The gruelling five-day search for the missing nine-year-old in NSW’s Blue Mountains came to a tragic end on Tuesday night, after investigators discovered human remains inside a barrel dumped near the Colo River.The body is yet to be formally identified but Acting Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the remains were “consistent with the missing nine-year-old”.Justin Stein, the fiance of Charlise’s mum, Kallista Mutten, was arrested at a unit in Surry Hills and later charged with murder.Charlise usually lived with her grandmother in Coolangatta, Queensland, but was spending two weeks with Ms Mutten and Stein at a property in Mt Wilson during the school holidays.The tragedy has struck a chord with people across the country and a live cross during Nine’s Today show revealed emotions were also running high in the studio.Last night, hundreds of friends, teachers and community members came together for a vigil outside of Tweed Heads Public School.Channel Nine reporter Jessica Millward reported live from the outside the school on Thursday morning, standing in front of the rows of flowers, photos, letters and gifts left for young Charlise.Millward’s voice can be heard wavering with emotion as she read some of the messages the nine-year-old’s classmates had written.“Another note from a little girl reads ‘I hope you have an amazing time in heaven’. How parents even begin to explain this tragedy to the children is really beyond me,” she said.“There is no words for it, are there?” Langdon responded.As the camera crossed back to Karl Stefanovic, Langdon could be heard sniffling and seemingly trying to hold back tears off camera.Stefanovic was lost for words for a few moments, before saying: “Um … lets go now to Sydney reporter Gabrielle Boyle”.In another live cross this morning, a sombre Langdon spoke with Currumbin MP Laura Gerber, asking how parents are explaining to their children what happened to little Charlise.“How do you explain to a little kid what has happened to their friend and they won’t see them again?” she asked.Ms Gerber revealed she hadn’t been able to have that conversation with her own daughter yet.”She said it was going to be confronting for all the children when they go back to school and “all of a sudden Charlise isn’t sitting next to them any more”.“There is an empty space where she should have been – It is just really difficult here and I know that the family is going through so much worse,” Ms Gerber said.“This community really, really loved her.”Horrific details emerge in Charlise investigation On Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson said police will allege in court that Stein had held phone conversations with Charlise’s mum, Ms Mutten, in the lead up to her body being discovered.“[There were] a number of telephone conversations with the girl’s mother, to purchase a number of 20kg sandbags from a hardware store, to fuel a boat and then try and float that boat on the water at one of the docks in inner Sydney,” he said.Police will allege they then were able to track his movements, through GPS and CCTV, back to the location along the Colo River where police commenced the search on Tuesday afternoon.Detectives will also allege Stein drove around Sydney for up to five hours with Charlise’s body in the back of his boat while he tried to work out where to dump her, according to an exclusive report by The Daily Telegraph.Homicide detectives allegedly found a blue tarpaulin in the back of the boat, which was inoperable.Police will allege in court that Stein ended up hiding the heavy barrel containing Charlise’s body in dense bushland after struggling to dump it in the Colo River.Court documents revealed the little girl was allegedly killed between 7pm on Tuesday January 11 and 10am January 12.Police were not informed of her disappearance until Friday morning and, even then, they were told she had been last seen some time on the afternoon of Thursday, January 13.Stein was refused bail in Central Local Court on Wednesday and will face Penrith Local Court on March 18.There are still many questions hanging over the case, with police having been unable to formally interview Ms Mutten, who has been in hospital following a medical episode.Deputy Commissioner Hudson said it had been “difficult” to speak with Charlise’s mum in the lead up to Stein’s murder charge.“It has been difficult to approach and contact her but at some stage hopefully when doctors allow, we will be talking further with her,” he said.
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