Where is Daniel Morcombe? | 2. A Dark Place

Summary

The Binge Cases: Where is Daniel Morcombe?

Episode 2: "A Dark Place"

Podcast by Sony Music Entertainment
Episode Date: October 8, 2025
Host: Matt Angel

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Overview of Episode

This episode delves into the aftermath of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe’s disappearance in December 2003, centering on his family’s struggle, the police investigation, and the evolving public response. With insight from Daniel’s parents, police, and community members, the narrative focuses on the emotional chaos that ensued, the intense media attention, and the desperate search for clues—especially the mysterious "blue car" and the haunting specter of known sex offenders. The episode explores trauma, community mobilization, and the shifting tactics of both the family and investigators, culminating in new leads and a pivotal public appeal.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Day of Daniel’s Disappearance

• Description of the Keil Mountain Road overpass and its eerie atmosphere.
  "[It’s] just a flat dirt area and a great big clay embankment on the back of it. A bit of an eerie sort of place, really... all the locals did [use it], and we didn’t think anything different about it." (B, 02:12)

• Daniel last seen at bus stop in a red shirt; parents, Bruce and Denise Morcombe, report him missing next morning.

• Bus company informs police that Daniel wasn’t alone—there was an unknown man leaning against the embankment (03:21).

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2. Early Police Response & Julie Elliott’s Role

• Julie Elliott, an unlikely but effective police media officer, introduces her first days dealing with the Morcombes.
  • Notable for her candid recounting of a sexist encounter on her first shift:
    "He said, 'now I’m going to tell you before we even leave the driveway, I hate women, I hate new constables. And you’re only driving to see how far apart your shirt pops to see how big your tits are.' So I said, 'well, you’re a fuckwit.'" (D, 04:42)
• Julie’s assignment as the family’s media liaison, balancing strategy and compassion amidst grief and chaos.
  • "It was a room full of grief and terror, really." (D, 07:54)
• First emotionally charged press conference with overwhelming media presence (09:01).

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3. Publicity, Media Strategy, and Emotional Burden

• Police urgently need public leads; the Morcombes are pushed in front of cameras to humanize the case.

  • Press conferences become frequent and emotionally demanding: "You have to speak. You are the ones that need to look into the camera and say to everyone in their lounge rooms that your son is missing." (D, 08:18)
  • Denise is initially unable to speak; Bruce remains stoic: "You're not going to get me to cry because I'm like an Easter Island statue." (B, 08:35)

• Growing familiarity between Denise and Julie over time; shared trauma leads to a unique, sometimes unhealthy, bond:

  • "We took to drinking like we’d invented it. We were gold star drinkers. Coping mechanisms just to let all the emotion down at times." (D, 22:56)

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4. Suspects—Focus on Sex Offenders and The Blue Car

• Police quickly look at local sex offenders, especially Douglas Brian Jackway, who had recently been released from prison and owned a blue Holden Commodore (11:11).

  • The "blue car" becomes a crucial yet frustratingly vague lead, with inconsistent witness reports but overwhelming public and familial fixation: "80 to 90 witnesses phoned in to say there was a blue car there." (D, 25:26) "Every blue car that we saw, we’re thinking, oh, my God, that could be it." (B, 25:57)

• Another sex offender, Bill Dooley, claims to have information and is willing to share only with Bruce, leading to an emotionally fraught and ultimately fruitless meeting:

  • "He had identified to me that he had sat in the backseat of a vehicle with Daniel… Dooley replied, 'yeah, he’s dead.'" (C, 32:28; 33:10)
  • Bruce intuitively doubts Dooley’s story and leaves unconvinced (C, 33:26).

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5. Community Mobilization and Search Efforts

• The community rallies: SES volunteers, neighbors, and businesses pitch in. Tim Ryan, a local, shares his account of loss and mobilization: "They were searching far and wide… it wasn’t a couple, it was hundreds." (F, 18:52)
• Tim gets electronic signs displaying "Where’s Daniel?" across Australia, showing national engagement (F, 19:40).

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6. Family Trauma and Coping

• The Morcombe family is deeply impacted:

  • Dean drops out of school, Bradley (Daniel’s twin) is sheltered, Denise feels isolated from friends, and Bruce throws himself into projects while feeling survivor’s guilt.
  • Denise clings to Daniel’s room, maintaining it as he left it. "I’d go in there all the time, just sit on his bed or smell his pillow or look at his clothes. But everything was left exactly the same for a long, long time." (B, 38:26)

• Bruce crafts symbolic acts, painting and placing doors at the site, using them as media stunts to keep Daniel’s memory in the public eye:

  • "If you don’t find the answers, I’m gonna." (C, 37:58)
  • Not all police appreciate the gesture, but it resonates with the public.

