Where is Daniel Morcombe? | 7. Mr Big

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Speaker 3 This episode contains graphic descriptions of child abduction, sexual assault, and murder. Please listen with care.

Speaker 3 Over the years, police had asked a number of people to complete character assessment questionnaires on Brett Peter Cowan.

Speaker 3 They sought these from those who knew him best. Family members.
Exes.

Speaker 3 The questionnaires were used to help investigators build a psychological profile of the suspect.

Speaker 3 And judging from the answers they received, it was easy to infer the following. Brett Peter Cowan was a self-absorbed, pathological liar.

Speaker 3 He was impulsive, driven by money, and desperate for attention and acceptance.

Speaker 3 In other words, he was the perfect target for what was to come.

Speaker 3 For nearly eight years, Bruce and Denise Morecombe had been trapped in a living nightmare.

Speaker 3 Little did they know,

Speaker 3 it had already entered its final act.

Speaker 3 I'm Matt Angel, and from Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media, this

Speaker 3 is Where is Daniel Morcom?

Speaker 3 Episode 7:

Speaker 3 Mr. Bick.

Speaker 3 Delivering Brett Peter Cowan to the inquest was just one part of the directive given to Detective Grant Linwood in March of 2011.

Speaker 3 He was also to engage Cowan in conversation, to get to know anything he could about Shadow Nunya Hunter, the name this man would come to be known by.

Speaker 3 That information would then be passed on to an undercover operative, who would sit next to Cowan on that flight back to Perth.

Speaker 3 The operative would be playing a character named Joe Emery, but it was the final component of Linwood's orders that was, perhaps, most crucial of all.

Speaker 3 Once Cowan was excused from the inquest proceedings, the detective was to make Cowan feel like he was officially free of the investigation into the abduction and murder of Daniel Markham.

Speaker 3 So that moment when Linwood drove him to the airport, walked him to security and delivered that farewell. Don't come back to Queensland, Britt.

Speaker 3 It was a vital, carefully carefully crafted way of instilling the criminal with confidence.

Speaker 6 It was like a false meaty, you know, wanted him to leave feeling great. He dodged a bullet, whatever.

Speaker 3 Then it was up to Joe Emery, the undercover operative. His mission on the five-hour flight was to establish a connection with Cowen, to initiate a friendship.

Speaker 6 They became besties by the end of the flight.

Speaker 3 For the next two weeks, Emery and Cowen were in daily communication.

Speaker 3 The covert operative's only contact in the field was his controller, John Kerry.

Speaker 5 The whole point of controllers is that they liaise with investigators.

Speaker 6 You'd never, ever have anything to do with covert operatives.

Speaker 3 Grant Linwood, back in Queensland, was one of those investigators.

Speaker 6 I was in almost daily contact with John Kerry, who would tell me what was happening and, you know, brief me on what's going on. My only real contribution at that point would be background info.

Speaker 6 Oh, we need to know this about him. We need to know that.
See if you can find out about his lifestyle, whatever, to assist them.

Speaker 3 Linwood could help them with that, because he and Cowan were still in contact.

Speaker 6 He'd give me phone calls when, you know, the media were annoying him or whatever, which is why he's carrying my number around.

Speaker 3 Using Linwood's intel, police would place Emery and Cowan in carefully crafted situations. Every interaction would be recorded.

Speaker 3 The hope was that, as the two spent more time together, Brett would feel their bond strengthening. and let something slip.
Investigators were taking things one step at a time.

Speaker 3 Then, one day, Grant Linwood's phone rang. It was a detective from the Western Australia Police Force.

Speaker 6 And he more or less said to me, Have I got an idea for you?

Speaker 3 Western Australia Police were riding high off their recent success with an innovative covert technique, one designed for targets with very specific personality traits.

Speaker 3 And after learning everything there was to know about Brett Beter Cowan, they concluded he'd be the perfect next mark. The technique? It's called Mr.
Big.

Speaker 3 The Western Australia detective laid it out for Linwood.

Speaker 6 I remember thinking, wow, that's like a James Bond movie. That's awesome.

Speaker 3 It goes a little something like this. A group of undercover operatives, posing as gang members, gently coax a suspect into what appears to be a thriving, far-reaching criminal enterprise.

