More than 50 Queensland police and State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers are scouring bushland surrounding the Glasshouse Mountains on the Sunshine Coast in the hope of finding the remains of Daniel Morcombe.
The search for Daniel, who went missing in December 2003 while waiting for a bus on the Sunshine Coast, began at first light on Sunday.
It was launched after police on Saturday charged a 41-year-old man over the 13-year-old's disappearance.
The man faces charges of murder, deprivation of liberty, child stealing, indecent treatment of a child and interfering with a corpse and will remain in custody until his appearance in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday.
Daniel's parents Bruce and Denise Morcombe remain hopeful police will locate his remains and provide them with some type of closure.
"He needs to be buried with dignity," a distressed Mrs Morcombe told reporters outside her Sunshine Coast home on Sunday.
Mr Morcombe said Assistant Commissioner Mick Condon told them on Saturday that police had made a major breakthrough in the case.
He said he knew the identity of the man charged and had eyeballed him at the inquest.
But he said there was little to be gained by attending the court hearing for the charges to be officially read out.
"We have already seen the person that has been charged and I'm not sure there is really anything to gain from that (attending court) other than it being extremely upsetting to us and extending that pain," Mr Morcombe said.
"We know who it is and what he looks like and we have already given him the glare."
A police spokesman couldn't confirm reports that the accused was truck driver "P7", who appeared at a coronial inquest in April.
Daniel disappeared from an unofficial bus stop under an overpass in the Woombye district of the Sunshine Coast on December 7, 2003.
Mr Morcombe said nothing related to Daniel has ever been found by police.
"They certainly haven't found any of Daniel's remains or anything significant," he said.
Mr Morcombe praised police and said the person who committed the crime picked the wrong family to do it to.
Since Daniel went missing, his parents have continually sought and gained publicity to highlight the abduction of their son.
"We've said right from day one the person that is responsible picked on the wrong family - we said we would never give up," Mr Morcombe said.
"We're true to our word."
Additional police will join the search in heavy scrub land on Monday.
Rain hindered searchers on Sunday and sandbags have been used to create temporary walkways across a creek.
Front page
RSS Feed