This episode contains discussions of abduction and murder of a child, as well as sexual abuse and violence.

Please take care of yourself while listening and consider skipping this episode if these topics are difficult for you.

Listener discretion is strongly advised.

On Australia's Sunshine Coast,

December is supposed to feel light.

School is out for the year,

Christmas decorations, line the streets,

and families are getting ready for long summer days spent at the beach or shopping for last minute gifts.

And Palm Woods is a place where kids, they walk to the bus stop on their own, neighbors wave as they drive past, and it's a place where parents believe that their children are safe. But on Sunday,

December 7th of 2003, that sense of safety abruptly disappeared. In the middle of an ordinary

Sunday afternoon, a 13-year-old boy did everything right. He followed a routine he's done

many times before. But somewhere along that routine, that boy vanished.

And what followed would become one of the largest and longest investigations in Queensland history.

It was eight years of false leads, missed opportunities, and a family who refused to stop asking questions.

This is the story of Daniel Morecam.

I'm Ashley.

And I'm Ricky.

And this is Crime Salad.

Daniel Morcombe was born on December 19th of 1989 in Melbourne, Australia.

He was just a few years old when his family relocated north to Queensland's Sunshine Coast,

settling into a quieter, more rural way of life.

And by 2003, the Morcombe family was living on a small property in Palm Woods, a place where the kids grew up playing outdoors surrounded by animals.

...