Speaker 3 The jobs start small. sophisticated, low-level crimes, and then they grow.
Over the course of several months, the scope of the gang's power is put on full display. They build the mark's confidence.

Speaker 3 They appeal to the suspect's desires by offering what he craves most. Money, friendship, protection.
And they preach the importance of trust, honesty, and loyalty.

Speaker 3 They're a brotherhood, and he, their newcomer, is an indispensable part of this enterprise. But this world?

Speaker 3 The gang?

Speaker 3 It is nothing more than a backdrop, laying the groundwork for the moment of truth. The moment the suspect is brought into a meeting with the boss.
Aka, Mr. Bigg.

Speaker 3 When I asked people who I should talk to about what happened next in this story, the answer was always the same. Ross Barnett.

Speaker 5 During the time when the Daniel Morecambe investigation came to its conclusion, I was one of two deputy commissioners in the Queensland Police.

Speaker 3 As deputy commissioner, Ross was just one peg below Commissioner Bob Atkinson and one peg above Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon. He oversaw the State Crime Command and Homicide Squad.

Speaker 3 And he has a wealth of knowledge on the Mr. Big technique.

Speaker 5 It's often referred to as a Canadian technique.

Speaker 3 That's because it originated in Canada. Some say the strategy was first used over 100 years ago in Winnipeg.
Others, say British Columbia, in 1965.

Speaker 3 Regardless, by the 1990s, it was being utilized in cases across the great white north and beyond.

Speaker 5 It's essentially only used in very serious matters, usually a cold case murder, where the investigating police have a very firm idea that they believe they know who is responsible for a particular crime, but they are short of enough admissible evidence.

Speaker 5 to make an arrest and secure a conviction.

Speaker 3 Mr. Bigg is designed to obtain that admissible evidence in one very specific form.

Speaker 5 In general terms, with the Mr. Big Strategy, the end game is the attempt to gain the confession.

Speaker 3 The technique is elaborate, it's costly, and it's definitely controversial.

Speaker 5 There are two key objections by opponents to the Mr. Big strategy.
One is that it can tend to lead to a false confession.

Speaker 3 In an operation like this, where a suspect is trying to impress his fellow gang members, The confession could be unreliable. And the second objection?

Speaker 5 That it's fundamentally unfair to the accused person because they've been duped by the police. They've been deceived.

Speaker 3 That deception, even in the name of justice, comes with risks. Defense lawyers could and often do argue that a confession was secured unfairly, that their client was coerced.

Speaker 3 In other words, it's entrapment.

Speaker 3 This is why Mr. Bigg is prohibited in America.
where it is against federal law for police to induce someone to commit a crime they otherwise wouldn't have committed.

Speaker 3 But Australia doesn't see it this way. As far as they're concerned, the gang isn't asking anyone to commit a crime, because technically, no crime ever occurs.

Speaker 5 If they tell the suspect that they're going to steal a car, it's not being stolen, it's just been borrowed from a friendly source.

Speaker 5 If they see drugs being transferred, they're not drugs, it's just a substitute. So no offences are actually being committed, although the accused believes that they are.

Speaker 5 They're just pretending that something bad is happening when it's not.

Speaker 3 For this reason, the High Court of Australia has declared the use of the Mr. Big strategy lawful.

Speaker 3 Still, if you want to do everything you can to guarantee a judge rules the evidence admissible, two key conditions should be met. Condition one, the confession must be voluntary.

Speaker 5 They audio and video record whatever they can, whatever they can, of their interactions with the suspect all the way through the strategy.

Speaker 3 Every car ride, every conversation, every job, the final sit-down with Mr. Bigg.
They capture it all. Days and weeks worth of tape.

Speaker 5 So that when the issue comes up at trial and the accused attempts to have the confession ruled inadmissible, the police are in a position to say, here's the videotape, here's the audio tape.

Speaker 5 Judge for yourself whether he or she is there voluntarily. Are they under any coercion? Are they there of their free will?

Speaker 3 And condition two,

Speaker 3 the confession must be verifiable. Maybe the suspect says something only the killer would know, or something that can be backed up with further evidence.

Speaker 3 In the case of Brett Cowan, the coverts had their work cut out for them. They didn't have much evidence for verification.
There was no body, no crime scene.

Speaker 3 They were rolling the dice, hoping that if Cowan did confess, it would be a confession they could somehow corroborate. It was a clear risk.
One they had decided was worth taking.

