Brett Peter Cowan, who was born in Bunbury, has been found guilty of the murder of 13-year-old schoolboy Daniel Morcombe.
The six men and six women of the jury have found the 44-year-old father of three guilty of all three charges against him: murder, indecently dealing with a child under the age of 16 and improperly dealing with a corpse.
The judge's associate asked the jury: "Do you find the defendant Brett Peter Cowan, also known as Shaddo N-unyah Hunter, guilty or not guilty of murder?"
The jury's speaker replied, "Guilty."
Beerwah businessman Trevor Davis told said by all accounts, Cowan had a disciplined upbringing. “He was an army brat,” says Mr Davis of his former employee, who was born in Bunbury, Western Australia, in September 1969.
Daniel Morcombe's death was quick, but callous.
Within an hour of being lured from a bus stop on Nambour Connection Road under the Kiel Mountain Road overpass on the afternoon of Sunday, December 7, 2003, he was dead and his body dumped in an overgrown, old sand mining site less than 40 kilometres away.
His disappearance triggered the largest police investigation in Queensland's history, which culminated in an elaborate covert operation that would successfully extract a detailed confession from the schoolboy's killer.
Cowan emerged as a suspect in the case just two weeks after Daniel disappeared. His white Mitsubishi Pajero was dusted for fingerprints and tested for traces of blood, but no incriminating evidence was found and the lead ran cold.
Yet, police never discounted their suspect.
Eight years later, Cowan would become the target of an elaborate and sophisticated undercover police operation in which covert operatives assumed the identities of criminal gang members.
After four months, Cowan led police to Daniel's remains. That would be the decisive factor in the Crown case against him.
Cowan took the undercover operatives to a macadamia farm and a defunct sand mining site off Kings Road in the Glass House Mountains.
"That's where it happened," Cowan told them.
He then led them to a bridge over Coochin Creek where he said he had thrown Daniel's clothes.
Seventeen bones, as well as his two sandshoes, were eventually found at the sand mining site.
His Ripcurl shorts and the elastic band of his Bonds underwear were found in the creek, metres from the bridge.
"So how, you might wonder, did the defendant get the right sand mining site? There are quite a few of them around the Sunshine Coast," Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne, QC, told the jury.
"And yet, he not only got the right sand mining site, he got the right bridge ...
"He travels from the other side of the country, nearly eight years after Daniel Morcombe went missing ... and takes police to an isolated area, a secluded spot ...
"He says where he dumped the body and it turns out to be ... something between 50 and 70 metres away from where the majority of the bones were found. You might think, no one is that unlucky.
"He could have only have known that from his personal involvement in the events, because he killed Daniel, he dumped his body, he threw away his clothing."
Others had previously confessed to Daniel's murder, but none led police to the schoolboy's remains.
Cowan was arrested and charged on August 13, 2011.
Nine years after his disappearance, Daniel was laid to rest on December 7, 2012, at a memorial service attended by hundreds on the Sunshine Coast.
His parents Bruce and Denise Morcombe, ever stoic in their grief, sat in the front row of the public gallery each and every day of the trial, listening to the harrowing details of their son's final moments.
Daniel's fraternal twin Bradley and his eldest brother Dean, now aged in their mid-20s, were also present in the public gallery, a reminder of the young life lost too soon.
For the Morcombes, justice for Daniel was a long time coming.
EARLIER: The six men and six women of the jury retired to deliberate their verdict at 12.13pm on Wednesday.
Their deliberations continued for three hours and 15 minutes, before the court was adjourned for the day.
It reconvened at 9.30am on Thursday. Shortly before 1pm, it emerged that the jury had reached a verdict.
Reporters and interested members of the public are seated in the public gallery, with high-profile child protection campaigner Hetty Johnston among them.
Nearly a dozen seats have been reserved for the homicide detectives involved in the eight-year-long investigation into Daniel's disappearance, while 15 seats have been reserved for the Morcombe family.
Television crews have assembled outside the courthouse, with satellite trucks lining the footpaths of George and Roma streets.
The court heard from 116 witnesses over 16 days of the trial. The prosecution and defence delivered their closing statements to the jury over another three days.
The jury retired shortly after Justice Roslyn Atkinson completed her summing up on Wednesday.
Before letting them go, Justice Atkinson gave the panel 13 questions to answer when considering their verdict for each of the three charges against Mr Cowan.
To find him guilty of murder, in sum, jurors must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Daniel Morcombe is dead and that Mr Cowan intended to cause his death, the judge said.
Justice Atkinson has also left it open for the jury to find Mr Cowan guilty of manslaughter.
She thanked three reserve jurors for their time and told them they were no longer needed.
Mr Cowan, also known as Shaddo N-unyah Hunter, is charged with one count each of murder, indecently dealing with a child under the age of 16 and improperly dealing with a corpse.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Daniel, 13, vanished while waiting for a bus at Woombye on the Sunshine Coast on December 7, 2003.
Mr Cowan was arrested in August 2011 following a lengthy undercover police operation.
Prosecutors say video and audio recordings of the accused confessing to the murder are proof he killed Daniel.
Mr Cowan's defence team says their client fabricated the confession partly because he believed he stood to gain a large sum of money.
