Morbid - The Abduction and Murder of Daniel Morcombe

Episode Date: April 17, 2021

Daniel Morcombe was 13 years old when he was taken from a bus stop in Queensland Australia. Queensland was supposed to be one of the safest places to live so this absolutely rocked the community. It would be 8 years before anyone would get answers, and the man who gave the answers is one of the scariest people to walk the planet.  As always, thank you to our sponsors: Curology: Go to Curology.com/morbid for a free 30-day trial, just pay for shipping and handling! Skylight Frame: Now, as a special holiday offer, you can get $10 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go SkylightFrame.com and enter code Morbid. HelloFresh: Go to HelloFresh.com/10morbid and use code 10morbid for 10 free meals, including free shipping! Embr: Get $50 off by going to embrwave.com/Morbid Sources: https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/608476/cif-morcombe-d-20190405.pdf https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-23/daniel-morcombe-adam-davidson-sentenced-over-cowan-torture/9076452 https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/daniel-morcombe-s-killer-brett-peter-cowan-stabbed-in-the-ear-and-neck-20180504-p4zdd2.html Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is morbid. Yippee. Morbid in the morning. Because we always tell you the time of day. Currently at this moment it is 8.16 a.m. I am currently drinking coffee out of my Willie Geist Sunday morning today show. I'm so jealous of you because I cut out coffee for dietary reasons. That's insanity.

Yeah. I don't want to, but my stomach is just a fucking cesspool. So there's that. I've been not eating delicious food lately. Wow, that's a bummer. I know. But I'm going to the doctor in a couple of weeks, so hopefully he tells me I can eat delicious food again. As long as you don't become one of those people that starts judging everyone else. Can I do it in my mind? No. I literally cannot.

No. One of the people I hate the most on planet Earth are people. are people who eat healthy. Oh, yeah. But you can eat healthy all you want. I like healthy food. But when people judge other people, like, do you know how many calories or anything? Do you know how much sugars and that?

I'm like, go fuck yourself. Like, I'll eat what I want. You eat what you want. Well, that's the thing. It's like, especially like when you're on a diet or something like at work and your, like, co-workers like, or no, like when you're the one that's like, oh, I wish I could eat that. Like what your co-workers eating more than you could. Yeah.

It's like, shut up. I hate discussions like that of like... Honestly, food-related discussions in general, unless you're like talking about a bomb-ass recipe that you just mean, I don't care what you're eating. Just don't judge people for their food. It makes me crazy. I don't judge people for their food. I just, I judge myself for my food. I won't allow you too, so don't work.

I guess not. Well, that has nothing to do with anything today. It doesn't. We're trying to delay the case because it's such a gnarly one. Elena is at least. Yeah, this is a gnarly case. may not be for you to tune into. This is a child case. Super duper highly requested, though, actually. Yeah, I was going to say very well known. Yeah, very well known. In the true crime community. Yes, and very

requested from our Australian listener. So today we're going to be covering the case of Daniel Warcombe. I know this one. It is a doozy. Sure is. I have been in a whole of this for like two weeks now. And I am ready to deliver you the information. I'm ready to get it out. Yeah. Just get it out. Clear it all. Honestly, we should have had Drew do a palette cleanser for this one. The other thing is, I'm going to suggest a book to you. It's in the middle of this, so I'll tell you the title then.

But I'm not going crazy into detail about some of the yuckier things that are like, you know, not super. You don't really want to like hear about them in detail. If you do, you can go read the book that I'm going to tell you about. There you go. All right. So let's get into it. Daniel Markholm was born on December 19, 1989 to his parents, Denise and Bruce Markholm.

He actually had a twin brother named Brad and an older brother named Dean. And Dean was only about like a year and a half or two years older than that. Oh, wow. So super like close in age. Now the family lived in Queensland, Australia, and they were super close-knit. This was like the kind of family that you see in movies, just like really loving and kind people. Awesome. I know.

We love to see it. Denise and Bruce had this beautiful home that they were stored together, actually, with a pool, a gorgeous garden, lots of space for animals. This family loved animals. They had horses. Daniel and Bradley actually had a pair of ponies of their own that they could take care of and like learn responsibility. Oh my god, this family. There was a cow. There were chickens and there were two cats and a dog. Of course. Hell, yeah. What a house. I know. It sounds like a great time. I love it. And Daniel always said that he wanted to be a vet when he grew up. And he really would have made a great vet because he just had this way with animals and even most of the family's pets like gravitated towards him. Like, I think both cats slept in his room at night. Oh, my God. I think the dog may have as well.

Wow. Now, Queensland, Australia seemed like the perfect place to raise a family. For one thing, it is literally called the Sunshine State. Oh, really? Literally. Oh, that's funny. And it's also known as one of the safest places in Australia. So that's why when 13-year-old Daniel went missing around Christmas time in 2003,

the community was shook. Just completely rocked. Absolutely. Now, the day Daniel went missing was Sunday, December 7th, 2003. It was less than two weeks until his 14th birthday. I was going to say that's right before his birthday. So less than two weeks until his birthday and less than three weeks until Christmas. And the family was incredibly excited for Christmas. Like that was their holiday. Because Bruce and Denise actually owned their own mowing business. That was like incredibly busy. And Christmas was a

time where they could all slow down and really just enjoy their time together. Yeah. So Daniel actually needed a haircut before his birthday and the holidays, and he also wanted to get his family some Christmas gifts. So he set out for the bus stop with plans to catch the 135 p.m. bus. And also, I feel like the thought of a 13-year-old boy just wanting to go get Christmas gifts for his family is one of the sweetest things ever. It's the cutest thing ever in completely heartbreaking in this case. It is, especially when you think about like the general disposition of most 13-year-old boys. Exactly. He's just running out to get gifts for his family. It's touching. It's adorable. Now, Daniel was really compassionate and giving, and he definitely loved to make other people, especially his family happy.