Speaker 3 They just had to wait for the perfect moment. That moment came in August of 2011, when it was decided that the inquest would resume.

Speaker 3 It had been more than four months since Brett Cowan left that Brisbane courthouse and caught that flight home to Perth. But the coroner's court decided they weren't finished with him just yet.

Speaker 6 He was going to be subpoenaed to reattend the inquest for further questioning.

Speaker 3 The subpoena was a great opportunity for the undercover cops to initiate the final phase of the operation.

Speaker 6 They wanted us to hold off or at least coordinate.

Speaker 6 Please look serve him at the perfect time. They can then go, what's this all about? You know, the timing of that was critical.

Speaker 3 The covert operatives had spent months setting the table. The subpoena was served, requesting that Cowan head back to Queensland to give further evidence.
It was time for Brett Peter Cowan to meet Mr.

Speaker 3 Bigg.

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Speaker 3 With the Mr. Big meeting on the horizon, Detective Grant Linwood needed to be on the ground.

Speaker 6 So I flew to West Australia.

Speaker 3 The detective from the Queensland Police Service was about to step into a world of policing he wasn't used to. the undercover world.

Speaker 6 And it was funny because I got off the plane in a suit and immediately got told dressed down, become in a suit and tie to getting throw your jeans and a a t-shirt on your clown.

Speaker 6 All these unshaven and dudes, it was funny.

Speaker 3 With the covert operatives in the field, Linwood spent the next few days with their controllers. It's a part of the journey he can't say much about, but he says enough.

Speaker 6 Let's just say it wasn't. We weren't hanging around police stations.

Speaker 3 When it came time for the mission, Linwood presented two briefs. One on the general background of the eight-year investigation and one on Brett Peter Cowan.

Speaker 6 Everything about his life, his movements, where he'd been, what he'd done, Sandra Drummond, his alibi, you know, all those sort of things.

Speaker 6 And at the end, we had a summary and I said, look, basically right place, right time, but we need the body or evidence of what happened to it and over to you guys.

Speaker 3 Linwood was brought to a hotel room. the mission's control center, just a few doors down the hall from the Swan River room, where the operative plane Arnold, or Mr.
Big, was waiting.

Speaker 3 The control center was packed with investigators and monitors. The screens displayed the live feed of hidden cameras.
Every element of this meeting would be recorded.

Speaker 3 If Cowen said anything incriminating, they needed to capture his behavior, his body language, anything that might help them convince a judge and jury that this was worthy evidence.

Speaker 6 I was there

Speaker 6 as a courtesy of the lead Queensland investigator, just have a seat watch, but they were running the show. It was so cool.

Speaker 6 Most things you see in the movies are not like real policing, but this is one of the few times it kind of was.

Speaker 6 Gave me a set of headphones, and we were watching.

Speaker 6 We were watching it in real time as it happened.

Speaker 3 Brett Peter Cowan entered the suite.

Speaker 3 He took his seat on the couch.

Speaker 3 Arnold excused the others.

Speaker 3 They exchanged small talk,

Speaker 3 and then it began.

Speaker 2 Listen,

Speaker 10 one of the reasons I brought you here was, as you know, I said to you before, we've got to walk before we run, we've got to crawl before we walk.

Speaker 10 And as you probably also know, I've got a lot of people in my confines all around the country that I pay good money to to get good information from.

Speaker 3 It's a carefully choreographed conversation. Every word, every silence thought through and planned in advance.

Speaker 10 I'll be straight with you. I'm here on other business, but I got some information through earlier this morning which has kind of made me postpone all that stuff so that we can sort this out.

Speaker 10 Is there something you need to tell me?

Speaker 10 And bearing in mind that this whole

Speaker 10 what we do is based on respect and honesty, all right?

Speaker 11 Well, I'll tell Paul and Jeff.

Speaker 10 Just let me stop you there before you go on.

Speaker 10 I'll let you know that I don't care what you've done.

Speaker 10 I've got no qualms at all. You know, I've dealt with a lot of real bad cunts, alright?

Speaker 10 And I've had a lot lot of real bad cunts on my books what they do what they get up to doesn't faze me at all all I'm looking for is loyalty respect and honesty

Speaker 10 and I'll pay you back as you pay me back

Speaker 10 so go on

Speaker 11 I was living in the area in 03 when Daniel Morcom went missing and I've been interviewed and I was hounded for ages about that

Speaker 11 I can guarantee I had nothing to do with Daniel Morcom's disappearance one of my elbows.

