The desperate continued search for missing five year old girl Sharon Granites has entered it’s fourth day.
At first light today, Wednesday 29 April, police held a briefing at the search command post on Heath Road near Alice Springs for around 80 people including about 40 civilian volunteers who made up the search parties.
Search Co-ordinator, Senior Constable (SC) Karl von Minden told searchers this morning they were not only searching for the missing girl, but also items of interest such as clothing she was wearing.
“If you do find a blue shirt with white neckline and white arms, don’t touch it, he said,
“Take a photo of it, tell your police officer, if you’re with one and let us know straight away.”
SC von Minden confirmed a crime scene is established in the Todd River near the town camp where Sharon was last seen.
“A crime scene is established in the river bed again, he said.
“We’ve had three-or-so crime scenes yesterday with one still open at the moment…”
While most search personnel were stood down after sunset, police continued the efforts to locate the little girl by utilising police drones throughout the night.
“We continued with drone searching overnight.
“Since it’s been reported, we’ve had people out searching 24 hours. Overnight it’s been drones,
SC Karl von Minden said the the aerial search had expanded to cover around 80 square kilometres while the ground search area was still centred on a 20 square kilometre area around Old Timers Camp where Sharon disappeared from around 11.30pm on 25 April.
By air, we’re approaching the 80 square kilometres, by ground, the search area is around 20square kilometres and approximately five sqauare kilometres has been line searched, going over a couple of key areas from different directions as well, SC von Minden said.
SC von Minden said trying to locate Sharon is the mission.
He said as people on foot, the resources included two helicopters with spotters, search dogs, police on horses, motorbikes and all terrain vehicles (ATVs)
” We’re looking Sharon. That’s our main focus. Trying to locate Sharon is our mission, and has been since her disappearance was reported to us, he said.
Amongst that, we’re looking for items of clothing she might have had and anything, any other item that might be of interest.”
“There’s a number of possibilities we’re working on, and we’re trying to direct our search efforts to accommodate all of those possibilities, so we’re not ruling anything out at this stage.
SC von Minden said at this stage, no thoughts had been given to suspending the the search.
“Some of them (searchers) are fairly weary because its been going for four days but their morale is still high, so they’re still going out there every day, doing what they can”
“Suspending this, or any discussions about that haven’t occurred he said.
“We’re day four, we’re still early days, we’re still searching.”
SC von Minden thanked the public for their support given to the searchers and their continued efforts and urged anyone with anyone with any information, not matter how insignificant it may appear, to call police on 131 444.
