Major search underway for missing five-year-old, police suspect abduction near Alice Springs

A major search was underway in Alice Springs after police said five-year-old Sharon Granites had likely been abducted from the Old Timers, or Ilyperenye, town camp, a tiny Aboriginal community of about nine households and 40 residents on the edge of town.

Sharon was reported missing around 1:35am on Sunday, April 26, after family members could not find her at the Marshall Court house. Police first said it was probable she had wandered out because doors were open and the flyscreen was not locked, but the investigation later escalated as officers focused on a suspected abduction.

NT Police said a fugitive task force had been called in and that they wanted to speak to 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis, who they said had recently been released from prison and had been staying at the camp. Police also said they believed some community members were withholding information about his whereabouts.

Family members were appealing publicly for help as the search stretched on. Sharon’s kinship grandfather, Robin Japanangka Granites, and great-uncle Rob Roy described her as “only a little baby” and “very energetic.” They said she was non-verbal and communicated mostly through hand gestures, making the search even more urgent for relatives trying to trace her movements in the dark hours before dawn.

The Old Timers town camp, maintained by Tangentyere Council, became the focus of a broad police operation involving the Northern Territory Police Force, Fire & Emergency Services and the Northern Territory Emergency Service. Officers said the search had moved from a rescue operation into a recovery phase as the “timeframe of survivability” neared its end.

By April 30, police said they believed they had found a body in the search for Sharon and were treating the case as a suspected murder investigation. The shift marked a grim turn in a case that has shaken a small, close-knit Aboriginal community and underscored the vulnerability of children living in remote or under-resourced settings, where a single missing child can quickly draw in major police resources and expose the limits of distance, housing security and community safety.