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7. Marital Strain and Family Dynamics

• Differing coping speeds and approaches create tension:
  • "He just identified in clear English that Denise and myself were very different people recovering at different speeds… your marriage is heading in a dark place here." (C, 28:12)
  • Bruce is adamant the trauma will not destroy their family: "I would not let the person that had taken our son destroy our family." (C, 29:43)

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8. Nationwide Attention and Breakthroughs

• Daniel’s image is everywhere: pizza boxes, milk cartons, bumper stickers.

• Months pass with thousands of tips and leads, but no resolution.

• In November 2004, "7 News" runs a primetime special to keep public focus high:

  • "Someone told me once that the pain never goes away. You just learn to live with it. That pain’s there day and night. I mean, quite often I wake up crying." (B, 40:16)

• An emotional nationwide “porch light vigil” shows widespread support: "It’s sending a very powerful message to people that want to go down an ugly path… the community won’t stomach it." (C, 41:19)

• Police reveal facial composites based on eyewitness accounts, triggering a flood of calls. One crucial call points to Brett Peter Cowan—a new and significant suspect.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the early media pressure:
  "They were just frozen. And it was a room full of grief and terror, really." —Julie Elliott (D, 07:54)

• On community action:
  "All of a sudden, every roadwork sign everywhere, all over Australia had 'Where's Daniel'." —Tim Ryan (F, 19:40)

• On the family's heartbreak:
  "We were just paranoid. We didn’t want him to leave the house. We just couldn’t let him out of our sight." —Denise Morcombe (B, 21:01)

• On public support:
  "How does it feel to know that there are people out there who care greatly? Oh, it's overwhelming and I think it's very important in our case… the community won't stomach it." —Bruce Morcombe (C, 41:14 & 41:19)

• On the stubbornness of hope and trauma:
  "I’d go in there all the time, just sit on his bed or smell his pillow or look at his clothes. But everything was left exactly the same for a long, long time." —Denise Morcombe (B, 38:26)

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Key Timestamps

• 02:12 – Description of the bus stop and overpass.
• 07:07–09:53 – Julie Elliott’s first press conference and family dynamics.
• 11:11–12:58 – Introduction of Douglas Brian Jackway, the "blue car," and beginning of suspect focus.
• 16:31–21:06 – Community search efforts and Tim Ryan story.
• 22:56 – Denise and Julie’s coping through drinking.
• 24:52–26:47 – Focus on the elusive "blue car" and family obsession with leads.
• 29:43 – Bruce resolves to keep their family together through adversity.
• 32:28–33:26 – Bruce’s interview with Bill Dooley and its emotional impact.
• 38:26 – Denise keeping Daniel’s room untouched.
• 40:16–41:41 – 7 News “Finding Daniel” vigil, public outpouring.
• 42:44 – Major new suspect named: Brett Peter Cowan.

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Conclusion

Episode 2, "A Dark Place," paints an unflinching portrait of the grief, hope, and tenacity at the heart of the Daniel Morcombe investigation. It lays bare internal family struggles, the evolving police investigation, and the overwhelming communal and national desire for answers. The search for Daniel, marked by leads and heartbreak, culminates in a public campaign and a pivotal new suspect—setting the stage for the next developments in this landmark case.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

It's just a flat dirt area and a great big clay embankment on the back of it. A bit of an eerie sort of place, really. I don't know why the boys used to catch the bus there, but all the locals did, and we didn't think anything different about it.

[A]

That's exactly what Daniel Morcom was doing on December 7, 2002. The next morning, Bruce and Denise Morcom, Daniel's parents, reported him missing at the local police station. Sgt. Lori Davison asked them some questions, but the Morcoms didn't know much, just that Daniel had planned to catch the 135 bus to the Sunshine Plaza. Shopping center. He was going to get a haircut and buy Christmas presents for his family. Why he didn't come home that afternoon was a mystery. So Sergeant Davison picked up the phone and called the local bus company. Bruce and Denise couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of that line, but they could hear Davison's side of the conversation. He said something along the lines of, he saw a boy in a red shirt. Did he? Then they watched the blood drain from Davison's face.

[C]

He's gone from a jovial police officer to realizing, shit, this could be real serious.

