Daniel Morcombe inquest: The evil killer hidden in plain sight

WITHIN minutes of police knocking on Brett Cowan’s door he’d admitted to driving along the same road where Daniel Morcombe was last seen – at the right time. But he wasn’t their main target to begin with.

ONE is known as Queensland’s worst prisoner – a violent, evil, sadistic man who once abducted and raped a little boy after dragging him from his bicycle.

The other is a serial paedophile who once attacked a child so badly the detectives who arrived on scene did not believe the boy would live.

One drove a blue car – a car that matched one seen by 84 witnesses in the Daniel Morcombe investigation.

DAY ONE: ‘We knew it was Cowan’ – cops

The other drove a white 4WD – a car that matched descriptions given by two.

Two suspects. One derailed the case for years while the other flew quietly under the radar.

As the days went by and 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe did not come home, detectives knew they were looking at the possibility he had been abducted.

Douglas Jackway.

Brett Cowan.

They compiled a list of worthy candidates – child sex offenders known to frequent the Sunshine Coast. But there were always two who stood out.

Douglas Jackway drove a blue car, had a history of child sex offences and his general attitude towards police and telling the truth meant he gave various versions of his movements on the day Daniel disappeared.

Jackway was a psychopath who had once snatched a young boy and raped him in an area of mangroves. The little boy’s friends had run home to get help. The boy’s father and a policeman burst through the trees minutes later – catching him in the act. Jackway still denied it.

It took police only three days to knock on Jackway’s door. And despite never finding any solid evidence putting Jackway at the scene – the 84 people who’d seen a blue car meant he was never far from detectives’ minds.

Brett Peter Cowan drove a white 4WD. He’d been to jail twice for abducting and raping young boys.

It took police two weeks to knock on Cowan’s door. And within minutes he’d admitted to driving along the same road where Daniel was last seen waiting for a bus – at the right time.

Yesterday, the two officers who’d knocked on Cowan’s door could not go past that confession.

For years, as the investigation stalled, they wondered why more hadn’t been done to target the man.

‘You had possibles and probables,” former officer Dennis Martyn told the inquest yesterday.

“Lots of possibles out there.

“He (Cowan) was getting near probable.”