Speaker 3 Cowan goes on to explain that the police had got it wrong. How he thought this was all behind him now.

Speaker 6 The audio wasn't great, so really straining to hear.

Speaker 6 I remember him denying it and denying it, and I'm thinking, oh, here we go.

Speaker 6 In the criminal world, pedophiles don't generally admit their behavior, and child murderers and rapists are absolutely reviled by other criminals.

Speaker 6 If this was a scenario where he killed other drug dealers or something like that, you know, yeah, I did that and criminals all high-five each other.

Speaker 6 But to come out and admit what he'd done, I just didn't think he'd do it, even if he had. And then Mr.

Speaker 5 Biggs says, well, that's not what I've heard.

Speaker 10 Yeah, look, I got some info this morning

Speaker 10 basically saying those things, but that

Speaker 10 you're the one who's done it. And like I said, that doesn't bother me at all.
But what concerns me is that I need to,

Speaker 10 I can sort this for you. You know, I can sort things out, I can buy you alibis, I can, I can get rid of stuff, all that kinds of things that needs to be done, I can do,

Speaker 10 but I need to know what I need to do. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 It's an important moment, a high-wire act. If Arnold pushes too hard, Cowan might catch on.

Speaker 10 So you saying me, look, I had nothing to do with it, that's not what I'm being told.

Speaker 10 And that brings me in a real dilemma, in a crossroads, because I want to move forward with what we're doing,

Speaker 10 but until I can sort this out,

Speaker 10 I can't because you're too hot.

Speaker 10 I'm told you there is a subpoena coming for you.

Speaker 10 I'll show you the email and copy this morning.

Speaker 3 Arnold crosses the room to get his laptop.

Speaker 10 I've better talk to you. Man-on-man, one-on-one,

Speaker 10 in confidence,

Speaker 10 to see if I need to sort, see how I can sort this out.

Speaker 10 What I've got is Arnold,

Speaker 10 Shadow Hunter, ADS Brett, Peter Cowan, the main suspect in a disappearance of Daniel Morcom who went missing in Queensland 7 December 2003.

Speaker 3 Arnold's source explains that in his mind, there is no doubt Cowan is responsible.

Speaker 3 He says multiple witnesses placed him at the scene, and he points to the unaccounted for 45 minutes and his flimsy alibi.

Speaker 10 I suggest you Google some of the info that I've provided to get more of a feeling for this matter, which I've done.

Speaker 10 Coroner's inquests are recommencing. Shortly, Cowell will again be in the spotlight.
If you can't sort this out, then I suggest you drop a lot of hot potato.

Speaker 10 Alright, so

Speaker 10 that's what I've got,

Speaker 10 and that's what I've had. I've postponed everything.

Speaker 10 I haven't postponed what's happening, but I've postponed the business I had to do this morning to sit down when you're one-on-one and sort this shit out.

Speaker 10 But like I've said, I can't sort out

Speaker 10 what I don't know.

Speaker 10 So look, what happened? And how can I sort it out?

Speaker 11 I don't know.

Speaker 10 Like I said,

Speaker 10 all right.

Speaker 10 Honesty, trust, respect. Alright?

Speaker 10 You know what your options are here.

Speaker 10 Alright. And if I've got to postpone what we're going to do for a few months to sort this out,

Speaker 10 I'm happy to do that

Speaker 10 for your sake, all right? Because I'm told

Speaker 10 that you're pretty loyal,

Speaker 10 you've built up a good relationship with some of the boys, and they speak very highly of you.

Speaker 10 So, what do I need to fix?

Speaker 11 Yeah, okay,

Speaker 11 you know,

Speaker 11 eh, I do

Speaker 3 know.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 3 I did it.

Speaker 3 Down the hall in that makeshift surveillance room, Grant Linwood and his colleagues are floored. They've just secured their confession.

Speaker 3 But without missing a beat, the operative plane Arnold keeps going.

Speaker 10 Well, look, just lead me through the whole fucking thing of how it happens from where to go, and then I'll think about things that we need to sort and fix.

Speaker 6 Then he opens up and he just starts to go through it. And I thought, I can't believe this.
Like, he's just telling the whole story.

