Tiahleigh Palmer: No suspects and few leads in death of Logan schoolgirl, Queensland Police say

Updated

Queensland Police have said they may never know how 12-year-old Tiahleigh Palmer died and still have no suspects, as divers scour a Gold Coast river for clues.

Tiahleigh was last seen being dropped off at Marsden State High School in Logan, south of Brisbane, by a carer on October 30.

Fishermen found her decomposing body six days later on the bank of the Pimpama River, about 30 kilometres from her last known sighting.

Tiahleigh's school clothes and backpack are yet to be found, despite police divers searching the river again on Tuesday and SES volunteers scouring thick bushland along its bank.

Forty-three students from Marsden State High have been interviewed by police and 200 reports to Crime Stoppers have been received, Detective Inspector Dave Hutchinson said.

"We don't know what happened to Tia, we just don't know," he said.

"We are still looking at options that she has planned what she is doing.

"There are no suspects at this time.

"The cause of death is still not determined. We may never identify the cause of death."

Officers want to speak to anyone who was on Kirkin Road North around the bridge that crosses the Pimpama River in the seven days prior to Tiahleigh's body being found.

They also want dashcams from cars which were on Chambers Flat Road on Friday October 30 between 7:00am and 10:00am

"We are still trying identify Tia's movements on that morning," Detective Hutchinson said.

"We are getting versions but sometimes they contradict each other, there are inconsistencies.

"We do have some footage of Tia previously, but nothing around that time, not relevant to this inquiry."

Review into how authorities respond to missing foster children

The ways in which Queensland authorities respond when foster children go missing or run away will be reviewed by the State Government, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Tuesday.

It took police six days to alert the public that she was missing.

Her decomposing body was found on the same day the alarm was raised.

Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston yesterday called for the Child Protection Act to be reviewed, and questioned why there was a delay in issuing the alert.

However, the Government said that while the Child Protection Act prevented people from naming children and disclosing they were in care, it did not prevent naming children who were missing, or taking every possible action to find them, including speaking in the media, or through social media.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said: "Our focus at the moment is very much on finding the perpetrators of that terrible crime."

"If there are systemic issues that sit around it that perhaps delayed issues in terms of reporting and what have you, then that will come out in the investigation.

"But I'm not suggesting there was. I'm not suggesting that there is a failure in the system."

Ms Palaszczuk said today the Queensland Family and Child Commission would conduct a review of arrangements in place for responding to missing or absconding children in out-of-home care.

"In addition, the Child Safety Minister has requested her director-general to urgently bring together the key stakeholders and agencies to discuss any concerns they may have," she told Parliament.

"I, like every Queenslander, have been left shocked, outraged, heartbroken by the death of 12-year-old schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer.

"There is not a person throughout our state who is not touched by what has happened to this little girl ... a little girl who was dropped off to school but never made it to school and never made it home."

Topics: state-parliament, grief, laws, murder-and-manslaughter, child-abuse, brisbane-4000

First posted