[A]

Davison hung up and told the parents to return home. But they could tell there was something the sergeant was keeping from them. And they were right. The bus driver had told Davison that the boy beneath the overpass wasn't alone. Behind him, leaning against the embankment, was a man. I'm Matt angel and from Sony Music Entertainment and Campsite Media, this is where is Daniel Morcom? Episode 2 A Dark Place Julie Elliott was sort of an unlikely police officer. Many people joined the force in their late teens, early 20s. Julie was a mom in her 30s. Her first day on the job was.

[D]

Telling my first shift after coming out of the academy and I had some age on me and I had a couple of kids and the sergeant said to me, I'm so sorry, I've got to put you with, Mm hmm. He hates female police officers and he won't let you drive. So we put all our accoutrements on and I get introduced to this buffet and he threw me the car keys and I went, oh, that's interesting. And he said, now I'm going to tell you before we even leave the driveway, I hate women, I hate new constables. And you're only driving to see how far apart your shirt pops to see how big your tits are. So I said, well, you're a fuckwit.

[A]

She said that boofhead asked her out on a date at the end of that shift. No joke. At the time of Daniel's disappearance, Julie was in her late 40s. She was a senior sergeant working in the media unit. Her job was to gather relevant case information and pass it on to the Press. Up until 2001, it was a job for journalists. But Commissioner Bob Atkinson thought that a hybrid unit made up of journalists and police officers might be more effective.

[D]

If police rang from a scene and got a police officer, they gave us more information because they felt we were one of them.

[A]

The cops could then work with the journalists and they'd strategize how best to engage the public.

[D]

After a time that worked really well.

[A]

There was a fax machine in their office at police headquarters in Brisbane. Anytime they heard it power up, it meant something was going down.

[D]

I pulled the facts out on December 8th with that picture that I think all of us have seen of that angelic face. Everyone knew intuitively that this was very different.

[A]

The next day, she was assigned as the family media liaison officer to the Morcoms. She would coordinate talks between police, the family and the press. It was a balancing act. It required strategy in terms of what info should be given to the public, as well as compassion. It was an emotionally chaotic time.

[D]

I was baffled. I wasn't trained in that role in any way, shape or form. The training I was getting was to put together media releases.

[A]

But investigators on Daniel's case needed leads, which meant they needed the public's attention. And to get that attention, they needed the boy's parents in front of the cameras. Someone had to be there to make that happen.

[D]

I think I was picked because I was a mother of two boys, and for some reason, the director thought, well, I'd have a connection with the family. And that was it. I got put in a car and off I went. It was like, hello, I'll do the best I can.

[A]

Her first task was to organize a press conference at the police station. That's where she met the Morcoms for the first time.

[D]

I opened the door and they looked up with such expectation because it was, is this someone coming with some good news? And they were just frozen. And it was a room full of grief and terror, really.

[B]

I thought she was a little bit scary. Being a strict police officer, she hadn't met us before, and she didn't know what type of people Bruce and I were or our family.

[D]

I had the difficult job of saying to them, you have to speak. You are the ones that need to look into the camera and say to everyone in their lounge rooms that your son is missing.

[B]

And I know Bruce said to her, you're not going to get me to cry because I'm like an Easter island statue. And she sort of just looked at him.

[D]

Bruce also has these blue eyes. They were focused. I didn't see emotion because I don't think he was going to allow himself to be emotional. Emotional. He had a job to do and he did it. And that's Bruce.

[B]

Julie sort of said to us, you know, just relax, do what you can, and we'll help you through it. My God. Every meteor in Queensland were there every Camera. Every reporter was in that room.

[C]

Felt like 50 or more was a lot. Yeah, a lot of detectives as well. The room was chock a block.

[B]

Yeah, it was full and was very daunting and very scary.

[D]

Denise just couldn't speak. She couldn't. She literally could not do anything but sit there. I had to corral them into doing something that was foreign to them while they were in shock. And I felt a lot of guilt about that, but I knew that that had to be done the very first time that the horde of media were there because the media loved it. And that's just being blunt and honest.

[A]

Spilling their hearts out in public. It was something the Morcoms were going to have to get used to. Just four days later, they were back in front of the cameras.

[D]

I pushed Bruce aside and said, no, people want to look at Mum and hear her voice. And I'll never forget that day on the side of the road near where Daniel was taken, saying to her, you have to do something very, very traumatic here. And those blue eyes that everyone connected with for years after, you could look into a soul.

[B]

He's getting desperate. We need him back. We want Daniel back.

[D]

I felt so sad for her that I had to push her to that limit. But my purpose was to get results. That's what we needed.

[B]

Mum and dad flew up from Melbourne and they were staying at our place and Bruce used to go out and get the newspaper every morning and I heard them all saying, don't tell Denise, don't show her that newspaper. I came downstairs and I said, what's going on? And there was a front page of me looking with big eyes, looking a bit worried. Said something like, a pedophile may have taken Daniel.

