Daniel Morcombe's twin brother recalls the tragic day the schoolboy was abducted from a bus stop and murdered by a paedophile
Daniel Morcombe's twin brother has recalled the day the 13-year-old was abducted and murdered while waiting for a bus to go and buy his family Christmas presents.
Brad, 35, has fondly remembered Daniel as his 'best mate' over two decades after the schoolboy disappeared from a bus stop on Sunday December 7, 2003.
'On that hot Sunday afternoon, trouble found Daniel,' he told a new documentary into his brother's disappearance, Don't Waste It: The Daniel Morcombe Story.
'He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We never saw him again.'
The family were finally reunited with Daniel eight years later when his remains were discovered in the Glass House Mountains in the Gold Coast hinterland in 2011.
Daniel's killer, Brett Peter Cowan, was arrested the same year and is serving a life sentence at a Brisbane correctional centre.
'When the truth finally came it was worse than we ever imagined,' Brad said.
'After eight years, Daniel wasn't coming home.'
Daniel's father, Bruce, described the arrest as 'an incredible shock and surprise, a moment not of joy - a moment you think, "Wow Daniel's not coming home".'
Brad cherishes the happy childhood memories he shared with his twin.
'He was only 13-years-old when he was abducted, just a few days before our birthday,' he said.
'He was my best mate. He loved horses and we both loved motorbikes.
'We grew up doing everything together - school, motorbikes, horses. Basically what he did, I did and vice versa.
'To outsiders he would seem like he was quiet but to us he was very boisterous, a little joker, a little mate. Just a nice kid.'
Brad said waiting to get answers into his brother's disappearance before he was found was 'torture'.
'Every phone call, every knock on the door brought a flicker of hope, that quickly faded,' he said.
The documentary was shared on Tuesday, May 6, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.
Originally established by Daniel's parents, Bruce and Denise Morcombe, as a way to help find their son, the foundation has become one of the largest child safety operations in Australia.
Its symbol, a red t-shirt, has become a well-recognised symbol for child safety and pays tribute to the shirt Daniel wore on the day of his abduction.
Bruce explained the evolution of the foundation's mission was a way for him and his wife to cope with their grief and help other victims.
'We weren't sitting there in our sorrow,' he said.
'I can't change what's happened to Daniel but I can influence and change the future.
'I want everyone to stand tall and accept the challenge… Today is the day I tell my story. You are incredibly important in helping others. Don't waste your pain, you will help somebody else.'
The Daniel Morcombe Foundation provides child safety education, prevention, and community engagement across Australia with Bruce and Denise often conducting sessions themselves.
Over the years, the organisation has distributed more than two-million child safety resources and raised over $20million to ensure the continuation of its free programs.
With more plans for books and resources in the pipeline, the Morcombe family are determined to continue their advocacy for many years to come.
Don't Waste It: The Daniel Morcombe Story is available to watch on the Daniel Morcombe Foundation's YouTube page.
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In Queensland the warnings about exposed bars were not isolated to Arthur Gorrie. A 2004 hanging death at Borallon correctional centre prompted a coroner to tell the state government to 'immediately cover with mesh any bars accessible to prisoners in cells'. Five years after that warning, another Borallon inmate hanged himself from exposed bars above his cell door. A hanging death at Townsville prison in 2007 prompted a warning that the Queensland government 'immediately' act on hanging points 'including bars' by replacing them with an alternative security barrier such as mesh. Two more hangings took place from exposed bars at Townsville in 2015 and 2019, roughly a decade after that warning. At Sydney's Long Bay correctional complex, there were three hangings from window bars in the metropolitan special programs centre, despite a warning in 2007 that the 'obvious' hanging points should be removed. 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She has seen first-hand the 'inertia' that prevents meaningful change in this space – driven by public apathy and a lack of political leadership. 'There have been so many people who have been trying very hard to alert corrections of the dangers and the safety concerns for people inside,' she says. 'But there's just inertia on the part of corrections to respond, and such an absence of political will to see this issue as something that should be on the national cabinet agenda.' The cases investigated by Guardian Australia expose the crisis in stark terms. In 2015, after a hanging death at Arthur Gorrie, the state government told a coroner it was working to fix up 268 old cells. Six years later, after yet another hanging death there, the government was asked for an update on its progress. It said it still had 268 older-style cells at Arthur Gorrie to make safe. Not a single cell had been remediated in the six years between the two inquests. Guardian Australia approached every state and territory government in the country to ask why known hanging points weren't removed and what was being done to make cells safe. Every government said they were taking the issue of cell safety seriously and had invested significant funds in refurbishing old cells. Most also pointed to their attempts to improve the identification of at-risk inmates and provide them with treatment, supervision and monitoring. You can read the full responses from state departments here. Darren Muir knows first-hand what it's like to be in Arthur Gorrie. He spent two weeks there, locked in the same cells, with the same exposed bars, that his brother used eight years later to take his own life. The place nearly sent him crazy, he says. 'I'll give you one word: it's a fucking zoo, mate,' he said. 'That's how primitive that place was.' Darren says he believes his brother would not have accepted mental health treatment and probably would have found a way to take his life, even if the bars had been removed. But what he can't abide is the state government's failure to act on repeated warnings to remove the obvious hanging points, including after his brother's death. 'They're more or less handing them the rope,' he says. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