Speaker 3 Cowan begins to detail, moment by moment, how he abducted and murdered 13-year-old Daniel Markham.

Speaker 11 I went up to my boss's father's place to go to a woodmile truck. There was a broken down bus.
I got up to Sunbus, broken down, and then I seen Daniel.

Speaker 11 Went up and around and parked in the church car park.

Speaker 11 I walked down and sat there. I didn't talk to him at all when I got there.
He made me just look at it. I was waiting for the the bus.
The bus drove past and that's when I said I'm going down to

Speaker 11 the shopping centre, do you want to lift? Instead of taking him to the shopping centre, I took him to a secluded spot that I knew of. Went to an abandoned house, but like

Speaker 11 sort of when he started to struggle, like I was starting to pull his pants down to him and he said, oh no, and started the struggle and

Speaker 11 never got to molest him or anything like that. He panicked and I panicked and grabbed him around and chosen just for a new one he was dead, taken him outside, put him in the back of my car.

Speaker 11 Where the house is there's a little track that goes off down there through a gate and there's a caravan and an old mobile stormmill in front of it. I go like from the house 150 metres to where I was

Speaker 11 because it's all bush and so June I carried him over and threw him down the embankment and went down there and that's when I dragged him through and I stripped him off and

Speaker 11 trees and all that sort of branches and covered his body with that.

Speaker 11 His clothes I took back with me and threw him into the creek.

Speaker 3 Arnold tells Brett Cowan what happens next. He and a couple of the boys will head to Queensland the next day.

Speaker 3 They'll retrace his steps from December 7th, 2003. and they'll ensure no evidence remains that could come back to haunt him.

Speaker 3 Investigators had their confession, and they were more than confident that it was admissible. They had been recording Cowan for months.

Speaker 3 It was clear that he was a willing participant, that he hadn't been coerced. But something to verify that confession would seal the deal.

Speaker 3 They needed to find Cowan's crime scene, and he was going to lead them there.

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Speaker 3 On the afternoon of Tuesday, August 9th, 2011, Ross Barnett was told by Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon that there was good news out of Perth.

Speaker 5 So all we knew was that he'd confessed and told us broadly what he'd done.

Speaker 3 But that was enough for next steps. And the mad scramble began.

Speaker 5 This is happening on the other side of the country, five hours flying time from Queensland.

Speaker 3 Detective Grant Linwood had no time to process what he'd just witnessed.

Speaker 6 I'd actually literally take the disc, flew the red eye back. Once the confession had happened, everyone wanted to be involved.

Speaker 2 Every man, his dog was coming in and there was people everywhere.

Speaker 7 It was mind-blowing.

Speaker 3 Senior detectives wanted to keep a lid on it, but that was easier said than done.

Speaker 6 And it was going like wildfire throughout the whole command.

Speaker 6 They wouldn't tell anyone what it was, but they were pulling staff from everywhere, locking them into incident rooms, not to talk to anyone. They're all detectives, they're not stupid.

Speaker 6 Something's going on.

Speaker 3 Their main concern was the media. They had to ensure that this didn't get out.

Speaker 6 There were many, many considerations because it's such a high-profile case. There was a big concern if we were were going to set up a bit of a crime scene, start having a look, it would have blown it.

Speaker 3 Back in Perth, Brett Peter Cowan remained oblivious to the recorded conversation he'd just given place.

Speaker 5 It was highly likely that we were not going to get anything more than the confession.

Speaker 5 But the next step has to be getting him back to Queensland with the undercovers to then take them to the scene and describe it further so that we can then get a crime scene and try and then start a search, try and find anything we can find.

Speaker 5 So that's what happened.

Speaker 3 Cowen, Fitzy, and a second covert operative hopped on a flight back east to the Sunshine Coast.

Speaker 3 The moment the three men arrived, they set out to retrace Cowan's movements from that day, nearly eight years ago.

Speaker 3 They went to his old home in Birwa, where he lived with his wife, to Frank Davis's house, where he'd picked up the mulcher, to the underpass where he'd stalked Daniel.

Speaker 3 to the church parking lot where he'd parked his car. And finally, to the Glasshouse Mountains.

Speaker 5 He takes them up and he does a drive to the crime scene where he said he murdered Daniel.

