Morcombes speak about search for Daniel

Bruce and Denise Morcombe have revealed more about the anguish surrounding their eight-year mission to find out what happened to their son, Daniel.

The 13-year-old vanished on the Sunshine Coast in 2003, sparking one of Australia's highest profile missing person cases.

Bones belonging to Daniel were recently discovered by police searching bushland at Beerwah and former Sunshine Coast resident Brett Peter Cowan, 42, has been charged with his abduction and murder.

"The last few weeks have been extremely difficult, especially with the arrest and then some bones were found," Denise Morcombe has told the Nine Network.

"It's like a knife goes in your chest, every single phone call.

"And then ... we've just got to wait for the next lot of bones to be found.

"Everyone's talking about bones ... that's our son. He belonged to us, he was a little human being."

Daniel had been waiting for a catch a bus to get his hair cut and buy Christmas presents for his family when he disappeared.

Bruce Morcombe said he felt helpless as the initial search for his boy got underway.

"That evening was absolutely horrendous," he said.

"It was worse than a nightmare, the hours just were absolute agony.

"We felt Daniel was in danger somewhere and were helpless."

As the days ticked by, Mr Morcombe said he followed up every single lead in the case, even meeting with criminal identities in the search for a breakthrough.

At other times he conducted private searches, using mud maps and other information passed on by people anxious to help.

Mr and Ms Morcombe said imagining what Daniel must have gone through was almost unbearable.

"Just thinking how scared he would've been," Ms Morcombe said.

"Even when he was a little boy he used to always get scared at night and come and sleep on the floor next to our bed."

Mr and Mrs Morcombe now run the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, an organisation committed to promoting child safety (www.danielmorcombe.com.au).