This is Daniel Morcombe, who it is feared was abducted and may have been 
murdered after disappearing 7th December, 2003 while waiting to catch a bus for a shopping trip along the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. It was a few days before his 14th birthday. He would now be 17, the same age as my eldest son.
A website has been set up appealing for information and offering a $250,000 reward. It also includes this chilling picture of the suspect. You can watch a video re-enactment of Daniel’s last moments, it is very moving.
Daniel’s fantastic community is ensuring they keep his memory alive and a foundation has been set up in his name by his devastated parents to help continue with their desperate search and educate young people about personal safety, including abduction.
Every 18 minutes someone is reported missing to police in Australia; 30,000 are reported missing every year.
In memory of those who are still missing.
It never ceases to amase me how many people go missing. I wonder what happens to them all.
Ellee – this is the type of campaign that you do best. I only hope that it doesn’t overwhelm you.
Picking up on Tom’s thoughts, we do need solid police work to detect any organised elements behind missing people, and the judicial systems to ensure they aren’t returned to society. This increasingly needs to be global where borders cannot be exploited by those with evil in mind.
We also need a more observant world. The majority of people are appalled by the possibility of abuse, modern slavery, paedophilia – yet it is going on in the places where we live, work, travel or holiday.
The oxygen of reasonable publicity (not the hyper-ventilating indulgence of Sky et al) may increase the flow of intelligent information to the police – and also make it more difficult for evil practices to be hidden.
We should not be paranoid, nor allow the presence of disgusting people to affect our lives any more than terrorists should prevent our freedoms.
But there is only one world – and we need to ensure it is harder for anyone to steal another person. And make it more difficult for those who are deliberately taken away from their families and loved ones to simply disappear without trace. They could be around the corner from any of us.
Good work, Ellee, keep it up. Sometimes we have to do what we can in our own way.
Those that go missing most are the drifters in the US, who have fallen off the grid. No one looks for them, but they are prime targets.
Heather, the horrific facts behind each case of a missing person speaks for itself, there is no need to sensationalise them. What is so striking is the ordinaryness of the situation which led to these lovely children being snatched. If Daniel hadn’t been at that bus stop, would the abbuctor have chosen someone else? There are so many “if only” sentences in cases like this.
I admire the community here who are at least trying to make something good come out of this tragedy. Educating young people about personal safety is so important and, with very young children, it has to be handled delicately. Yet just as a determined burglar will get into a particular hopuse if he wants to, so a truly evil person who has targetted a particular child – which would seem to be the case with Madeleine – will find that split second and do it. “If only .. ” indeed. That’a what the poor McCann family must be thinking all the time.
Thank you for visiting my websites. Please could I have any relevant information on dogs.
What I find difficult to understand is that there are freaks out there who will abduct a child just when the opportunity is presented to them. It is a split second decision to abduct or not so what makes them do it? What goes througf their minds? It was the case in all the Dutroux abductions. These poor girls just happened to cross his path.
Our society is so sick, it worries me. What can we do to prevent such evil? OI do not know.
When Daniel was born he was pure and innocent. A new part of us was brought into this world. When Daniel was abducted a part of ourselves was also taken.. He was born into a society where evil exists and must be stopped. We have formed the Foundation not only to keep Daniel’s innocence alive and to honour our son, but to help other families from ever having this nightmare happen to them and to thank the community for their support.
Our objectives are to keep an ongoing awareness programme for child safety, help other victims of crime where children are involved and to keep the community viligant on Crimes against our children. Children are our future and must be protected. With your help we hope we can make a difference.
Denise, Thank you so much for your comment. I want to do all I can to make people aware that cases like this are a terrying reality because of these evil and wicked people, although thankfully, a very small percentage of our population. As you say, we must do all we can to educate our young about these real dangers. Daniel looks such a beautfiul boy, he has a lovely smile and lovely eyes.
[…] This is how Danel’s father Bruce (pictured with his family) described the nightmare they have endured since their son Daniel was abducted in Australia three-and-a-half years ago, aged 13, in an email to me, after I highlighted Daniel’s poignant case earlier in the week: […]
[…] I hope this story gives hope to the families of young boys like Daniel Morcombe who also vanished without trace. […]
crime stoppers is the only input for info and they messed up big time with my info on the car and person and there is no one else to turn to with info.
Rob, I’m sorry to hear that, so heartbreaking for the family.
[…] The missing – Daniel Morcombe (2) By Ellee Today has been chosen to mark the disappearance of Daniel Morcombe, one of the first tragic cases I highlighted in this series of missing people, and one of the most unforgettable because of the normal circumstances surrounding it. […]