Speaker 3 The macadamia farm was tucked away in the dense forest. The structure Cowan claimed he killed Daniel in was no longer there, but he still walked them through the graphic details of what had happened.

Speaker 3 From there, they walked around the tall macadamia trees, down a small path, through the overgrowth, to an embankment.

Speaker 3 A five-foot drop a few steps further, and Cowan told them that they were standing at the spot.

Speaker 3 This was where he had left Daniel's body.

Speaker 3 They made one more stop after that.

Speaker 5 He took the undercover officers to a bridge over a small creek a short distance away where he said he had thrown Daniel's clothing.

Speaker 3 The case against Cowan was only getting stronger. Police now had a site to search, and they had a second recorded confession in even greater detail than the first.

Speaker 3 But some weren't convinced.

Speaker 3 After months of extraordinary police work by the coverts, after nearly eight years and more than 100 investigators pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into this case, were they really going to arrest and charge Cowan without any physical evidence?

Speaker 6 The problem you have is is you've really only got one shot at this. If we arrest him and we don't have enough evidence and we lose it in court, that might be the end of it.

Speaker 3 For the next 72 hours, undercover operatives remained in character, keeping Cowan busy under the guise of awaiting Arnold's orders.

Speaker 3 In reality, they were affording investigators the time they needed to make an official call. That call was ultimately Ross Barnett's to make.

Speaker 6 The commissioner of the time, Bob Atkinson,

Speaker 6 he was very close to the Morecambe family, so he'd excused himself from making the decision. He delegated, he said, Ross Barnett's going to make the decision.

Speaker 5 We had a meeting at police headquarters, myself, there was a couple of assistant commissioners and all of the investigation team. The reason we had that meeting is I wanted to hear everyone's views.

Speaker 5 There are obviously only two next steps. One was to arrest him at the scene.

Speaker 5 The other suggestion being put forward by some of the senior officers was that he should not be arrested, but he should be allowed to go free while we tried to gather further evidence,

Speaker 5 including potentially a search of the site.

Speaker 3 That would mean they would let Cowan go and continue the sting on the west coast while officials searched for any physical evidence to help corroborate Cowan's claims.

Speaker 6 The biggest concern everyone had, though, was that we had massive floods in Queensland.

Speaker 6 And that whole area had just been smashed through the floods. So there was all this concern that what if we go there and we find nothing because the floods have destroyed it?

Speaker 3 Ross Barnett had concerns of his own.

Speaker 5 There is no way that we could conduct a search covertly in that area without the media finding out.

Speaker 5 Next thing it'd be a news helicopter and all of a sudden some very correct speculation would start to emerge about the fact that we were potentially looking for Daniel's body.

Speaker 3 That news would sweep the airwaves. Cowen would catch on.
He might go on the run, change his identity.

Speaker 5 Australia is a very big country and if you don't want to be found and you don't have strong ties and you can change your appearance and change your name, you can be very hard to find.

Speaker 3 Which brought Ross to the moral duty they had to protect the public from Cowan.

Speaker 5 If he knows he's going to be arrested for a murder, he might, you know, be emboldened to commit another offence before his court. Obviously, that would be the worst of all worlds.
To have

Speaker 5 had him in our grasp and then for him to abduct, rape or murder. another child would be just absolutely unconscionable.

Speaker 3 Detective Linwood stood in front of more than 30 officers and gave a presentation on Brett Cowan.

Speaker 3 He showed the photos of that six-year-old boy from Darwin, the ones police took in the hours following Cowan's brutal attack.

Speaker 3 He highlighted the opportunistic nature of that crime, the fact that Cowan had committed the abduction and rape of that child in a matter of minutes. Linwood made his stance perfectly clear.

Speaker 3 Cowan needed to be taken into custody and charged with murder.

Speaker 6 I just stood up the front and got absolutely hammered with questions by a couple of very senior officers.

Speaker 6 It was a bit harrowing for me because and I was easily the most junior person in the room.

Speaker 6 I recall there was a little bit of reluctance from some of them and understandably so they'd invested heart and soul for years and years.

Speaker 3 He wasn't sure which way it would go.

Speaker 6 A number of people were quite vocal in their opposition.

Speaker 3 The opposition was led by Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon, but this wasn't his call. Linwood's attention was on someone else.