And so the book that his parents actually wrote is called Where Is Daniel? It's a really good read. They described this one time where they were away celebrating their anniversary, and I think the boy's grandparents were taking care of them. And Brad and Daniel dug out this special pool for their parents so that they could surprise them with like a little goldfish pool. Stop. Right? and Daniel's grandfather told his parents how he especially had worked like really hard and was so excited to be doing this for his parents. So I just wanted to tell that little anecdote because I feel like it really puts into perspective, like just who this kid was. And he was so cute.

Oh my God. I like cried a few times during this just because he's just like such a little. He's like, I have such a baby face. He has this. It's a face that you just like, it sticks in my head. like, you're an amazing kid. Like, you're a good kid. You're just a good kid. I know. So he walks over to the bus stop at Keel Mountain Road Overpass, which really wasn't a big deal. He'd gone and taken the bus on his own before. Like I said, Queensland was a really safe place. Nothing bad happened there. And all the Morco and boys were really responsible kids who were independent when they needed to be. And to add to that even more, the bus stop was less than a mile away from the family's home. Right? That's where shit happens. I know, I know. Always close to home.

It's so true. Now, Daniel was wearing a red shirt, a pair of dark shorts and white sneakers, and plenty of witnesses saw him standing at the bus stop. Like a ton of people saw him. Now, unfortunately, the 135 bus had broken down, not that far away, but far enough so that Daniel couldn't see it. And he was already getting confused, like, hey, where's the bus? Now, a man who did see that that bus was broken down, however, noted that it was broken down, drove past the bus stop and spotted Daniel. And then he looped back around again and parked his car in the parking lot behind the bus stop, got out and seemed to be waiting for the next bus with Daniel, which is weird because,

like I just said, he has a car. I was going to say, why are you waiting for the bus? But, okay. So witnesses saw this man standing behind Daniel kind of leaned up against the wall with one leg up. So he had like one leg kind of tucked behind him. And Daniel was seemingly using a stick to draw on the dirt around him, just kind of passing the time until the next bus arrived. Because he's a kid.

Yeah. Now, a replacement bus was sent out, but for some reason it didn't stop where Daniel and the man were standing, even though Daniel was trying to wave the bus down. He just zoomed right by. And who knows, I think Daniel was just like, wait, why is that, why is no bus coming together? Like, why did that one just come by? So he probably turned around and said to the guy like, what's going on? You know? Yeah.

Who knows? Now, the guy told him, you know, I have my car anyway. Why don't I give you a ride? So Daniel agreed, having no way of knowing that a bus actually would be coming for that stop in three minutes. Three more minutes. But when the bus got there, neither Daniel or the man was waiting there anymore. What kills me is this guy drove past this bus stop. It's always when like in these kind of cases where somebody like an adult drives by spots a kid and it makes like a conscious decision.

Oh yeah. That's the one that turned the car around. Right. Like that is whenever I hear that, it's just like. Humans hunting humans in general is the wildest thing to me. But adult humans hunting children. Humans spotting a child out having no idea anything about it and just being like, yep. Yeah.

I'm going to ruin that one's life. like family's life like it doesn't care at all just you made a conscious decision like that isn't it's so crazy to me oh we're going to talk about this guy he is fucked up like deeply deeply disturbed but before we get into that let's kind of go into like the search a little bit yeah so daniel's parents had actually been at a christmas party that day that they were putting on for work like i said i don't know if i mentioned before they owned um like a franchise of knowing companies yeah yeah yeah So the party was to end around four, and then around 430, Denise drove over to the bus stop to pick Daniel up. Only, he was not on the bus that stopped there.

So an hour later, Bruce drove to the bus stop again, knowing that the bus that would be arriving would be the last to leave the sunset plaza, where Daniel was supposed to be shopping for the evening. So it was like, if he wasn't on that bus, like, where was he? It's panic time now. So he goes there yet again, Daniel's not on the bus. Now, Bruce and Denise are becoming more and more worried. So they both head out to the shopping plaza themselves to see if Daniel had got like caught up shopping, missed the bus or something. Like they're hoping the not the worst, you know. They're hoping it's something they can ground them over.

Yeah. You know what you mean? Right. Right. Even though it would be like crazy out of character, which we'll also get into. So no sign of Daniel. They leave the plaza and they travel the same route that the last bus would have. And they even flagged down one of the sunbuses to see if maybe one of them was like running off

of schedule or something. But they were told that no one was at the depot at the moment to like the office where they run the bus schedules. No one was there. So there was nobody to call to find out about the schedules. And the bus driver was like, I don't know. Like I'm sorry. Yeah. Like you can't help you. Right. So then they went back to the plaza one last time. They're like, maybe we'll just do like one more check. They don't see him. And they come to the realization that he's missing and we need to contact the police. Oh my God. So now it's- I can't imagine having to make that call. No. And especially just thinking, because especially thinking, oh, you know, he was shopping. He probably just got caught up. Like, let's go back there. Like, in your mind, you're going to

convince yourself that he's there. Yeah, we're going to find him there. We're going to be able to be like, what are you thinking? Like, come on. You made us worried sick. Yeah. Let's go home. Right. But no, nothing can prepare you for that. No. So now it's 7.30 and it's been so. six hours since Daniel first arrived at that bus stop. And as we know, never stepped foot on any bus. Now, Bruce and Denise arrived at the station and described the entire situation to Officer Robbie Munn, who then told them that Daniel was probably just with friends and forgot to call them. I hate these things. I hate these things. So annoying. And it's like Bruce and Denise know their son. And they're like, that's what kills me. They were like, it's way out of character for him.