[A]

For people living in Palm woods back then, the thought of a pedophile snatching a boy from a bus stop in broad daylight seemed impossible. Sadly, Deputy Inspector Mike Condon, who was leading the investigation, knew better. Sex offenders were his first line of inquiry and it wasn't long before one in particular took center stage. In April of 1995, Douglas Brian Jackway was driving when he spotted a group of young boys. He attacked them, threw one of the nine year old boys into his car and raced off. The child's father joined police in their search. They found Jaque in a swamp of mangroves. He was naked and in the act of sexually assaulting the boy. On November 7, 2003, after spending just eight and a half years in prison, Jackoy was released. Two weeks later, he was back in handcuffs. He had taken his new car a Holden Commodore for a bit of a joyride with police in pursuit. The car was impounded, but he retrieved it on December 5, just in time to make his December 8 court date on the Sunshine Coast. So Douglas Jackoway is a violent, opportunistic pedophile. He's back on the streets and he's set to appear in court on the Sunshine coast less than 24 hours after Daniel vanishes. But there was another, even more compelling reason Mike Condon had his sights set on Jackway. Police had started getting calls from people who had been in the area when Daniel disappeared, and one detail in particular kept popping up. More than a few people had said that they saw a blue car near the underpass that day, and it had investigators attention, especially given the color of Douglas Jacoi's holding Commodore. Yeah, blue.

[E]

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[A]

The Queensland Police service couldn't keep up with the number of calls jamming the switchboard in the major incident room. The lines at crime stoppers were also inundated. The young blue eyed boy had ignited something in the community. Things like this just didn't happen here and everyone wanted to help.

[F]

For me, it all started many years ago. I was involved in a rescue that I did of a child in a stormwater drain up in Palm Woods.

[A]

This is Tim Ryan. He's telling me a story he's not sure he's ever recalled out loud before.

[F]

It was one of those days. It was cyclonic and we're driving along the railway line as such. And this woman's jumped out in front of me screaming, waving her arms.

[A]

A boy had been playing in the flooded street when he was sucked into a stormwater drain.

[F]

And I seen the drain lid pop.

[A]

It didn't just pop, it blew into the air. And manhole covers like that can weigh hundreds of pounds. Tim had a background in engineering. He knew that water pressure like that could only come from a severe blockage. That meant the child was stuck down there. He dove in, but the surging water forced him back. The second time he felt a body, but he couldn't get a grip.

[F]

I've got the locals to hang onto my legs and I just couldn't do anymore. The water pressure was just too much.

[A]

Eventually the pressure dropped and they pulled the child free.

[F]

I worked on him for half an hour because none of the rescue authorities could get to us and I'm sorry, the child died in my arms.

[A]

Tim received an award for his bravery on that day. As the governor pinned it to his chest, he looked Tim in the eye.

[F]

Tim, he said, go out and do things in the community and bring people like you to me. I went, wow. So that was the start of my life. As such.

[A]

Daniel disappeared a couple years after that.

[F]

I was going to work and I drove out of Palm woods, turned right to go onto the highway and I looked to the left and there was police cars everywhere, everywhere. I remember it very clearly. Driving off to work that morning, going, holy smoke, this isn't good.

[A]

Tim didn't know Daniel, but his son did. They rode motorbikes together. It all felt way too close to home.

[F]

Didn't know what a pedophile was. And I'm serious. In 2003, they didn't exist in our minds. They were just ordinary working people getting on with it. It was national news and it was my little town, Palmwoods. That hurt too.

[A]

This was a tight knit community and the people showed up in force.

[F]

They were searching far and wide. And I remember all the ses, the state emergency services, the volunteers that were walking through the scrub and get covered in ticks and bloody, worried about snakes and everything else. And it was very hot. Here's these people in overalls and big boots and out there looking for Daniel. And it wasn't a couple, it was hundreds.

[A]

One of the last people to see Daniel on his walk to the bus stop was a man named Peter Harth. The locals knew him as Petrol Pete. He owned a gas station by the overpass.

[F]

I said, mate, anyone who comes into this building, anything they want, drinks, sandwiches, whatever, I'm paying for it, just do a tab, I'll pay for it all. So the word quickly got out to all the free drinks down there.

[A]

The snacks were appreciated, but Tim was just getting started.