Speaker 6 I remember Ross Barnett sitting down the back and he was just taking so many notes. As I was talking, I thought,

Speaker 7 he's writing a lot.

Speaker 6 I remember Barnett right at the end asking me, how long was that offense in Northern Territory or something like that? I said, I was 15 minutes.

Speaker 6 And I remember thinking, I've convinced him at least.

Speaker 3 He had. Ross Barnett was backing Linwood.

Speaker 5 There was no reason to leave him at large.

Speaker 3 The decision was made. They would do it morning after next.

Speaker 5 That gave us enough time to get everything legally and operationally prepared to do what would become one of the most significant arrests in the history of Queensland criminal law. Really?

Speaker 5 This case was huge.

Speaker 3 Brett Cowan was told that Arnold had taken care of everything that needed any attention. There was just one last order of business.

Speaker 3 Daniel had been carrying a silver and gold fob watch the day that he was taken. It bore a distinct three-letter inscription.
The name Dan.

Speaker 3 Cowen swore he hadn't kept it. If that was true, Arnold's concern was that it could still be out there, in the forest, at that site.
The last bit of any incriminating evidence.

Speaker 3 He needed Cowen and his men to return to the area for one final sweep. If they did that and found nothing, Arnold would feel assured that they were in the clear, that nothing would ever be found.

Speaker 6 Steve and Ross lived like behind a big skip bin and Emma and I were in this little shed shack thing.

Speaker 3 Queensland detectives were set up and ready for Cowan's arrival at the macadamia farm.

Speaker 6 I remember seeing this massive snake skin in there and I'm terrified of snakes and

Speaker 6 hot weather. I've got the suits on for the look.

Speaker 6 We're standing in this crappy little shed with all these piles of wooden and dead snake skin and we could hear the cars coming so we're all sitting here waiting.

Speaker 3 And then they swarm.

Speaker 3 Police!

Speaker 13 Stay there Brett.

Speaker 13 Stay there mate. Stay where you are.

Speaker 13 Stay where you are. Stay where you are.
Police.

Speaker 6 We all come out and we're all just walking towards him. It was just, he was like a deer in headlights.

Speaker 13 Brett Cowen, Steve Blanchell, Detective Senior Sergeant from the Homicide Unit in Brisbane. And you know Ross Hutton.
Is that correct? Don't know him. You don't know him? No.
Okay.

Speaker 13 We're investigating the the abduction and murder of Daniel Morcombe. Yep.
Okay. You're aware that you've been spoken to before in relation to that?

Speaker 6 Yep. I remember they did this mock arrest on the operatives.
Just, you know, grabbed and gone, bundled straight out. And they said, Brad, oh, who are those?

Speaker 6 And he said, I thought they were my friends. I think he knew right then and there that, oh, police officer, like it's just the pennies dropped.

Speaker 13 What I have to tell you is that you don't have to speak to us today, okay? You have the right to remain silent.

Speaker 13 You don't have to answer any question or make any statement. Do you understand that?

Speaker 6 He then looked like the sort of crook you see all the time.

Speaker 7 You've caught him with a stolen bike or a bit of drugs.

Speaker 6 They're just, ah, you know, cool as a cucumber.

Speaker 6 Knows he's in trouble, but not really concerned.

Speaker 7 Yeah, just blase.

Speaker 5 Hands in his pocket.

Speaker 3 Brett was allowed to make a call.

Speaker 11 Just to tell him

Speaker 11 that I'm under arrest, am I?

Speaker 13 Not this time. If you're happy to remain with us and speak with us in relation to this matter.

Speaker 11 No, you just can arrest me.

Speaker 13 Alright, you're under arrest for the murder of Dean Walkham.

Speaker 2 Yep, cool.

Speaker 11 I'm under arrest for Daniel's murder. Daniel Walkham's murder.

Speaker 6 It was a weird reaction, but that's what he does when he's caught. He just shuts up and plays it cool.

Speaker 3 Linwood sat with Cowan in the back of the van on the way to the police station. The detective made a few feeble attempts to strike up conversation, but Cowan was done talking.

Speaker 3 In the early years of the investigation, back when Detective Grant Linwood was just a young constable, he had told told his peers that someday he was going to help solve Daniel Morecombe's case, help hunt down and catch the man responsible.

Speaker 3 Now,

Speaker 3 he had.

Speaker 5 I remember that night I did the...