Anytime he's ever run late, he's called us. Like, he would call us. Yeah. And if he had met up with friends and wanted to stay out later, again, he would have called us. That's the thing. That's just who he was and we know him. You don't. Exactly. Because I feel like in these situations I always hear, like you hear that over and over again. Yeah. That a police officer or a detective looks at parents or a spouse or somebody who knows these people and are like, he's probably doing this or she's probably doing this and they're like, no, I know them. They wouldn't do that. And they're like, no, they probably did. And it's like, you literally don't know this person. You know nothing about him. Right.

Like, don't, I know you're trying to be like, you're trying to keep the situation calm, but it's like, don't tell parents what their kid is prone to do and not do. Exactly. Like, they're worried and they have a reason to worry. And they're the parents. They know him. They know. So they were told at that moment that a missing person's report could not be filed that night. He's 13 years old.

Well, that's the other thing. Like, what the officer was saying. He was like, well, he's 13. Like, he's probably out with his friends. And it's like, he's a child. He's not like 17. He's 13. Yeah. Like, that's, geez, he can't drive.

Right. Like, he literally do nothing at 13. Right. Like, what the hell are you going to do? And now, obviously, like I said, they were like, no, that's not Daniel. But just to be sure, and honestly, at this point, they're just desperate for any answers. They call all of Daniel's friends. Oh, those poor parents.

We're told that none of them had seen or had even been with Daniel that day. So they set out that night again one more time to the bus stop with, like, tortuary. to like look around and obviously they didn't find anything. Now, the police did call later that night to say like, hey, did he show up? Like what's going on? And they were like, no, like we told you he's not out with his friends, like that we know him better than you. Yeah. They were like, nope, he's not here. So at that point, Bruce and Denise were told that they could come down to the station in the morning to make an official report. And obviously- Have a good night's sleep, Denise and Bruce. Yeah, right? And I can't

tomorrow. It's like, I was thinking that. It's funny that you said that while I was like writing this all. I was like, what did they do that night? Like, they must have just been off all night. They just, I get like, I think that all the time in these situations where those parents must, I, if you sleep, it must be like one of those like sleeps where your eyes are just like glazed over and you just are sitting there staring into space and like happen to go unconscious for a minute because your body forces you to. There's no way you're laying your head down on the pillow. Or like getting into bed, like snuggling up. No, no way. Because you're just sitting there being like, what if they walk through the door? What if we find out that they need me? What if, you know?

Yeah. And they found. So stressed for them. They like, quote unquote, excuse me, got up at like the first light of the morning and set out for the day. Yeah, of course. Nope, it's bright out. Like, let's go. As soon as the sun peaks over, I'd be like, and we're off. But then they had to drive. There's one of their sons to work. Because remember, they have two other children at home. Yeah, they can't give up on their other kids. Dean. And then they have Daniel's. twin brother, Bradley. Like, that's terrible, like, to have to deal with, like, continuing to be a parent while you're in that situation. Oh, yeah, because it's not like you can just put it on pause, you know, not take care of the kids that are here. You have to keep it in. You have to make sure that you're not panicking them, that they know as little as possible until you know what's going on.

Like, that is an impossible situation. I can't even imagine how you just navigate that because there's no, there's no book on that. No, no one ever thinks they'll be in that kind of position. No. And at this point, Bruce was especially aggravated that his son was out there missing and nobody seemed to be listening to them. Of course. Like he was like, my son's not a runaway. I'm pissed for him. Yeah. So the official report was filed on December 8th, 2003 and the investigation was on at this point. There were divers activated in the area to search for Daniel. The police searched that bus stop itself for any evidence. They didn't really find anything. They started knocking on doors in the area to see if anyone knew anything. More importantly. importantly, they pulled the records of sexual offenders in the area, which there were a few. Daniel also had a bank card on him that day, so they wanted to check to see if any of his accounts had been messed with. Oh, yeah. They hadn't. Now, they contact the bus company, and they interview all the drivers who were in the area that area. In the area. In the area that day. So American, you're talking about an Australian case. The area. And later, when the case started

making headlines, passengers on the bus and just anyone who drove by the bus. stop that day started coming forward describing the man that they had seen standing behind Daniel. So the man who had accepted, who Daniel accepted the ride home from, or to the mall from, excuse me, was Brett Peter Cowen, a perverted monster of a human being to say the least. And also clearly because he has three names. Yeah. We've always said it. You're guilty. Don't go by your three names. Don't do it. Now, Brett Peter Cowen was born in, I believe it's Bunbury, Australia. That's an adorable sounding. Yeah, Bunbury. I want to live there.

Bunberry. Other than the fact that he came from there. God, I love Australia. Oh, it's the best. I love you guys. Now, he was born on August 18th, 1960. 1969, excuse me. His mother, Marlene was a stay-at-home mom, and his father, Peter actually served in the Vietnam

War. Oh, wow. Now, he and his three brothers were raised with Christian values, and Marlene and Peter were very, very religious and very, very strict. All right. Which is not, I feel like it's not. on a combo that really goes well together most of the time. It's a very intense combo. Yeah. Growing up, Brett was quiet, kept to himself. He didn't really have any hobbies or interests, but overall,

people said that he, quote, seemed all right. Seemed all right. He and his three brothers all attended Marcellin College, which was a super strict Catholic school. But Brett dropped out in his 10th year, which is like, that's sophomore year here. I'm assuming it's pretty similar there. Yeah. That's pretty young. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now, he would work odd jobs, but mostly he was just concerned with using drugs and committing crimes. Yeah, as any kid is. Yeah, you know, this is going to blow your mind. Uh-oh. He was only 11 the first time he tried smoking weed. What?