[F]

I rang a company called Kate's Hire and I said, I need a favour. And he said, what do you want? And I said, your big electronic sign boards. They call them the VMS board, Variable message sign board. I want them on all over Australia with Where's Daniel? He said, big ass Tim. I said, I want it, mate. And you got kids? And he said, yep. I said, well, let's do it. So all of a sudden, every roadwork sign everywhere, all over Australia had Wes Daniel.

[A]

Tim was going to keep doing everything he could. The Morecambes had inspired him.

[F]

They were my superstars in them days. Just to be able for them to stand up and do what they were doing. And they were struggling. They were really struggling.

[A]

They weren't just struggling, they were crumbling. The family's pain was unbearable.

[C]

Each day just rolled into the next day, into the next day. There was never any good news.

[B]

One day I would be fine and Bruce would be having a bad day, and then the next day, Dean might be having a bad day and Bradley would say, come on, we'll be okay.

[A]

Dean dropped out of school. He spent most of his time working or hanging out with his friends. It was different for Daniel's twin, Bradley.

[B]

He didn't want to do anything without his brother.

[A]

Bruce and Denise did their best to make things feel normal for him. But how could it possibly be normal?

[B]

We were just paranoid. We didn't want him to leave the house. We just couldn't let him out of our sight.

[A]

If Bradley did go out, Denise had to write down where he was going and what he was wearing. He and Daniel weren't identical twins, but police wanted to be safe. If someone mistook Bradley for Daniel, they would be able to quickly rule it out.

[B]

He just wanted a bit more freedom. He sort of lost his freedom when Daniel went as well. Bruce would be busy out in the garden, mowing the lawn, doing all his chores. Used to yell at him, you know what? If we hadn't moved from Melbourne, if we hadn't. If we hadn't bought the Jim's mowing franchise, if we hadn't moved to the Sunshine coast, if we'd stayed at the previous house, if we hadn't gone to the Christmas party, if we'd made the boys come with us. I mean, who knows? It wasn't that easy being with friends because they didn't know how I felt. It was too difficult to see what their children were doing. You go and have a morning tea with a couple of girlfriends and they'd be saying, oh, you know, such and such, my son's got a cold. And I'd be thinking, really? My son's probably fucking dead in the bush somewhere. I didn't know where he was.

[A]

There was one person Denise felt comfortable with.

[B]

Julie started coming to our house pretty much daily. And you just start chatting and you'd have a cup of tea or a coffee with her. And just over the months and months, we sort of came really close friends.

[D]

We were thrown into this world that with no warning. It was traumatic, it was an upheaval, it was tragic. We butted heads, we've cried together, we've laughed.

[A]

It all took its toll on Julie, she was never home for her sons. Her engagement fell apart. She so badly wanted to take away the morcam's pain, but that wasn't possible. So she and Denise did what they could to cope.

[D]

We took to drinking like we'd invented it. We were gold star drinkers. Coping mechanisms just to let all the emotion down at times.

[A]

Denise has spoken publicly about this in the past, but she didn't want to talk about it when I asked.

[D]

I wasn't as good an influence on her as I could have been. Bruce was never, ever a part of that. And Bruce is great fun, but that brain is ticking in the background going, got an idea.

[A]

Bruce's brain was always ticking, but there was also a quiet anger in him and he had his own coping mechanisms.

[C]

There were a couple of occasions I painted messages on a large piece of sheet metal. Sweeneyou bastard justice. And I drew a noose. That was just by myself.

[A]

Do you remember the first time you heard the name Douglas Jackway?

[C]

I do. It was at Marichador Police headquarters. There was a short list that a couple of senior police were discussing. I can recall his name was within earshot of our listing and it just registered. Who's that fella?

[B]

His car had broken down at the caravan park not far from where Daniel was at the underpass, and he had a blue car. That was Douglas Shackaway. Yes.

[A]

The Woombai Gardens caravan park is just up the way from the Keel Mountain Road overpass. Back in 2003, they had powered and unpowered sites for rent motel rooms too. It was one of the first places investigators. In the early hours of Operation Bravo Vista, a number of local sex offenders were living there. It was a hot spot for criminal activity. Tim Ryan had heard the rumors that.

[F]

Douglas Jackway, you know, he was up here and he was at that motel and that they were cooking up whatever they do with drugs and he was known to be there. And that was only a couple hundred meters down the road on the other side of the road.

[A]

The way Mike Condon saw it, there were no coincidences. He was hoping for an open and shut case with Jackoway. Unfortunately, detectives kept hitting roadblocks. They just couldn't find enough concrete evidence to charge him. So In April of 2004, they expanded their search. Focus remained on their most significant clue.

[D]

It was the blue car. Basically, that's what we had. 80 to 90 witnesses phoned in to say there was a blue car there.