Speaker 5 media conference with Commissioner Atkinson at seven o'clock that night at police headquarters and the place was packed and I think national news everywhere stopped that night to take it live.

Speaker 5 It was that significant. It was that sort of a moment in Australian

Speaker 5 criminal investigation history where people were pausing live TV shows and whatever to take the feed because it was so significant.

Speaker 3 Ross Barnett and his team made a calculated decision to arrest Brett Peter Cowan where they did, back at the very place where he had taken the life of an innocent 13-year-old boy.

Speaker 3 They were sending Cowan a message.

Speaker 5 I know judges and the legal fraternity and the legal system are only interested in the legality of police procedure and the legality and the admissibility of evidence.

Speaker 5 It's got to be done the right way. They're not interested in moral equivalence or the irony of how and why certain police investigations are done.
When Brett Cowan

Speaker 5 met Daniel Morcombe, he set out deliberately to deceive him. He put on a persona that was not him.

Speaker 5 He put on the persona of a nice guy offering a lift and he buried the real persona of the opportunistic child pedophile and rapist.

Speaker 5 He continued that deception

Speaker 5 until

Speaker 5 He spun his trap and it was too late for Daniel to get out.

Speaker 5 It was only then that he revealed his true self, his evil true self.

Speaker 5 I think it's highly ironic that we did the same thing to him.

Speaker 5 That the undercover police officers set out to deceive Brett Cowan, just as he set out to deceive Daniel. They were able to deceive him and string him along until we sprung our trap.

Speaker 5 and it was too late for Brett Cowan to get out.

Speaker 5 I think that is the sweetest karma that you could imagine. That the master deceiver and the master manipulator was deceived and manipulated himself.

Speaker 5 We did to him what he did to Daniel.

Speaker 3 Bruce Morcombe had always been an avid gardener. In 2014, he and Denise had worked with a plant breeder to propagate a red rose in Daniel's honor.
The color was important to them.

Speaker 3 It had to be just right. A red Daniel Morcombe hibiscus was also bred.
They had one in their backyard.

Speaker 3 One morning, Denise found a large black and white butterfly resting on that hibiscus.

Speaker 3 She'd wonder later if there was some greater significance to that visitor, considering the call she'd be receiving later that day.

Speaker 14 For seven years or nine months, I always waited for him to come home and

Speaker 14 walk through that front door. That's why I didn't want to move for the first couple of years.
But

Speaker 14 like when Bob Atkinson phoned to say that Cowan had been arrested for Daniel's murder, that was...

Speaker 14 That was probably worse than knowing

Speaker 14 the first night that he went missing.

Speaker 14 Actually finding out that he was not coming home. Even though you know in your heart and

Speaker 14 you know in yourself that he's not coming home, but it's not till someone tells you that

Speaker 14 someone's been arrested for your son's murder that he's not going to come home.

Speaker 3 Another chapter in Daniel's story was brought to a close.

Speaker 3 But for Bruce and Denise Morecombe, this wasn't the end of the battles they would have to face.

Speaker 3 In a sense,

Speaker 3 this was just the beginning of coming to terms with what had happened to their son.

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Speaker 3 If you'd like to make a donation to the Daniel Morecombe Foundation, please visit danielmorecom.com.au.

Speaker 3 Where is Daniel Morecom 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.

Speaker 3 Grace Valerie Lynette is the associate producer. Additional production support from Tiffany Dimack.

Speaker 3 The series was sound designed, composed, and mixed by Garrett Tiedemann. Our studio engineer is Trino Madriz.
Fact-checked by Tracy Lofgren-Lee.

Speaker 3 A special thanks to Ashley Ann Krigbaum and Doug Slaiwen. And our operations team, Ashley Warren, Sabina Mara, and Destiny Dinkle.

Speaker 3 Campside Media's executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregoriadis, and Matt Scher.

Speaker 3 Sony's executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch. For Pace Hetter Productions, the executive producer is Jessica Rhodes.
Allison Momassey and Brian Daly are the associate producers.

Speaker 3 For Mad Jimmy Productions, the executive producers are me, Matt Angel, and Suzanne Coote. Consulting producers are Dan Angel, Lee Parker, and Andrew Fairbank.

Speaker 3 If you enjoyed Where is Daniel Morecombe, Please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts.

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