Police investigating one of Australia’s most high-profile missing children’s cases yesterday said they had found human bones in a forest where a 13-year-old was believed to be buried.

Daniel Morcombe was last seen waiting for a bus in northern Queensland in 2003 and his disappearance sparked a nationwide hunt, followed by years of false leads and dead ends . A recent inquest into the case prompted a breakthrough which saw a truck driver, Brett Peter Cowan, 41, charged last week with Morcombe’s abduction, murder and interfering with his corpse.

Police also began combing a Queensland forest for the teenager’s remains and said they had found human bones.