QLD:Daniel's parents struggle with emotions

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2011
QLD:Daniel's parents struggle with emotions

BRISBANE, Aug 14 AAP - The parents of missing teenager Daniel Morecombe said the arrest
of a man for their son's murder has been extremely difficult to handle.

Bruce Morecombe told reporters that he and his wife Denise have been waiting for the
day someone was charged over the abduction of their 13-year-old son from a bus stop on
the Sunshine Coast in December, 2003.

When they were told on Saturday they had mixed emotions.

"It came as quiet a shock yesterday afternoon," Mr Morecombe told reporters outside
their home in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast.

"It's a very difficult place Denise and the family find ourselves in.

"It's a place you don't want to be in.

"It's an extremely difficult time and last night was not pleasant at all."

Police on Saturday charged the man with the teen's murder, nearly eight years after
Daniel, who was 13, went missing while waiting for a bus on the Sunshine Coast.

The man, who will remain in police custody until his court appearance in Brisbane Magistrates
Court on Monday, has been charged with murder, deprivation of liberty, child stealing,
indecent treatment of a child and interfering with a corpse.

Daniel disappeared from an unofficial bus stop under an overpass in the Woombye district
of the Sunshine Coast, on December 7, 2003.

He had intended to catch the 1.35pm bus to the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre to buy
Christmas presents for his family but he failed to return.

Mr Morecombe praised police and said the person who committed the crime picked the
wrong family to do it to.

Over the past eight years, the Morecombes have continually sought and gained publicity
to highlight the abduction of Daniel.

MORE dac/nb

KEYWORD: MORECOMBE UPDATE

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