Police issue message to killer of 12-year-old Logan schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer

POLICE are working with social network giant Facebook in a bid to crack the case of slain schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer.

Detective Superintendent Dave Hutchinson.

POLICE are working with social network giant Facebook in a bid to crack the case of slain schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer as police warn that the killer should “not feel too comfortable”.

It is now a fortnight since the 12-year-old’s badly decomposed body was found on a riverbank at Pimpama on the Gold Coast – 40km from where she was dropped off at Marsden State High School – and police yesterday renewed their calls for anyone with information to come forward.

They suspect the student could have made plans to meet someone on the day she disappeared and believe her Facebook account may provide answers on who that person is.

Police believe she may have been killed the day she disappeared, saying her body was thought to have been in the water for up to a week.

Friends and family of Tiahleigh said goodbye to the murdered schoolgirl during a solemn funeral service on Saturday.

Police are waiting for forensic tests on Tiahleigh’s body after a post-mortem examination was unable to determine a cause of death

Detective Superintendent Dave Hutchinson said the Facebook angle was a line of investigation being followed by police.

“We are continuing our efforts to access her Facebook account,” he said.

As the investigation enters its third week, Detective Superintendent Hutchinson had a message for her killer: don’t get too comfortable.

Almost 50 detectives are still working on the case virtually around the clock, while 22 recruits from the Queensland Police Academy have been entrusted with sifting through the hundreds of hours of CCTV footage that could yield a lead in the investigation.

So far police have no solid leads on what happened to Tia between the time she was dropped off at school on October 30 and the discovery of her body on the banks of the Pimpama River six days later.

However, Detective Superintendent Hutchinson said police remained confident of cracking the case.

Detective Superintendent Dave Hutchinson.

“Obviously somebody has had some involvement in the death of Tia,” he said.

“We’re still in the very early stages of the investigation so that person should not feel too comfortable.

“The next knock on the door might just be the police.”

Police have so far received more than 400 leads from Crime Stoppers calls, many of which have placed Tia at locations after she was last seen at the school. Investigators, however, are still trying to confirm these reports through CCTV and motor vehicle dash cam footage.

A Crime Stoppers marquee will also remain outside Tiahleigh’s Marsden State High School until tomorrow.

Call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.