11. That is a baby. 11 is a baby. A baby. Now, it was all downhill from there because once he dropped out of school, he started using harder drugs. He was using cocaine, acid, different amphetamines. And he was doing these drugs, regularly. Jeez. Yeah. He was getting into trouble left and right for theft and drug charges, but then in 1987, he was charged with something horrific.

Trigger warning, this is a lot. Oh, no. He molested a seven-year-old boy. What the fuck. Now, again, like I said in the beginning, I'm not going to go into great detail here. You can definitely read this book or find some other sources that I'll give you in the show notes. But the molestation took place while Brett was doing community service at a park.

and afterwards he faced charges, or excuse me, after he faced the charges, he only spent three years in prison. What? Three years in prison for that. For sexually assaulting a seven-year-old? Yes. Okay. Mm-hmm.

So after that mere slap on the wrist, he went on to do the same thing in September of 1993, and this time, again, trigger warning, he raped a six-year-old boy. Six years old? Now, the boy suffered severe injuries from the attack, including. a punctured lung. And Cowan just left him there bleeding, like in the brush. The boy was able to get help only when he stumbled into a service station. Yeah, like gut wrenching.

And somehow, Cowen was only sentenced to seven years. And these are the charges that he faced seven years for. Gross indecency, grievous bodily harm and deprivation of liberty. Okay. And you get seven years for that? And it's like we've already, that should be it. Like, you gave him the three years. He came out.

He did it again. Jail forever. Bye. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, it's not like stealing something or, you know, a drug charge or something like that. This is a assault on young children. Essentially not given, and he left him there.

He didn't know if he lived or died. He didn't get shit. It's attempted murder. You're destroying a six-year-old boy. Like, no. I can't even like think about it too far in my head because it's unreal. And so, like I said, he was sentenced to seven years, but actually got out in just four and a half years. Of course he did, because that's always how it works.

Yeah. And it's these particularly, like, disturbing, like, sexual crimes where the perpetrator gets out in, like, a minute. Yeah. And then just does it again. Right. Every single time. Because what do they learn? Oh, I'm only going to go away for a little bit.

Yeah. So, like, fuck it. Yeah. Which is horrible. Their, their urges and their whole illness, it was like, they're, they can. They get out after those like three years or those, you know, four years or whatever. And they're like, you know what? It's worth it to go back in for another four years.

And it's only four years. Right. Like that's how sick they are. And, oh, they're, ugh. It's so gross. I hate, it's like this kind of case. Oh, it makes you so angry. These kind of things make me so angry.

Mm-hmm. Luckily, I will tell you the end of this case. You get like a ha-ha. Okay, good. I love that. So just keeping everybody in for the ride. Love that. Now, when he was released from prison,

then this time, he moved to, excuse me, from Darwin to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with his aunt and uncle, Jenny and Keith Philbrook. I found some sources that referred to him as a reformed Christian during this time period, but that could not be further from the truth. Okay, I'm shocked. Not true at all. Now, Jenny and Keith were both very involved in the church because actually both of them were pastors. Oh, wow. So they hoped that it would be kind of a new beginning for their nephew, but like I said, it wasn't. He was still up to the same disturbing things, and this time he just made time to show his face at church to like keep up appearances, I guess. Now, on one occasion, he was going to be driving a couple of the church members to a soup kitchen.

And one of the passengers that he was going to be driving was Melissa Bridges. She was 15 at the time. Now, Cowan picked her up first, and as soon as she got in the car, she noticed that he wasn't really dressed properly to be like heading to the soup kitchen. He was wearing. dirty overalls that were stained with paint and he himself was like covered in paint. I guess he maybe was just doing one of his odd jobs or whatever. And he told her he just had to stop home, shower, get changed and they would be on their way to pick up another person. No. Which no. No. And she was probably like, yeah, dude, like, why didn't you do that before you? Yeah, I think of me. But at this point, she's already in the car. He's already driving. What's she going to do?

And she's 15. And she's 15. So he drives her into the middle of nowhere, where, he's staying. They both head in. He takes a shower. She's just like waiting, like, get me the fuck out of here, probably really freaked out. And this piece of wet lettuce comes out of the shower after dowsing himself in Cologne, only wearing a towel, pushes her against a table, and is like grabbing her trying to kiss her and like, like groping her. Ew. Now, by the way, at this point, he's in his 40s. I was just going to say, how old is he? He's in his 40s at this point. And again, she's 15. Terror. Terror. But nonetheless, this 15-year-old is a badass bee. She need him in the balls and was able to make a break out the front door. She called one of her friends from school and the girl came to pick her up. And she, like, got out of there instantly. Icon. An icon. So this wasn't the only shady thing that he was doing while he was showing face at church, because there were rumors that he was paying and bribing young men for sex acts. There was another girl that he had apparently been assaulted.

and abusing for a period of time. Women he dated actually came forward later on about their sex lives, telling authorities that he specifically wanted to only roleplay kidnapping and rape scenarios. Yeah, no. And these women were providing them with more information about Cowan's online presence. Now, he was using a ton of different dating sites, both for gay and straight people, using the same, like, online name, sexual deviant. Oh, I mean.

Just put it all out there. right out there. And he was describing all these fantasies of his, like, oh, on those sites, all including really heinous and lewd scenarios. And they said that he regularly viewed pornography that was really darker in nature, including bestiality. So he's just, like, really messed up in, like, essentially almost every way that you can be messed up in. I tried to find anything about his childhood that said, like, head injury or, like, abuse. Something to point to. Something went wrong. Obviously. But clearly.

Couldn't find anything. Wow. No idea. Wow. So all that's going on in the mid to late 90s. And then Cowan meets this woman named Tracy Moncrief. Moncrief. Moncrief, I believe.

