Drones the missing link to help find missing kids

When a small boy goes missing in the Australian bush, the best tool police have is still humans.

Drones could be used to help locate missing children.

When a small boy goes missing in the Australian bush, police throw everything at finding him: helicopters, divers, dogs.

Yet the best tool they have at their disposal, even after all these years, is still other human beings, with boots on the ground.

Unlike a helicopter, search teams can get under the canopy. Unlike dogs, they can see, as well as smell, things that may be ­important.

What human search teams can’t do is swiftly cover vast areas, but that gap in the search tool kit is closing, with testing being done by Sydney researchers on drones fitted with heat-seeking and laser technology.

The ground search for missing child William Tyrrell, who dis­appeared from outside a house on Benaroon Drive in Kendall in September 2014, is the subject of this week’s episode of The Australian’s new podcast, Nowhere Child.

Police employed every tool they had at their disposal, and William wasn’t found. Some police believe that’s because he was snatched and quickly ­removed from the scene.

Yet there are still some in the community who believe William may have simply become lost, and is not yet found.

Shari Forbes, founder of the Australian “body farm” — where donated cadavers are left out to decompose, for scientific purposes — says police are increasingly working with forensic scientists to improve search technology.

“We have a range of methods that we can use, but not all of them are ideal for every search scenario. If one tool in the toolbox doesn’t work, what else is in there?

“That’s what we are now experimenting with.”

Professor Forbes spoke during a return visit to Sydney, having ­moved to Canada last year to open a new “body farm” where her team is testing drones fitted with thermal cameras, hyperspectral cameras and new search technology known as LiDAR.

“The problem is often the bush. You can cover large areas, but can you penetrate the canopy?” she said. “Will the drones work in eucalyptus bushland in Sydney, and when we’re looking in the middle of winter with six feet of snow? We’re trying to figure that out, with police.”

Professor Forbes said the complex technology “requires somebody to understand what they’re looking at, but a specialist could utilise that information.

“We’ve tested them, and it is just an example of where we can say to police, this works. And that’s the benefit of the (body farm) facility. So many police … value the opportunity to talk to the scientists and say, ‘What can you offer us in an investigation?’

“And that’s where we’ve built the best relationships, offering the services when we’re needed.

“We’re also getting the feedback from the police, because we only want to test technologies that are useful in scenarios that they encounter. Because it’s the perseverance of the police … that can often solve these cases.”

The investigation into William’s disappearance is focused on the theory that he’s not lost but missing.

Episode 3 of Nowhere Child will be released at 3pm AEST today