\u201cThis is an incredibly distressing development.<\/p>\n
\u201cSharon\u2019s family have been notified and our thoughts are firmly with them at this devastating time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said police could not yet say how she died or how long she had been dead.<\/p>\n
The body of Sharon Granites has been found, police have confirmed. Photo \/ NT Police<\/p>\n
Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley, who is leading the investigation, said the focus now was to find Jefferson Lewis, who they allege abducted her.<\/p>\n
He said child\u2019s underwear found on Wednesday<\/a> had been analysed and two DNA profiles were located on the underwear.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is expected, one belongs to the little girl, Sharon, and the other belongs to Jefferson Lewis,\u201d Malley said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the focus right now is to locate Jefferson Lewis. It is our sole job in this investigation right now.<\/p>\n \u201cI say to the family of Jefferson Lewis that we believe he has murdered this child. Do not assist him. Get him to the police station and we will look after him.<\/p>\n \u201cI say to Jefferson Lewis that we are coming for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Previously, NT Police had alleged 47-year-old Lewis \u2013 who they said was at the house at the time of Sharon\u2019s disappearance \u2013 may have taken the 5-year-old.<\/p>\n Police said Lewis was seen walking out of the house \u201cwith the little girl, holding hands\u201d<\/a> about 11pm on April, 25.<\/p>\n She was reported missing two hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Malley said there was a social gathering taking place at the house at Old Timers Camp, where Lewis was staying at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe Jefferson Lewis has led the little girl away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Malley said Lewis \u2013 who they believe may have been \u201cunder the influence of alcohol\u201d at the time of the alleged abduction \u2013 had been released from prison only six days earlier.<\/p>\n Her disappearance sparked one of the largest searches in the Northern Territory, with more than 100 volunteers on the ground alongside police, helicopters, ATVs, horses and the dog squad.<\/p>\n Aboriginal trackers have also assisted in the search, which stretched in the 20sq km radius of the Old Timers Camp, scouring through shoulder-high barrel grass and tough terrain.<\/p>\n Malley said the search for Sharon was \u201cone of the biggest investigations we\u2019ve had going for a while\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a declared major crime and as such I have got access to all the resources of the Northern Territory Police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is an incredibly distressing development. \u201cSharon\u2019s family have been notified and our thoughts are firmly with them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28848,109989,60933,74,3359,1554,8666,7800,29861,4058,4731,29940,1874,71,208409,42,1345,5606,208410,21409,43,1118,384,4056,675,1440,3271,55600,14042,1361,1961,40,38,41,39,158167],"class_list":["post-404537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-28848","tag-abduction","tag-aboriginal","tag-after","tag-alice","tag-alleged","tag-aware","tag-body","tag-confirm","tag-contains","tag-days","tag-deceased","tag-found","tag-from","tag-granites","tag-headlines","tag-home","tag-images","tag-islander","tag-names","tag-news","tag-of","tag-people","tag-person","tag-police","tag-sharon","tag-should","tag-springs","tag-strait","tag-that","tag-this","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-torres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}NT Police are hunting for Jefferson Lewis, who is wanted for the alleged murder of 5-year-old Sharon Granites. Photo \/ NT Police<\/p>\n