Sounds pretty. Yeah, at church. And the church where they met was the Christian Outreach Center at Wombai, which is not far from the bus stop where Brett offered Daniel a ride. Now, I couldn't find a ton of information on their relationship other than that they were married in 1999. They had one son together and they were divorced in 2004. So it's pretty quick deal. Yeah. And it's unclear if Tracy knew about her husband's dark past. Yeah, because you had a child together. Yeah, and like present and dark present now that I think of it. I was going to say just

darkness. Yeah. Now flash forward to December of 2003. The police show up at Tracy and Brett's house and beer wash to ask some questions. Or, oh my God, I said beer wash. It's beerwa. Beerwa. Beer wash. I keep wanting to say wash. I think it auto-corrected too. We want to wash some beer. You'd like to wash some beer with you, Tracy and Brett. No, they had questions. And because of Brett's previous convictions and the fact that a man matching his description was seen in the area, they had a strong feeling like maybe he had something to do with this. Like, let's just, what he was doing that day? Yeah. Let's start there. Let's just go with this. Now, according to Cowan, yes, he had driven in the area that day, even passed by the bus stop. But he didn't stop an abducted

boy. He was out doing work in his yard after that. And then he called his friend Frank to see if he could borrow his mulcher. You know Frank? Yeah, Frank Davis over there. Yeah, Frank down the road. I need his mulcher. With the mulcher that everybody's just like borrowing after. They're like, oh, I guess, I guess he really did borrow the mulcher. Yeah. So he said that he left around 1250 to borrow that mulch, which, what is a mulcher? And then that's how you mulch. I guess so. And then he said, So, yeah, he leaves at 1250 and then he's back around 245 to 330. It's a big chunk of time. Yeah, and it's like, so did he go get the mulcher?

He's saying that amount of time was what it took to get the mulch. Yeah, he said, I left around 1250 to get the mulcher and I came back around 245 or 330. Yeah. Yeah. So what did you and Frank do? Yeah. Did you have some tea? Oh, well, just wait.

So now I just punched my fucking microphone. So Tracy told the authorities that on the morning of December 7th, she'd gone to church by herself. Her husband was not attending regularly anymore. Shocked. She said she came home. She made lunch for her in her man's. She settled the baby because remember he has a fucking baby who's like basically an infant. Wow, that's horrific. And then she confirmed that he left. She said it was around 1 p.m. to borrow that mulcher. And she said he didn't come home until about 2.40 or 3. Oh, okay. So she tightened up that time a little bit. But still, she wasn't sure because he didn't come inside, he just went right outside to do his mulching. Now, she later told them that her husband

also had a particular way of standing. I'm sure they, like, asked her about it. And she said that he usually stood, if he was leaning up against something, he would put one foot up against the wall. Huh. Kind of like the guy that was standing behind Daniel. Yeah. Now, the police also asked the family, about the family cars. And Tracy told them that the only car they had at the time was a white Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi. It's so hard to say. It is hard to say. Which is interesting because 84 eyewitness accounts involved a blue sedan near where Daniel disappeared. Like, everyone was pointing that car out. Huh.

Now, someone who was heavily looked at in the investigation that did have a blue sedan was a man named Douglas Brian Jackway. Another three-named monster. Three names. Hello. Always. Now, this guy's... Drop a name. This guy's nasty.

I'm not going to get super into him because he's for another day, I guess. Oh, boy. He had spent almost all of his adult life except for three months in prison for violent, sexually motivated crimes against children. Oh. Including trigger warning, the rape of his own sister. Oh, God. Fuck you, man. It's like, what?

That's so, there's so many things wrong with that. That poor girl. Like, that's terrible. Now, at the time of Daniel's disappearance, he was out of prison. He had been let out, I believe, a month before Daniel's disappearance. Yeah, there it is in my notes. Oh. And unfortunately, a lot of effort was put into investigating him, but he wasn't, he wasn't the guy.

And I get why they leaned into that really hard. Absolutely. I mean, he's in the area. Everyone's saying they saw his car. But it turns out that his car was in the area the day after Daniel disappeared. It had like broken down and he was doing some work on it. Oh, so maybe. Because again, eyewitness testimony.

It's not that. So flawed. Right. So flawed. People mean well, but our brains are funny. Yeah. I mean, I could say like yesterday I saw this car, but really, it could have been like the day before yesterday. Oh, yeah. Like, I can't remember anything. And I would be the most piss poor eyewitness. No. They'd be like, what, I think we've talked about this like a lot recently because I like, what'd you have for breakfast? I don't know. I'd be like, did I have breakfast that

day? I have no idea. Right. Exactly. So even though Brett Peter Cowen didn't own a blue sedan, there were also reports about a white sedan in the area, too. And for some reason, they decided to serve the cars at the Christian Outreach Center, which is, it's a good thing that they did. It just seemed like a little random to me. Yeah, like, all right. It's nearby. I'm like, I don't know why we think someone at church did it, but I guess they did. And his white Mitsubishi was noted. So that's why we did it. Okay. Now when they went, that's why we did it. Now, when they went out to ask him and Tracy the questions that day, they also were able to search and run some tests on that car. No blood was detected. None of the fingerprints in the car matched Daniels, and there was hair collected, but at the

time, the testing that they would have done on the hair wasn't really reliable and it hadn't gone as far as it would. And when it did come around around like 2008, they were able to compare the hair found in the car to two to hair found from two of Daniel's old baseball caps, but the findings were inconclusive. Hair evidence is another one of those. It's tough. Tricky, tricky things. Because I think we talked about it in the Julia Wallace case. Like a lot of times it's like my piece of hair could be like the same as like six other people. Yeah. In the area.

