Daniel and his twin brother would have been celebrating their fourteenth birthday just a few days later. Daniel never did. Probably his brother didn’t either.

Daniel simply disappeared. His parents had given permission for him to catch the country bus from the Sunshine Coast (in Queensland, Australia) into the nearest small town so he could go to the shopping plaza for a haircut and to buy Christmas gifts for his family.

He never returned; in fact, he never arrived at the shopping centre. The bus he was waiting for broke down, and a replacement was sent. Daniel was waiting at a well-known but “unofficial” bus stop; the bus driver did not stop for him – he was behind schedule. However, the driver radioed back for another bus to follow and pick up Daniel. It arrived just three minutes later – but Daniel had already disappeared.

When he did not return on time from his shopping trip, his parents, Bruce and Denise Morcombe, immediately knew something was wrong and raised the alarm. Minutes filled with anxiety and distress became hours, then days, weeks, months, and long years of pain, grief and horror for the whole family. The despair for all involved was unimaginable.

It was soon obvious that Daniel had been abducted and murdered. Daniel’s disappearance and presumed death instigated one of the most extensive police operations in the history of Queensland.

While each day was filled with anxious waiting for news, they did not sit still. They could not.  Daniel’s parents vowed that he would not be forgotten, and wanted to keep him in public awareness so that some-one might come forward if they had noticed or observed anything which could help them find their son – and so that other parents might never become complacent about their own children’s safety.

The grief of Bruce and Denise could have been paralysing – for most people it would have been. However, they were galvanised into action, driven to ensure that such a horror should never be repeated.

They spoke up whenever they had opportunity, encouraging parents to be vigilant. Anything can happen, even within a very small window of opportunity for a predator with malicious intent. Bruce and Denise poured all their resources into a campaign of awareness and safety.

They set up an annual “Day for Daniel”, initially on the anniversary of his disappearance; red tee-shirts would symbolise safety awareness and would start conversations between parents and off-spring about children’s vulnerability. It was promoted Australia wide. They initiated a Walk for Daniel on this special memorial day. It began with 90 walkers in 2005, and by 2014 it had grown to over 1500. Later the Day for Daniel included a fund-raising fifty-kilometre bike ride along the Sunshine Coast beaches.

Bruce and Denise wanted to make a bigger difference. They wanted to ensure that Australia would be a safer place for children, so that no others would have to live through their terrible pain.

They established the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, which had a multi-pronged approach to honour Daniel’s memory while simultaneously formally educating others about safety for children, and providing counselling and services for victims and their families.

Their target audience? All children from pre-school-age to older teenagers, disabled children and young people, as well as parents and educators. Everything donated from the Day for Daniel, as well as the walk and the bike ride, and various community awareness events, was poured into the work of this Foundation.

Their goal was a future for Australia in which all children would be educated and protected, to prevent abuse and harm, and those who had already been impacted by these would receive on-going support and counselling.

Bruce and Denise were engaged by the Queensland Government to be ambassadors for child safety, and in this role, they visited schools all over the state to deliver powerful and unforgettable messages.

Working in conjunction with the Department of Education and Queensland Police, they developed resources for different age groups, with age-appropriate videos, activities, and worksheets. Their resources included culturally appropriate ones which would appeal to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people groups. Resources for teachers were developed for every stage of schooling, and even included complete lesson plans, and these were integrated into the schools’ curriculum and regular teaching programs. More than 2500 schools have participated, and the number is increasing each year.

Meanwhile, for years, committed police worked tirelessly but fruitlessly. The search for the predator took almost eight agonising years – until finally after a massive and intensive police operation, a known local paedophile was arrested for the abduction and murder of the young teenager on December 7, 2003. He faced multiple other charges as well. That same month, in 2011, shoes and a total of seventeen bones, all confirmed to be Daniel’s by DNA analysis, were found near the Glasshouse Mountains on the Sunshine Coast. In 2014 the paedophile was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The sad thing is that it has recently transpired that one policeman filed a report on a thumb-drive very soon after Daniel’s death, urging surveillance of this criminal and giving multiple reasons why this particular paedophile could well be the one responsible for the crime. This file was ignored, dismissed, and misplaced, because a senior officer was on the trail of another possible perpetrator, and did not want his authority challenged.

The original thumb-drive was found, years later, and its contents were found to be still intact. Police had worked with only partial information – it was clear that their “copy” of the thumb-drive report had had significant information deleted. The perpetrator could have been arrested within two weeks of Daniel’s death if they had acted upon the junior policeman’s recommendations. There will be an investigation into the senior person responsible for ignoring and deleting these recommendations.

Nevertheless, Bruce and Denise used these years to honour their son, working tirelessly from that first day till this. This year will mark the twentieth anniversary of Daniel’s death.

Bruce and Denise wrote child-friendly stories for little ones to show how animals sense danger and know how to protect themselves. Animals such as cats and dogs may raise their hackles, for example.  Children are taught to likewise trust the instincts of their bodies and minds, and are helped to develop a list of trusted adults to whom they can speak up. They are taught to recognise warning signs about potentially dangerous situations, even from an early age.

School presentations and resources, now Australia-wide, include on-line and social media safety as well as safety in the physical environment. Their teaching and warnings are relevant to the games little children play on I-pads – and teach even quite little ones how to recognise when something is “not right”. Older ones are similarly taught about appropriate boundaries and sharing, and about such things as geolocation, and “safe bedrooms”.

Daniel’s twin brother now has a six-year-old son, who was playing a harmless computer game recently when he called out to his Nan and Pa that the person he was playing with knew his name. Bruce and Denise intervened immediately. It was an on-line predator who was grooming the little boy by encouraging his game tactics, suggesting strategies, and building up his self-esteem! Becoming a “good friend” to him. One can never stop being careful!

Bruce and Denise support other victims of crime as well as relatives of other missing people, particularly where children are involved.  Their compassion is invaluable and without bounds.

Respect and thanks are due to Bruce and Denise for their courage and strength in turning an evil situation into one which not only warns, but actively educates, protects, and supports others.

It has taken a huge toll: they have had to overcome their natural desire to grieve privately, and in some ways their pain is relived with each presentation they give. Yet this is what gives authenticity to all they do, and this sharing has caused powerful connections with all hearers.

As diamonds are formed from pure carbon by time and extreme pressure, the Morcombes’ lives shine similarly, with their grief transformed by time and pressure into beautiful sacrificial service.