[C]

There were two people there, there were four people there, the boots opened, the doors are open. Oh, actually, the car Was on the other side of the road. No, the car was that side of the bridge. No, it was over that side of the bridge. So many inconsistencies. But what was consistent was the bloody blue car.

[B]

Every blue car that we saw, we're thinking, oh, my God, that could be it. Shopping centre on the road, parked in someone's driveway. We would write down those number plates and the type of car, and we would contact people in the MRI room dozens of times. Dozens and dozens of times.

[D]

If he was put into a car, a blue car, he could be anywhere in Australia. So when you've got nothing else, okay, we've got to work with this. But, gee, it was vague.

[A]

It was. Which meant they were searching for a needle in a haystack. Julie organized a press tour for the Morcoms. It would keep them in front of the cameras, and they would pose questions to get people thinking. Did anyone know someone with a blue car, who recently sold a blue car, who had a blue car and maybe recently changed their physical appearance? It was a Hail Mary, but it.

[D]

Was something we'd eat of a night, we'd drink of a night. Denise and I'd get pissed overnight, and we'd cry and wail and. And we got nowhere with it because we just didn't. It was worth a try because of the number of people that said there was a blue car involved.

[A]

But there's one night that stands out for Julie. She and Denise were drinking in her hotel room.

[D]

We were sitting on the end of the bed and just talking. And then she said, I think my Danny's dead. And I said, I think he is, too. And we just hugged and cried. A lot of it was grog emotion, but it was truth talking as well. At that time, I think I was the only person she could have said it to.

[B]

Yeah, that happened.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Do you and Bruce ever say it out loud to each other?

[B]

No, I don't believe so. We both knew, but he didn't say it. When you've been together so long, you don't have to actually say words sometimes.

[A]

To the outside world, Bruce and Denise were defying the odds. They were united in the face of a tragedy. But Julie could see the cracks. The Morcoms were pulling away from each other. Denise was isolating more. And Bruce may not have said it out loud, but he was worried about her.

[C]

No one likes watching someone else in pain. And to see Denise struggle with some of those moments. Christmas Day, Mother's Day, birthdays. Like you can't avoid them. Someone had contacted police to Assist us, but particularly to assist Denise. And that particular person was a hypnotherapist. And he just identified in clear English that Denise and myself were very different people recovering at different speeds. We're in different places. And I'm quite confident my recollection would be correct in him saying, your marriage is heading in a dark place here. Your relationship, it's gonna go like so many other relationships, when a significant event happens in your life, it just explodes. You could perhaps see the walls collapsing around you. But I'd sort of made a promise to myself and a promise to the family that whoever has taken Daniel for whatever reason and whatever's happened, that's a crime, and I'm gonna hate you for it, and you're gonna pay for it as well. But the ripple effect, it's not gonna happen. This family will maintain its strength. So even though there are some moments where you think, well, we're cooked here, I would not let the person that had taken our son destroy our family.

[A]

Bruce meant it. But some of the greatest challenges were yet to come. And in May of 2004, six months after the worst day of his life, he found himself coming face to face with one of those challenges. Detective Paul Schmidt, the senior investigator on Operation Bravo Vista, contacted the Morcoms with a question. He wanted to know if they knew anyone by the name of Bill Dooley. Dooley was another convicted child sex offender, one who had come forward to say that he had information on Daniel Morcom. But there was only one person he was willing to share it with. Daniel's father.

[D]

And Bruce said, I'll meet with him. I thought Janice would faint in the office.

[A]

Officers came by the Morcams the next morning to pick them up. Denise rode with Julie, Bruce with the detectives.

[C]

There were four police officers, Two in the front, one either side of me. I was in the middle at the back.

[A]

They arrived at police headquarters and pulled into the underground car park. An officer logged the registration and the number of occupants in each vehicle.

[C]

The police either side of me, they put the hand at the back of my neck and gently but forcibly pushed my head down. So I sort of. My head was in my knees. And I can remember them saying to the security person, there's only four in the car. Effectively, I was smuggled into police headquarters.

[A]

They took Bruce to an area outside the interrogation room and prepped him.

[C]

And they said, within that room, you're more or less in a glass booth. Opposite that glass booth is another glass booth. So their mirror image, one facing the.

[A]

Other, they explained that There was no door handle on the inside and only one way to get out. He would have to say, okay, I'm gonna leave now. Once they heard that cue, they would open the door.

[C]

I walked in and quickly observed a thin man was sitting with his back to me on a small bench.