It's one of those sciences that has slowly become less and less reliable. I wonder if they'll ever do like anything. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. So with not much to go on because they didn't have any physical evidence at all, the case went cold for a while. And the rewards were offered, the rewards offered eventually went up to a million dollars, which at the time was the highest reward offered in Queensland history.

Wow. So now it's May of 2009. And the Morcom family had a full-sized model put together of one suspect in the case, like based off of all the eyewitness accounts. Now, I'll post a picture of it. It's bananas. And it looks just like Brett Peter Cowen. You should definitely Google it. I'm definitely going to Google it.

So the man had shagging. longish brown hair, a goatee. He was wearing dark clothing. And Tracy later testified that Brett Peter Cowen had longer hair at that point in time and a goate. Now, when the model was made and put up, more tips were coming in, more information was being relayed to the police, including information coming from criminals in the area who were saying they knew who killed Daniel. Now, by October 2010, is it coronial inquest? The coroner's inquest? Yeah.

It's coronial. Coronial. An inquest was opened up. Yeah, I don't know. I just know coroner's inquest. I don't know how you say it. It's a little different. That way.

Yeah. But an inquest was opened at the request of the Morcombe family. And the purpose of the inquest was to bring all the witnesses together, interview again, anyone who had information, and to question potential suspects. Now, the bus driver who passed Daniel was actually there and questioned. And he said he did, in fact, see Daniel waving him down, but he was running late, so he ignored him. Nice. And also, like, that's not your job.

Yeah, exactly. Your job is to pick up whoever is at the stops where you're supposed to get them. I love that. I just ignored him. Nice. Like a 10-year-old boy? Okay. Very cool.

Excuse me, a 13-year-old boy? Very cool. Nice. Now, the inquest also involved bringing Brett Peter Cowan in to ask more questions. And here's a quote from the findings, which I found online and I will post you. I'll post the link to the inquest in the notes. Oh, sweet. Because, whoa, baby. We love an inquest. So here's the quote. Quote, Mr. Cowan was called to give evidence on days 18 and 19 of the inquest on the 31st March and the 1st of April 2011. His evidence at the inquest confirmed that his version of

events about his movements on the day Daniel disappeared was implausible. Subsequently, the police investigation focused on him as the main person of interest. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Now, during the inquest, one of the main focuses was that there was that like 45 minutes of time that was unaccounted for. Yeah. Now, in 2003, Brett hadn't mentioned that he was stopping at his drug dealer's house to pick up some weed during that time. Now, he remembered that like three years later in 2006. Impressive. I know, huh? Good memory. And he remembered that because like the phone records determined that his timeline was super off. Oh, so suddenly his memory got very clear. He's like, well, my timeline was off because of that. Oh, yeah. Because what happened was he was supposed to have made

a call after he had left the house, but he was, he would have like still been in the house during that time period. So they were just like, that doesn't make sense. What happened? We proved you wrong. Yeah. You know what? That's, that's smart to like put your, to still admit to a, an infraction, but just a lesser one to be like, see, why would I lie? Yeah. I'm telling you the truth about this. And now that you say that, I feel like that kind of happens a lot in these situations. They're like, oh, I didn't abduct that boy. I was just on my way to buy a new gun that I'm not licensed to have. Like, sure, that's, because they're never like, I was on my way to go grocery shopping.

Rescue some puppies that I heard were teetering over a ledge in a bus full of orphans. Yeah. Like, that's, they're never doing that. They're always just like, you know what, I'll, you know what, police officers, I'm going to come clean. You got me. I'll come clean. I was going to buy some weed. sorry my bad sorry wasn't me but abducting children absolutely not no no no no I'm telling you the

truth about the weed I'm reformed I'm reformed it's like one of those things where they think they're smarter mm-hmm because they're like oh this will work I'm like a criminal mastermind yeah this doesn't work when the police contacted that woman Sandra drum or yeah Sandra Drummond to be like hey was that was that for real like did he stop she was like number one that was like so many years ago? I don't know. But she was like, so she couldn't remember. She was like, yeah, he did buy weed for me on occasion, but I don't remember him being there that specific day. And her boyfriend at the time, Kevin Fitzgerald said, because Brett also said that he like showed them his mulcher, which I don't know. It's not even yours to show off, but okay. Show me your mulcher. I'll show you

weird flex, but okay. But Kevin Fitzgerald said that he would have remembered if Brett showed him a mulcher. He was like, I would have remembered that, okay? I know a good mulcher when I see one. I would have remembered that. And then they also said that, like, they used to go to, like, on Sundays, they would go to, like, where her daughter worked. So they were like, I don't know. Like, it doesn't sound like that would have happened. But the police were like, okay, neither of you are credible. Bye. They were like, thank you so much for your help. Yes. We'll give you a call later. Goodbye. So now we have Brett Peter Cowen as the main person of interest, but how are they going to get him on this? So they set up an undercover sting called a Mr. Big operation.

Mr. Big operation? Yes. Which is, this is, like, this particular sting isn't like Mr. Big itself. Like, Mr. Big operations happen all the time. Oh, okay. So according to the conversations article on the Mr. Big technique that I will also link in the show notes, quote, In Mr. Big Operations, law enforcement personnel essentially do the reverse of a normal covert operation. They create the criminal group or enterprise and insert that target into the group. The group members form social bonds with the target and gain their confidence through the

inclusion of the target in a criminal enterprise relationship. Okay. So essentially, the police are acting as undercover people. They're undercover cops acting as criminals and they're bringing Brett into their criminal family to kind of like get him to get information. Okay. So in this case, a group of undercover cops got Brett Peter Cowen involved in what he didn't know was a fake drug ring.

