Inside lavish Wildenstein wedding venue Charlise Mutten, 9, vanished from

Before it became the scene of Charlise Mutten’s disappearance, the Wildenstein property was known as one of Australia’s leading wedding locations.

Before it became the scene of schoolgirl Charlise Mutten’s disappearance, the Wildenstein property, in NSW’s Blue Mountains, was best known as one of Australia’s leading wedding locations.

Over the last five years, the 12.5 acre, multimillion-dollar estate has been the destination of the nuptials of everyone from AFL great Buddy Franklin and model and former Miss Universe Jesinta Campbell, to Channel 9 presenter Julie Snook and actor Hugo Johnstone-Burt.

The lavish venue features cool climate gardens – the design of which interior designer and event planner James Stein Jr, who runs the property, attributes to his father – and art, including La Paloma urns, bronze and marble sculptures, is scattered throughout the grounds.

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Charlise Mutten, nine, was reported missing from the Wildenstein property on Friday

A child’s body that police believe is hers was found in a barrel in the vicinity of the Colo River on Tuesday night.

The Wildenstein property in NSW’s Blue Mountains.

The lavish 12.5 acre, multimillion-dollar estate is best known as one of Australia’s leading wedding locations.

One of the lavish gardens on the estate.

Wildenstein wedding venue at Mt Wilson in the Blue Mountains.

The decision to turn the Stein family’s weekend getaway of more than two decades into a wedding and event location was the product of Stein Jr’s own nuptials in 2015.

“People saw our photos and started asking about whether we offered weddings at the property,” he previously told The Design Files.

Twelve months later, Campbell, in custom Vera Wang, and Franklin tied the knot in an intimate garden ceremony on November 4, and put the exclusive location on the map.

Jesinta and Buddy Franklin at their 2016 wedding. Picture: Supplied

Last year, Snook and Johnstone-Burt married at the venue, with Snook dazzling in a custom Velani gown.

Over the past week, though, the destination became the base of an extensive police, SES and RFS search, with emergency services scouring bushland around the Mt Wilson estate where a nine-year-old girl was staying with her mum Charlise Mutten and her mum’s fiance.

The girl usually lives with her grandmother in Coolangatta, Queensland, but was spending two weeks with her mother during the school holidays.

She was reported missing from the estate at 8.20am last Friday, January 14, and on Tuesday, a body believed to be hers was located in a barrel about an hour’s drive away, near the Colo River.

Her stepfather Justin Laurens Stein, 31, was arrested at a unit in Surry Hills at 8.30pm on Tuesday night and charged with murder after declining to be formally interviewed by investigators.

News.com.au is not suggesting that police allege anyone other than Justin Laurens Stein had any involvement in the girl’s disappearance and alleged murder.

The Mt Wilson property a nine-year-old girl was reported missing from last Friday. Picture: 9 News

Justin Stein, the fiance of Charlise’s mum Kallista, has been charged with the girl’s murder.

Final hours of Charlise Mutten

Detectives allege Stein drove around Sydney for up to five hours with Charlise’s body in the back of his boat while he tried to work out where to dump her on the night of January 11, according to an exclusive report by The Daily Telegraph.

Homicide detectives retraced Stein’s steps after he allegedly purchased five 20kg bags of sand from Bunnings, fuelled up his boat and tried to launch it from an inner-Sydney dock.

They also allegedly found a blue tarpaulin in the back of the boat, which was inoperable.

Police allege Stein ended up leaving the heavy barrel containing Charlise’s body in dense bushland after struggling to dump it in the Colo River.

The barrel was found late on Tuesday, after a wide-scale investigation was launched last week.

Ms Mutten is understood to have reported Charlise’s disappearance at 8.20am on Friday January 14, though police were told she was last seen some time on Thursday afternoon.

Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson told reporters that while investigators are still uncertain of exactly what happened, they were “certain” about a number of facts. He said police will allege the accused placed the girl’s body in the barrel.

“Things will unravel over the next week or so to find a cause of death, the purpose for a death, and try and identify exactly what happened so that the remaining family have some comfort in that,” he told reporters.

Deputy Commissioner Hudson also revealed police will allege in court the alleged murderer had held phone conversations with the child’s mother in the lead up to the body being discovered.

“[There were] a number of telephone conversations with the girl’s mother, to purchase a number of sandbags, 20kg sandbags from a hardware store, to fuel a boat and then try and float that boat on the water at one of the docks in inner Sydney,” he said.

Police allege they then were able to track his movements, through GPS and CCTV, back to the location where police commenced the search yesterday afternoon.

Ms Mutten is currently under medical supervision, with Deputy Commissioner Hudson saying she has been “difficult” to approach and contact.

He said that while the investigation is ongoing, at this stage there is no evidence to support anything other than that the accused acted alone.

“However, it’s still early days in the investigation,” he said.