Family members of five-year-old Sharon, who has now been missing for more than 100 hours, have spoken out for the first time and begged for her safe return.
Police allege the “affectionate little girl” was “led away” from an Aboriginal town camp, called Old Timers, on the outskirts of Alice Springs on Saturday night.
They are desperately searching for Sharon and Jefferson Lewis, a 47-year-old man they allege may be involved in her disappearance.
The child’s grandmother, Karen White, issued a plea to NT News for her grandchild’s safe return.
“I want you to come back – grandma missing you,” she said, sobbing.
“Come back home. I love you.”
Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley said on Wednesday that police had established a crime scene by the camp, at a site on the banks of the Todd River.
“We seized a number of items from that crime scene, being a doona and doona cover, the shirt that Jefferson Lewis was wearing – it was a distinct yellow one – and we seized a pair of child’s underwear from that location,” Mr Malley said.
“Those items have now been transported to Darwin and they’re undergoing forensic analysis and I expect to have that back tomorrow.
“It was on the river bank at the back of the camp, so it was pretty close by.”
Sharon’s family were informed about the items of interest “very early on” and are “obviously distressed”.
“It’s a horrible thing that they are going through at the moment and we’re doing the best we can for them at this stage,” he said.
Sharon was last seen wearing a dark blue, short-sleeve t-shirt, with white stripes around the neck and sleeves; and black, boxer-style underwear.
Mr Lewis, who was seen holding a little girl’s hand hours before they both vanished, was released from prison six days earlier and has a history of violent offending.
Through tears, Sharon’s kinship grandfather Robin Japanangka Granites told the ABC that the family was distraught.
“A very terrible thing, a horrible thing, and we wanted to try and see if we could get her back, but we can’t,” he said.
“(We’ve been) crying, crying, and doing what we meant to be doing, and being out there with our family crying… and that’s not what we want, we want to be going out and searching for her.
“She’s only a little baby.”
It is understood that the five-year-old mostly communicates through hand gestures and is unable to speak.
Police believe Mr Lewis, who was recently released from prison, has received help to evade them.
“I caution anybody giving him a hand because, when we do get him, and it’s only a matter of time, you might be in strife as well,” Mr Malley said.
“There’s people in the community that aren’t telling us what we need to hear. That’s really frustrating when we believe that there’s some serious offences that have been committed and people are withholding that information from the police.”
Anyone with any information is urged to call police on 000 and quote reference P26120934, or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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