Do not assist him, get him to the police station
In Alice Springs, the search for five-year-old Sharon Granites — an Aboriginal girl who vanished from her family's home at Old Timers Town Camp on a Saturday night — ended Thursday with the discovery of her body five kilometres away. What began as a missing-child emergency has become a homicide investigation, with 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis, a recently released prisoner, named by police as the suspected killer and still at large. The loss of a child is among the oldest and most shattering of human griefs, and this community now carries that weight while a manhunt continues.
- A five-year-old girl disappeared from her family home on a Saturday night, and five days of searching through the Central Australian landscape ended with the worst possible discovery.
- Police named Jefferson Lewis — a 47-year-old man freshly released from prison and staying near the camp — as the prime suspect, and he remains a fugitive as investigators pivot from search to manhunt.
- NT Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley addressed Lewis's own family directly, urging them not to shelter him and to bring him in — a rare public appeal that underscored both the urgency and the intimacy of the crisis.
- A post-mortem examination is yet to confirm cause and timeline of death, leaving critical questions unanswered even as the community confronts the reality of what has occurred.
- The case now runs on two tracks simultaneously: a homicide investigation into how Sharon died, and an active pursuit of a suspect who has not been found.
On Thursday morning, NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole announced that the body of five-year-old Sharon Granites had been found during an expanded ground search, five kilometres south of Old Timers Aboriginal Town Camp in Alice Springs — the place she had last been seen alive on Saturday night. Her family had been told privately before the public statement. "This is an incredibly distressing development," Dole said. "Our thoughts are firmly with them at this devastating time."
From the moment Sharon disappeared, police had treated the case as an abduction. Their primary suspect was Jefferson Lewis, 47, a man recently released from prison who had been staying in the area. As of Thursday, Lewis remained at large, and locating him had become the investigation's most urgent thread.
Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley addressed Lewis's family directly in terms that left little ambiguity: "We believe he's murdered this child. Do not assist him — get him to the police station." He called the discovery "the worst possible outcome," a phrase that gave voice to what investigators had feared across five days of searching.
The search had expanded steadily as the days passed with no sign of Sharon. Its conclusion on Thursday was grim, but the investigation is far from finished. A post-mortem examination will seek to establish cause of death and timeline, while police simultaneously pursue a suspect still unaccounted for. A missing-child emergency has become a homicide case, and a community is left to reckon with the death of a five-year-old girl from among them.
On Thursday morning, police in Alice Springs announced they had found the body of Sharon Granites, a five-year-old girl who vanished from her family's home four days earlier. The discovery came during an expanded ground search five kilometres south of Old Timers Aboriginal Town Camp, where she had last been seen on Saturday night.
NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole delivered the news in a brief statement, his language measured but heavy with the weight of what had been found. "Just before midday today, police members of the search party located the body of a young Aboriginal girl we believe to be five-year-old Sharon Granites," he said. The family had already been notified privately before the public announcement. Dole acknowledged the gravity of the moment: "This is an incredibly distressing development. Our thoughts are firmly with them at this devastating time."
From the outset, police had treated Sharon's disappearance as an abduction. They believed Jefferson Lewis, a 47-year-old man who had recently been released from prison and was staying in the area, had taken her. Lewis remained at large as of Thursday, and police had made locating him their immediate priority. No details about the circumstances of Sharon's death were released, pending a post-mortem examination that would attempt to establish cause and timeline.
NT Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley spoke directly to Lewis's family in a statement that carried an unmistakable accusation. "We say to the family of Jefferson Lewis that we believe he's murdered this child," Malley said. "Do not assist him, get him to the police station, and we'll look after him." He described the discovery as "the worst possible outcome" — language that acknowledged what had been feared but not confirmed until that morning.
The search had begun immediately after Sharon went missing on Saturday night. As days passed without sign of her, police expanded the perimeter of their operations, pushing further from the camp where she had last been seen. The discovery on Thursday represented the grim conclusion to that search, though the investigation itself was far from over. With Lewis still missing, police faced the dual task of conducting a thorough post-mortem investigation while pursuing an active manhunt. The case had shifted from a missing-child emergency to a homicide investigation, with a suspect still unaccounted for and the community left to grapple with what had happened to a five-year-old girl in their midst.
Citas Notables
We say to the family of Jefferson Lewis that we believe he's murdered this child. Do not assist him, get him to the police station.— NT Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley
This is an incredibly distressing development. Our thoughts are firmly with them at this devastating time.— NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did police believe this was an abduction from the start, rather than treating it as a missing child case?
Because of who was in the area. Jefferson Lewis had just been released from prison and was staying near the camp. That combination of factors — a recently incarcerated man present at the location where a child disappeared — was enough to shape how police approached the search from the beginning.
What does it mean that they expanded the search area?
It means they started close to where she vanished, then gradually pushed outward as they found nothing. The body was five kilometres away. That's a significant distance — it suggests either she was taken there, or moved after the fact.
Why release a statement directly to Lewis's family?
It's a deliberate move. Police are trying to cut off his escape route by appealing to the people closest to him. If his family believes he's guilty and that turning him in is the right thing to do, they become part of the search effort rather than a shield.
What happens now with the post-mortem?
That examination will tell them how she died and roughly when. Those details matter enormously — they could help establish a timeline, confirm or refute what they believe happened, and potentially provide evidence that ties Lewis to the death.
Is there any scenario where Lewis isn't guilty?
Police have made their position clear, but technically the post-mortem and further investigation will either confirm or challenge their theory. Right now, though, he's the only suspect they've named, and he's the only person unaccounted for.