They were doing drug deals. They were doing debt collections. They were working on pimping deals, selling weapons, essentially all the illegal things that you could possibly imagine. All the illegal things. They were pretending to do. And Cowen was working right along with them thinking the whole thing was very real. Now, to stay connected in the real.

ring and to make sure that he was taken care of, he had to tell them about anything shady from his past that happened. And he had told them different things from his past, obviously, because this entire past is shady. And there were mubblings that maybe he was involved in the Daniel Morcoe murder. But they needed a straight up confession. So they set up this sting in a hotel room and captured the entire thing on camera. They basically said, like, if we're going to take care of you and you're going to work for us, you have to be honest with us about everything from your passed. And if you killed that kid, we need to know so that we can take care of it. Wow. Bananas. Wow.

Immediately. Cowan confessed and said that he offered Daniel a ride to the Sunshine Plaza, but instead took him to this property in the middle of nowhere with a demountable house, which is like you can kind of like move it anywhere. And he said he offered him a drink of water and then immediately tried to take his pants off and assault him. He said that Daniel said like, oh no. And he started to freak out. So Brett Peter Cowan started to choke him. And when he was done, he undressed Daniel and disposed of his body in the brush around the glasshouse mountains. Wow. Yeah. Now, that may very well be true, but it's widely suspected that he did, in fact, assault Daniel at one point in time, because Daniel's body was undressed when he disposed of it.

And when Daniel's pants were later found at a separate location, his belt wasn't going through the loops properly. Oh, okay. And his parents just said, like, we can't put our heads there. I do not blame them on any level. Exactly. You just, yeah, I wouldn't. You know, he did it and he's going away forever. I don't need to know anything else. Now, the fake crime ring tells Callan that he needs to take them to where Daniel's body was disposed of because they need to make sure that there's no traceable evidence out there. This is brilliant. It's, there's like another, it's a 60 minutes from Australia that I'll link. And like they reenact it. And even just the reenactment, you're hyped. Oh my God. This is like brilliant. It's crazy. And they're like,

if there's traceable evidence, it's going to take us all down. So we got to get rid of it for you. Like this is us helping you, helping us. See, we're on your side now, man. So. I'm an idiot. Oh my God. It's incredible. So he takes them all down there. But really, once he takes them to the embankment, another set of cops are there to arrest him. Now, the day was August 13th, 2011, eight years since Daniel had been murdered. Wow. Eight years. Now, Cowan was charged with child stealing, deprivation of liberty, and decent treatment of a child under 16, and interfering with a corpse. And in August of that same year, two shoes and three human bones were found where Cowan had unknowingly led the investigators. Wow.

Now, both were forensically tested and confirmed to be Daniel Morecombs, unfortunately. So they didn't even find all of them? They didn't find all of them. I mean, it had been eight years. Eight years. And we're Australia animals. Exactly. And he disposed of him in like a very, uh, a shitty area.

Yeah, it's like in the mountains. Yeah. Now Cowan actually pleaded not guilty, which it's like, I don't know how after all, like, we have you saying that you are guilty, but okay. But he was found guilty on all charges and was sentenced to life in prison with possible parole in 20 years. But the judge Rosalind Atkinson told him, quote, wherever anyone is, or excuse me, whenever anyone is considering the prospect of granting you parole in the future, they should mark my words that you were convincing, plausible, and an adaptable liar. Yes. So he is.

That's what his whole life has been. Literally lying. He said that he probably molested upwards of 30 boys. That's disgusting. 30. Oh, my God. I literally want to light this guy on fire. Yeah.

And it doesn't sound like Brett is doing too well in prison either. No? No. Well, we know how it goes when you're like... Oh, the hierarchy. Yeah, exactly. If you're responsible for molesting children, you're not going to do well in prison. And you're also disgusting.

But in 2016, a fellow inmate named Adam Paul Davidson, poured boiling water from a mop bucket over Brett Peter Cowan's head while he was playing cards with some other inmates. So Brett's there like, you got any threes? Go fish. And he gets fucking a mop of boiling water thrown over his head. And then the guy, the article that I read, it said that he struck him with the mop bucket afterwards. Which like I would never ever laugh if this was about anybody else, but the fact that it's about this monster, I'm like, good. This guy is playing crazy AIDS, and they just get so nasty-ass mock bucket. Literally, literally. And then when they asked the guy who did it, the Adam Paul Davidson, they were like, why'd you do that?

And he was, he said he did it for Daniel. He said it was like a vigilante act on Daniel's part. And he said, he went on to say, quote, he had it coming. He's a fucking grub. Oh my God. Like, also, can we start calling people grubs. Fucking grub. No, that's not it. Dude, I'm so for that. You don't have to be for that, but I'm for that. Oh, I'm for that.

Like, I'm, don't come at me about that. Anyone listening? You don't have to be for that. You don't have to be for that. But also, don't be mad at us for being for that. This guy, like, molested upwards of four children. Oh, yeah. No, I won't apologize.

Child molesters definitely deserve to have mop buckets launched at their head. Agreed. At the very least. Yes. Now, he was hospitalized and he had burns to 15% of his body, including his hand. yeah, excuse me, hands, head, face, chest, and legs. So he was like, he got fucked up. He got got. And then in 2018, another inmate used some kind of like homemade tool to stab him. A shankleink. Yeah, I wasn't going to say it. But in the ear or the neck, the ear and the neck. So he was stabbed. But unfortunately, the injuries were really superficial. And one of the people reporting said that there wasn't even blood. So I think it was kind of just like a. failed attempt. And it was probably just like a scare tactic. Yeah. Hey, you're gross. Yeah, exactly. I'm trying to stab you in the ear. Yeah, pretty much. But on the family's end,

there's at least some good that came from this tragedy. Denise and Bruce were able to lay their son to rest on the ninth anniversary of his disappearance. So that was December, excuse me, December 7th, 2012. Two thousand people attended Daniel's funeral, which took place at Siena Catholic Church. Australia. 2,000 people. And now this will destroy you. His parents say that they had two lives, one before everything happened and one after Daniel. Oh my God. Like they were like, that happened first. That's so understandable. We live another life. Yeah. Like those, because you can't just be like, well, we just move forward. You know, like it's, there does need to be a dividing line like, you know, before this, after this kind of thing. Like, it is a different way of living.

