A specific zone identified in a community-driven search for the remains of a English child who vanished in Australia 55 years ago has proven to be a mistaken lead, local authorities said.
A volunteer team who used cadaver detection dogs in the quest for Cheryl Grimmer had believed their discovery would represent a breakthrough in the investigation, which has stayed a unsolved puzzle since she disappeared in 1970, when she was just three years old.
But skeletal fragments that were uncovered in the area are from an non-human creature, police said in reply to questions, noting that the operation had "concluded."
Authorities believe the young girl, who had emigrated from Bristol with her relatives, was taken from Fairy Meadow beach in Wollongong in January 1970.
Recent Search Efforts
Thursday's search happened in Balgownie, on a tiny section of forest mentioned in a confession made by a young male.
In the year 2019, a trial of the suspect, known only by a codename, Mercury, who'd been indicted with the crimes against Cheryl, collapsed. The man, in his sixties then, had rejected any wrongdoing.
Legal authorities later dropped charges against him as a judge disallowed the statement he made as a juvenile.
Unsolved Case
Authorities have carried out many searches in the decades since she disappeared, but have uncovered few leads as to what occurred to her.
NSW authorities have offered a A$1m reward for tips on Cheryl's abduction and suspected murder.
Relatives' Views
Cheryl's brother Ricki Nash, sixty-two, has openly discussed what he thinks are errors in the police investigation dating back to the time she disappeared.
Mr Nash was seven then. He final sighting of his sibling in the changing rooms at Fairy Meadow on the day she vanished.
Community Action
A formal request asking the state parliament to establish an inquiry into cases of disappeared individuals overseen by NSW Police, such as this one, collected more than 10,000 signatures this summer.
It was discussed in parliament, but in a response responding to petitioners, officials made no promise to holding an review.
