Undercover operation finally uncovered what happened to teenager who vanished forever while waiting for bus

Warning: this article contains discussion of sexual assault of a minor that some may find distressing

An ‘opportunistic offender’ who abducted and murdered a teenager waiting for a bus into town was sentenced and jailed years later following a covert police operation.

Australian native Daniel Morcombe, then 13, planned a solo expedition to have a haircut and buy Christmas presents for his family on December 7, 2003.

The teen, who lived less than a mile away from the bus stop, had reportedly made the trip to the Sunshine Plaza shopping center in Queensland ‘more than a dozen times before’, according to a report on the case from the Coroners Court of Queensland obtained by PEOPLE.

But Morcombe’s parents, Bruce and Denise, became increasingly worried when their son hadn’t returned from his expedition up the Sunshine Coast.

After an initial search, the boy was declared as a missing person.

Officials opened an official investigation into his disappearance.

The inquiry saw 33 people of interest being identified, one of which was 29-year-old Brett Peter Cowan.

Cowan was seen driving in video footage taken near where the child disappeared, while waiting for his bus at about 2pm, say officials.

However, he was cleared of suspicion due to authorities not having enough evidence to identify him as a suspect at the time, writes PEOPLE.

Seven years after Morcombe seemingly vanished, his parents called for an inquest into his disappearance to be reopened.

The request was upheld despite previous failed efforts to locate and account for his movements.

During this time, officers questioned Cowan about his criminal history regarding sexual offenses against young children.

As per the report at the time, the perpetrator said neither of the two previous crimes involved violence.

A year after the inquest was opened, Queensland Police Service launched a successful undercover operation, which saw Cowan admitting to abducting and assaulting Morcombe.

The man told a covert officer that he’d offered the kid a lift to the shopping center, as per the report.

It’s understood he parked in a parking lot at the Christian Outreach Center and walked down to speak to Morcombe.

He then took the child to an abandoned house, luring him in with a glass of water, as per the filing.

The teenager was just 13 when he was abducted and murdered (Daniel Morcombe Foundation)

Authorities said Morcombe was killed within an hour of abduction and that Cowan - described as an ‘opportunistic offender’ - sexually assaulted him and choked him when he tried to escape.

It’s understood that after Morcombe was murdered, Cowan disposed of his remains in ‘an old sand mining site’ before discarding his clothes and shoes.

The murderer returned to the scene a week later to ‘dispose of the remaining evidence’, according to the report.

Following Cowan’s arrest in August 2011, he was charged with murder, indecent treatment and interfering with a corpse, as per the filing.

“You knew if he ran away, you'd be caught. So you killed him. You killed him because you didn't want to get caught,” said Brisbane Supreme Court Justice Roslyn Atkinson during Cowan’s sentencing in March 2014, as reported by ABC.

"Everything you did to that boy is horrific and disgraceful. I've seen no evidence in the months you've been in this court that you ever felt any remorse for what you did," Atkinson added.

Brett Peter Cowan was sentenced to life in prison (Queensland Supreme Court)

Cowan was convicted and put behind bars in March 2014, with the Australian Broadcasting Company reporting that he would serve life in prison with a minimum of 20 years without parole.

Following Morcombe’s funeral in 2012, his parents set up the Daniel Morcombe Foundation in the hopes of providing ‘personal child safety education to children and young people to prevent abuse and promote lifelong health and wellbeing’.

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivor’s Trust for free on 08088 010 818, or through their website thesurvivorstrust.org