[A]

He may have been thin, but from the photos I've seen, he looks a little bit like the Penguin from the Batman comics. He has a round face, oily black hair, thick eyebrows, and a rounded nose with long thin nostrils.

[C]

He was pretty shell shocked that there I was saying, g', day. What do you know?

[A]

Bruce started with small talk. He asked Dooley about his family, what his favorite sports teams were. He was trying to build Dooley's confidence, earn his trust. Then he asked again, what do you know?

[C]

He had identified to me that he had sat in the backseat of a vehicle with Daniel in the backseat, who was unconscious, possibly with drugs.

[A]

Dooley went on. He said there were two men with Daniel, presumably the two men responsible for abducting him. When Bruce asked for detailswho the two men were, who owned the car, what color it was, which seat Daniel was in, he got nothing from Dooley. He just kept saying, not sure. Finally, Bruce asked Dooley if his son was dead. Dooley replied, yeah, he's dead.

[C]

Difficult to comprehend and still maintain your composure and carry on a conversation with someone that says that he must have.

[D]

Wanted to reach across and smash him in the face.

[A]

Bruce had had enough. He said the exit phrase and the officers opened the door.

[C]

One or two of them said, do you think he did it? And I said, no.

[A]

He couldn't really explain why he felt this way. He just had a gut feeling that Dooley was lying.

[D]

Denise was downstairs with me in the media unit. We're waiting and waiting. And so another day of devastation for them, of the build up the time and then to go home and go, what world have we come into since December 7, 2003.

[A]

Bill Dooley may not have been helpful in this moment, but his involvement in this case was far from over. ABC Wednesdays Shifting Gears is back.

[F]

He has arisen.

[A]

Tim Allen and Kat Dennings return in television's number one new comedy. What what? With a star studded premiere including Jenna Elfman, Nancy Travis and hey buddy. A big home improvement reunion welcome. Oh, boy, that guy's a tool. Shifting gears New Wednesdays, 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu. Limu Emu and Doug. Here we have the Limu emu in.

[C]

Its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundred with Liberty Mutual.

[A]

Fascinating.

[C]

It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[A]

Uh, limu. Is that guy with the binoculars watching us?

[C]

Cut the camera. They see us.

[A]

Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Fairy Underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates.

[F]

Excludes Massachusetts.

[A]

I didn't have children when I first heard Daniel's story, when I first met Bruce and Denise Morcom. But I do today. Two little ones. They absolutely own my heart. Stories like this one make me wonder what would I do if my son was missing? And day after day, I had no new information, no idea what was being done within the investigation, but knowing that whatever was being done would never be enough. That's where Bruce was. He was tired of the quiet, of the not knowing he had to get involved.

[C]

I needed to feel as though I could contribute to the investigation.

[B]

I wasn't the ideas person like that. If Bruce came up with an idea, I'd go along with it.

[C]

Being an older house and having a huge barn, There were old items that had been replaced in the house, old doors. And I proceeded over time to use those doors as a sounding board to extract information. Sometimes they were just to create a fake media conference.

[A]

He'd only been facing the media for a few months, and already Bruce had figured out how to play the game.

[C]

We needed to create some atmosphere, something for them to get their hooks into and get a story.

[A]

The doors were a strategy, a way to keep Daniel front and center in people's minds, a way to keep pressure on investigators.

[C]

The very first one, I painted it white and there was a keyhole with a key that was in the lock.

[A]

He took a thick black permanent marker and wrote a message in large letters across the door.

[B]

Bruce just said, I've got this idea and I'm going down the underpass with the door. And it's. That's what I'm doing.

[C]

I dare say we had some contacts within media, just phoned them or emailed them and said, I'll see you at the underpass tomorrow at 10. And I remember going down there with a couple of star pickets, metal spikes, belting those into the ground cable, tying the door to it, and having the key on a piece of string just sort of swinging in the breeze.

[A]

The door was carefully positioned at the underpass. Bruce and Denise waited for the journalists to arrive. The cameras rolled, they did their piece, and then they revealed the message that had been scrawled across the freshly painted wood. Where is Daniel? Who took him? Help find the Key to unlock this horror of a crime. The media loved it. The police, not so much.

[D]

Willis. Police. We're going. Holy crap. Bruce.

[C]

I didn't care. It wasn't reckless. It was a desperate act to reinvigorate the investigative process and to get some more information and to remind police officers, if you don't find the answers, I'm gonna.

[A]

Six months have passed since Daniel was taken. But Denise refuses to let go of what little hope remains. His bedroom is untouched. His pajamas are still folded.

[B]

I'd go in there all the time, just sit on his bed or smell his pillow or look at his clothes. But everything was left exactly the same for a long, long time.

