Shovel at the ready, but no body to bury

HEARING: Daniel Morcombe went missing while waiting for a bus in December 2003 at the Kiel Mountain overpass bridge at Woombye.

BRETT Cowan told undercover police he went back to a section of bushland in the Glass House Mountains to bury Daniel Morcombe - about a week after dumping the teenager's body under a tree.

During the cross examination of Homicide Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Blanchfield, defence lawyer Michael Bosscher told the Brisbane Magistrates Court Cowan revealed to the undercover officers he returned with a shovel seven to 10 days later but little remained of the boy.

"He brings a shovel with him and he tells police he was not able to locate anything but a small piece of bone," Mr Bosscher said.

"In those alleged admissions he says he deals with that piece of bone by crushing it ... and does nothing else."

Mr Bosscher said Cowan's description of events was inconsistent with the majority of bones being found 30m to 40m away.

He said Cowan's descriptions of throwing clothing and shoes from a bridge into a creek were not consistent with the shoes being found in a different location nearby.

Earlier this afternoon, a senior investigator into the disappearance of Daniel Morcombe - and a member of the "arrest team" - told the court Brett Peter Cowan did not come to his attention until eight years after the teenager went missing.

Detective Senior Constable Ross Hutton told the court he was one of 10 "core" investigators, and the principal investigator for "persons of interest".

"People who had come to significant attention," he said.

But Mr Bosscher said Det Sen Constable Hutton had not had anything to do with Cowan until August 2011.

The court heard two people were investigated by Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission as police sifted through a lengthy list of persons of interest.

Hearings lasted four weeks and involved around 20 witnesses.

The court heard earlier today that Cowan was not investigated by the CMC.

Before the lunch break, the court heard that Cowan was first visited by police two weeks after Daniel Morcombe disappeared from a Sunshine Coast bus stop.

Defence lawyer Michael Bosscher said detectives from Task Force Argos - a unit that investigates cases of child abuse - visited his client on December 21, 2003, to ask about his movements on the day the teenager went missing.

"He indicated that at the relevant time, he was in the vicinity of where Daniel disappeared," he said.

Cowan told police he had gone to pick up a mulcher at about 1.30pm and returned about an hour later.

He was asked to provide a DNA sample and allow police to take his photograph.

Mr Bosscher said his client agreed to both requests.

Detectives returned to Cowan's house two days later and questioned him again on his movements.

They also asked to carry out forensic testing on his vehicle - a request he also agreed to, Mr Bosscher said.

A neighbour told police he had seen Cowan mulching "for most of the day".

Their inquiries continued in 2005, Mr Bosscher told the court, when Cowan was formally interviewed.

Det Sen Sgt Blanchfield said Cowan was interviewed because of some "discrepancies" in the times he had given.

He was interviewed again a year later after police obtained new information.

Mr Bosscher said his client, as well as other persons of interest, were placed under police surveillance during the lengthy investigation.

"(That) never provided anything of evidentiary value," Mr Bosscher said.

Mr Bosscher said Cowan's "confession" to undercover officers was at odds with the many witnesses who described scenarios involving a blue car, two or three adults speaking with a boy and a violent abduction from the bus stop.

Earlier today, one of the "principal investigators" into the murder of Daniel Morcombe told how the accused killer, Brett Peter Cowan, told an undercover officer he panicked and strangled the teenager after abducting him from a Sunshine Coast bus stop.

Giving evidence on Tuesday during the third week of a committal hearing, Homicide Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Blanchfield told how Cowan admitted to kidnapping and killing Daniel on December 7, 2003, in a conversation secretly recorded by a police officer in August 2011.

Referring to a transcript of the conversation between Cowan and two undercover officers, Crown Prosecutor Glen Cash said the accused killer described spotting Daniel waiting at a bus stop and pulling in at a nearby church.

Mr Cash said Cowan told the officers he walked through bushes to where Daniel was standing and pretended to also wait for a bus.

When it went past without stopping, Cowan said he offered Daniel a lift, claiming he was also on his way to the local shopping centre.

"Rather than taking Daniel to the shopping centre, he drove to a demountable house," Mr Cash said.

The court heard Cowan told the undercover officers he convinced Daniel to come inside by telling the teenager he had to let his wife know where he was going.

He asked Daniel to come inside the demountable for a glass of water.

"Yep, I never got to molest him or anything like that," Cowan said in the recorded conversation.

"I panicked and he panicked and I grabbed him round the throat and he was dead."

He told the undercover officers he pulled Daniel's pants down and the teenager said "oh no" before trying to escape.

The court heard Cowan described hearing a bone break when he "choked him out".

"He went on to describe to the undercover police where it was he positioned Daniel's body," Mr Cash said.

The court heard Cowan admitted to putting Daniel's body in the boot of his car before driving him to another location and dragging him down an embankment.

He removed his clothes and threw them off a bridge before hiding the teenager's body under a tree.

"(He described) putting branches over Daniel's body and returning (about a week) later where all that was left was a small piece of bone," Mr Cash said.

On Saturday, August 13, 2011, four days after the secret recording was made, Cowan and the two undercover officers went to an area along Kings Rd, Beerwah, where he had described leaving Daniel's body.

"You were present at the scene with some other police officers," Mr Cash said to the homicide detective.

"You identified yourself and arrested him in relation to the present offences."

Meanwhile, defence lawyer Michael Bosscher told the court police had, part-way through the investigation, recorded 17,840 "job logs" - or pieces of information to look into.

Some of those, the court heard, were from psychics.

"This was not something actively sought by police but police felt it necessary to respond to them," Mr Bosscher said.

Police had used a technique called "regression therapy" in order to jog the memories of potential witnesses, the court heard.

"Neither of those seem to have been of any real assistance in the ongoing investigation," Mr Bosscher said.

Other investigation methods included the offer of a $1 million reward and the promise of indemnity from prosecution for anyone who led police to the killer.

The court heard police even set up a "vehicle room", where witnesses could be brought to look at pictures of different makes and models of cars that were described as being in the area at the time of Daniel's abduction.

Mr Bosscher said none of the pictures were of a Mitsubishi Pajero - the type of car his client drove.

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