I imagine. It's like a healthy way of processing it too. That is a very healthy way of processing it. Because it's not like shoving it off to the side. It's not burying it. No. But it's also not letting it like swallow you whole. Yeah. Just kind of recognizing it for what it is. Yeah. So they actually also set up the Daniel Morcombe Foundation in 2005. Well, he was still missing and they didn't have answers. Yeah. They set that foundation up with their sons Bradley and Dean. And the goal of the organization is to obviously prevent this from happening to any other child to offer research. resources, education, and counseling for victims who have dealt with anything similar to this. We have said this before, like with Molly Bish, we were talking about it. I have so much, like, respect isn't even the word. It's like admiration. It's just like, awe. Just like complete in awe of families who, when this goes on, instead of just going and getting in bed forever, which they could absolutely reasonably do. No one would be mad. Instead, they turn, around and they're like, I'm not only going to make something good out of this for my child, but I'm going to make it so this never happens to another family. Exactly. And they did it when

they didn't even know if he was alive or dead or what was going on with him. Yeah. Like they were doing that in the midst of a grief that I can't even fathom. And to just, I mean, to make that the rest of your life is like you said, like, very admirable. Helping other people make sure that they never have to feel the pain that you feel. Yeah. And I can imagine. So selfless. That work would be really triggering at times. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

So that says a lot about them. Oh. And the foundation actually got so much attention and grew so quickly that they needed a separate space for it, like outside of their house. So they got a house for the foundation, which is now called Daniel's house. Stop. Mm-hmm. And it's actually located really close by to the bus stop where he disappeared. Yeah.

Wow. Now, there's also a day for Daniel where people are encouraged to wear red, the same color shirt that Daniel was wearing when he went missing. And Day for Daniel is Australia's largest child safety education and awareness day. And it's held on the last Friday of October every year. My God, good on you guys. And the whole goal for Day of Daniel is that parents, caretakers, and educators are encouraged to start a conversation with some young people about safety. Yeah, because that's all you can do as a parent or a guardian or somebody who loves a child. You can't control what happens after you tell them.

all you can do is try to give them the information and try to, like, I always tell the girls, you know, no adult needs your help. Don't ever, don't ever fall for that. And two, no one's ever going to come pick you up. I'm never going to send someone to pick you up that you don't know. Except T.T. It's always going to be T, T, T, T, it's going to be mom, dad, or grandparents. Yep.

Like, no one else. If somebody, I always say, if somebody tells you your mommy or daddy sent me around, your mom or your daddy friend, I was like, I don't have any friends. So don't believe me. My only friend is T-T-Tee. I have no friends. No one's coming to get you. I love it.

But it's important. But again, that's the only power you hold as someone who loves a child or takes care of a child is to just try to give them all the information. Yeah. And then you just got to hope that it works. Hope that it sticks, right. You know, and it's like if it doesn't, you know, you've done your job. But yeah, exactly.

That's all you can do. So good on them for like spreading that. Yeah, I think that's like the most important thing that you can possibly do. And then just to end this on like a super duper light note, like regarding the happiness surrounding the family, Bruce and Denise's son, Dean actually welcomed a baby daughter into the world last year. Last year. And guess what? It was on the day for Daniel. Stop.

Yes. Stop. Like, tell me that wasn't from Daniel. No, that was 100% from Daniel. I'm such a believer in like, I'm not like super, I'm not religious at all, but I believe in like the universe. Yeah. And I think that that totally was from. I feel like, yeah.

Like he was there in that moment. Those things just make you like, all right. Especially people you loved and cared for. I feel like they're always around in some way, shape, or form. So that to me is like on 365 days of the year. Right. That's the day. Right.

I mean, you can't plan that. No. That's not like, that's insane. And there's a freaking picture of Bruce and Denise holding this little baby. Oh my God, you showed me this picture. I, number one, I die because it's just so cute. And like, they are the most. adorable people in the world. And they're so happy. They're so happy. And this, I mean, in general,

Daniel looked so much like his father, but this specific picture, like, identical. Those eyes. Yeah. And they have like the kindest, the kindest big blue eyes. They do. Because we were how we were saying how cute Daniel was. Like the little like baby face. And his dad, Bruce, he has that same face. He does. He has like, he still has like a baby face. He does. He does. very kind face. And I feel like that is exactly what Daniel had. Yeah. So I'm telling you guys, the picture will like melt your heart. Oh my goodness. I'm just so happy for them. I'm so happy for them. And I'm so happy for his siblings, his brothers too. Yeah. Oh, and another thing that I meant to mention, while Daniel was missing, they still set a plate for him every single night. And like, just, I can't.

Break my heart. I can't. Oh, they seem like such a good family and such good parents. They do. And honestly, I really, really suggest that you go read the book. where is Daniel? Because it was written by Denise and Bruce with the help of another friend. Yeah, go read it. Go read it. Go support them. It's also like $2 on Kindle. Go support them. Oh, what a story. What I know. So that was, you ended on a good. Yeah, you got to end on a good note with those things. And that was Daniel's story. And guys, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you're Brett Peter Cowen. No. But definitely keep it weird that you pour boiling water over his head.

Keep hitting him with a bob bucket.