[A]

The police encourage her to change the sheets on Daniel's bed to try and get back to normal life.

[B]

And I said, I don't want to. In the bathroom, you've got your towel rails. Daniel's towel rail was that one. And no one was allowed to put their towel on that particular towel rail.

[A]

That boy. The boy in the red shirt. By this point, his face is on 2 million pizza boxes, 25,000 milk cartons, 60,000 bumper stickers. All across Australia, police have recorded 5,500 leads. Over 2,000 job logs have been filed. 20 additional officers have been assigned to the case. But still nothing. No answers. No arrests. No Daniel. The months roll by. Daniel belonged to one family, but is missed by an entire state. It's almost one year. Tonight, we have one aim. Finding Daniel. It's November 2004, and the statewide news program 7 News airs a one hour special titled Finding Daniel. Welcome to police headquarters in Brisbane. Tonight we'll allow you to see inside their investigation into Daniel Morcom's abduction and reveal new leads as the hunt for Queensland's most wanted man continues. Bruce and Denise are there, putting their pain on display for people all over Queensland.

[B]

Someone told me once that the pain never goes away. You just learn to live with it. So that's basically what it is. That pain's there day and night. I mean, quite often I wake up crying. You just close your eyes and hope you can go back to sleep.

[A]

Host Kay McGrath asks viewers across the country country to turn on their porch lights all at once in support of the Morcom family. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Queensland, show your support. Bruce and Denise look out from the makeshift TV studio out onto a sea of homes. One after another all across the city. Porch lights illusion.

[D]

We've got a good show there.

[A]

The whole town is lit up and we've certainly got an enthusiastic crowd in the front.

[B]

That's great, isn't it?

[C]

No, that's fantastic.

[A]

How does it feel to make you know that there are indeed people out there who care greatly?

[C]

Oh, it's overwhelming and I think it's very important in our case. But it's sending a very powerful message to people that want to go down an ugly path and, you know, and, and make children suffer and it's not the right way and the community won't stomach it. So, you know, it is a powerful message.

[A]

The second half of the program focused on the investigation and detectives had something up their sleeve. Now it's time for you to help in another way. And you don't even have to leave home. Three facial composites of the man seen behind Daniel, created from dozens of eyewitness accounts, were displayed on screen.

[C]

A male person in his 30s, 175cm.

[A]

Tall, lean built, and what they describe as a tanned and weathered complexion. Dark brown hair, slightly wavy, and a small goaty type beard. Then the phone lines opened. It's now up to to you, the public, to identify this man. Hundreds of calls poured into headquarters.

[D]

Our comms room broke down. There were so many calls came through. The system couldn't handle the number of calls that came through. So it generated again an emotional and community response to so many calls.

[A]

Blessing and a curse.

[D]

Yep, definitely.

[A]

But amidst the noise, one call stood out. The voice on the other end of the line was adamant they knew the man in the sketches. A convicted child sex offender who lived in the area. Not Bill Dooley, not Brian Jackway. This was an entirely new suspect, a man named Brett Peter Cowan. Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to unlock all episodes of where is Daniel Morecam? Ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Search for the binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the 1st of every month. Check out the Binge channel page on apple podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. Where is Daniel Morecambe is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media. It was hosted, reported and co written by me, Matt Angel. Joe Barrett is the managing producer and co writer Grace Valerie Lynette is the associate producer. Additional production support from Tiffany Dimac. The series was sound, designed, composed and mixed by Garrett Tiedemann. Our studio engineer is Trino Madriz Fact Checked by Tracy Lofgren Lee A special thanks to Ashley Ann Krigbaum and Doug Slaywin and our operations team, Ashley Warren, Sabina Mara and Destiny Dinkel. Campside Media's executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregoriadis and Matt Sher. Sony's executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch. For Pacesetter Productions, the executive producer is Jessica Rhodes. Allison Momassi and Brian Daly are the associate producers. For Mad Jimmy Productions, the executive producers are me, Matt angel and Suzanne Coote. Consulting producers are Dan Angel, Lee Parker and Andrew Fairbank. If you enjoyed where is the Daniel Morcom? Please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts and if you'd like to make a donation to the Daniel Morcam foundation, please visit danielmorcam.com hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's Premium Wireless is $15 a month. But I'd like to offer one other perk. We have no stores. That means no small talk crazy weather we're having. No, it's not. It's just weather. It is an introvert's dream. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[E]

Of $45 for three month plan $15.

[A]

Per month equivalent required.

[E]

New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra.

[A]

See mintmobile.com.