Body Found in Alice Springs Search Believed to Be Missing Five-Year-Old Kumanjayi Little Baby

Northern Territory police said Thursday they found a body believed to be that of Kumanjayi Little Baby, a five-year-old Indigenous girl who had been missing for five days from an Aboriginal town camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs, Australia. A 47-year-old man named as a prime suspect remained at large as of Thursday afternoon.

The Details

Police located the body shortly before midday on Thursday about five kilometres south of the Old Timers/Ilyperenye Aboriginal town camp, according to The Guardian. The child had been reported missing late Saturday from that same camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

Her family requested she be referred to as Kumanjayi Little Baby in line with Indigenous cultural protocols observed after the death of a community member, ABC News Australia reported. That name has been used in all official communications and media coverage.

Northern Territory Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley said forensic testing on a pair of child's underwear recovered at the crime scene detected DNA profiles belonging to the girl and to Jefferson Lewis, according to ABC News Australia. Police named Lewis, 47, as the prime suspect in the case and said he had been seen with the girl on Saturday night, Reuters reported.

Malley said tracking Lewis was now the singular focus of the investigation. "The focus right now is to locate Jefferson Lewis. It is our sole job in this investigation right now," he said, as quoted by ABC News Australia. Police publicly urged anyone assisting Lewis to bring him to police.

Police said a post-mortem examination would be conducted to establish the cause of death and how long the child had been deceased, SBS NITV reported. No cause of death had been established as of publication time.

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole addressed the media after the discovery. "This is devastating news, not only for [Kumanjayi Little Baby's] family, but also the first responders, the Alice Springs community and all of those around Australia who have been worrying for [her]," Dole said, as quoted by SBS NITV.

Context

Hundreds of volunteers, police, emergency services, and aircraft were involved in the five-day search across harsh desert terrain surrounding Alice Springs, according to Reuters, ABC News Australia, and The Guardian. The scale of the community response reflected the alarm prompted by the girl's disappearance from the Old Timers/Ilyperenye camp.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reacted to the discovery on X. "Our hearts are broken that the case of the little girl missing in Alice Springs has had such a tragic ending," he wrote, as reported by Reuters.

The use of the name Kumanjayi Little Baby follows a longstanding Indigenous cultural protocol in which a family may request a name be used in place of a deceased person's given name. ABC News Australia, The Guardian, and SBS NITV all noted this context in their coverage, and Northern Territory police adopted the name in official communications.

What's Next

Police said a post-mortem examination would be conducted to determine the cause and timing of the child's death, according to SBS NITV. Those findings had not been released as of publication.

Authorities said their immediate priority was locating Jefferson Lewis. Police have urged anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact them and warned against anyone providing him assistance.