Tracker brought in to help solve riddle of Australian boy who survived four days in the bush
Australian officials are grappling with the mystery of how a three-year-old autistic boy survived four days alone in the bush after disappearing from his family home in a case that has gripped Australia and made headlines around the world.
AJ Elfalak is believed to have drunk rainwater and sheltered in wombat holes before being found on Monday in a creek just 500 yards from his home, but many aspects of his disappearance remain unexplained.
A professional bush tracker has joined efforts to solve the riddle of how the young child, who is also non-verbal, managed to emerge from the wilderness with only a few scratches.
Temperatures dropped to 2C over the rainy weekend, making AJâs survival all the more miraculous.
Trapper Jake Cassar said he could not rule out foul play in the young childâs disappearance and said that, among other scenarios, he was considering whether the child had been abducted, as the boyâs parents initially believed.
The area where AJ was spotted by helicopters on Monday had been thoroughly searched with sniffer dogs after he went missing on Friday.
Experts are now questioning whether AJ travelled or been taken somewhere else before returning to the spot.
It is understood some senior detectives in the NSW Police Force say âthere are a lot of things that donât add upâ, including claims of missing CCTV footage from the family property.
âI know everyone has lots of questions. So we need to try and understand what has occurred over the past three days. I donât understand what has happened with some CCTV footage, however, it is subsequently part of our inquiries,â Superintendent Tracy Chapman of the New South Wales Police Force said on Monday.
âWe are certainly happy with where things are at the moment. Weâll continue that investigation to be entirely comfortable but from our perspective itâs simply a good- news story.
âWe have a three-year- old boy who many people probably expected was not alive and heâs been located and been returned to his family.â
Chapman added that having access to water and wombat holes that could be used as shelter, may have helped AJ.
The family of little AJ Elfalak is relying on the opinion of professional bush tracker Jake Cassar (pictured) to help them understand how the toddler spent three nights alone in the unforgiving terrain behind their home
Mr Cassar told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday he couldnât rule out that the three-year-old was abducted, and said his job was to consider all possible scenarios. âIâm here to keep an open mind,â he said. Mr Cassar (right) is pictured with AJâs mother Kelly
Superintendent Tracey Chapman said having wombat holes and access to water helped increase AJâs chances of survival. AJ is pictured at home on Tuesday morning as his family celebrates his safe return
On Tuesday, AJâs mother Kelly Elfalak shut down questions on theories about her sonâs disappearance when she was asked what she thought of the various scenarios.
âIâm not thinking about anything now. My sonâs here, Iâm happy, and thatâs it. Thank you, thank you very much,â she said to a Today show interviewer before walking off camera.
Regarding the circumstances of AJâs disappearance, Mr Cassar, the trapper told Daily Mail Australia: âIâm here to keep an open mindâ.
Five unanswered questions hanging over investigators in the riddle of the boy in the bushWith AJ safely home, a police investigation into his disappearance continues.
Here are five unanswered questions in the puzzling case:
How did a three-year-old survive four days outdoors?
AJâs survival is being described as a âmiracleâ with the child seemingly emerging from four days in the bush with just a few scratches.
It rained over the weekend and temperatures dropped to 2C, prompting questions about how the three-year-old, who is autistic and does not speak, could have survived 72 hours outdoors alone.
That AJ was found uninjured in a creek accessible only by a steep, uneven descent, is also puzzling.
What did AJ eat?
AJâs family said that when he got home all he wanted to do was eat.
But itâs not yet clear what the toddler ate while he was missing.
He was drinking water from the creek when he was spotted and police said AJ may have used wombat holes in the area for shelter.
How was he missed by searchers?
AJ was found in a spot just 500m from his home, which had already been thoroughly searched, including with helicopters and sniffer dogs.
Professional tracker Jake Cassar, who is assisting the family, said itâs possible the child could have been overlooked as systematic searches do not mirror the scattered route of someone who is lost.
However, Cassar also said it was possible AJ wandered further and circled back round to the spot where he was found, or even that he was abducted as his family initially believed.
What happened to the missing CCTV footage?
A family friend told local media that four hours of footage of the front of the familyâs home on the night AJ disappeared was missing.
Footage from the camera usually downloaded into both a cloud server and to a memory device, but it was not there.
âWe will continue to look at that, but it is a motion-detected CCTV and there could be any number of reasons [why it wasnât recording],â Police Superintendent Tracy Chapman said on Tuesday.
There were also reports of âsuspicious footageâ from a neighbouring property.
Police said this is under investigation.
Could AJ have been abducted?
A white ute was reported to have driven away from AJâs home property around the time he disappeared.
Police seized a similar vehicle on Sunday, as well as CCTV from a service station 40km away.
It is not yet clear to whom the vehicle belongs or how it might be connected to the childâs disappearance.
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âThe way I see it, if youâve got two feet and a heartbeat, anything is possible,â Mr Cassar said on Tuesday from the Elfalaksâ home in Putty, 150km northwest of Sydney.
âDoesnât matter if youâre a 97-year-old woman or a three-year-old boy.â
Mr Cassar has been at the family home since Saturday, volunteering his expertise to help untangle the riddle of AJâs disappearance.
The trapper queried whether AJ had actually travelled further from home and somehow looped back to the nearby spot where he was found, pointing out that the area had been explore extensively in the days the child was missing.
Investigators are considering how the toddler, who has autism and is non-verbal, could have survived outside in wet weather, and without anything to eat for 72 hours.
Mr Cassar has stuck close to the Elfalak family since arriving and was spotted on Tuesday heading into the ditch where AJ was found.
The expert tracker said he planned to venture out with his search party and explore the area, looking for any potential paths AJ might have taken.
AJ was found sitting in a shallow, muddy creek, the entrance to which is so steep that even adults would struggle to clamber down.
Daily Mail Australia photographs taken from the base of the creek show the uneven, rocky terrain leading down to the water.
There is what appears to be a barely visible path at the entrance, but it remains unclear how the young child was able to make it down safely.
It is apparent that even if he did make it down unaided, he likely would not have been able to get out again.
âI couldnât get down there,â Kim Grace, who owns nearby Grey Gum Cafe and knows the Elfalaks said.
âItâs near impossible. I canât see how he ever would have gotten down there on his own.â
Ms Grace, along with several of her colleague at her cafe, is suspicious that there might be more to the story of AJâs disappearance.
But Mr Cassar explained it was very possible that, even with hundreds of volunteers searching for him, that AJ avoided detection while in the bush.
He said search parties tended to stay in straight lines and follow a near perfect trajectory from point A to point B, whereas somebody who is lost intuitively does the opposite.
âWhen weâre lost, we almost always walk at a slight curve to the right or left, therefore itâs easy to travel in directions that might be missed by search parties,â Mr Cassar said.
He hoped to provide the Elfalaks with some information that could help determine whether AJ wandered off on his own or was abducted, as they initially believed.
A relative, who said he lived at the home with the Elfalaks, said the family was performing âtheir own investigationâ.
âWeâd like to think the police are still investigating, but theyâre not here are they,â the man said.
Police were initially baffled that the child turned up just 500 meters away from the family home, potentially having evaded detection by highly-trained sniffer dogs since Friday.
A helicopter fitted with infrared technology and hundreds of searchers also scoured the nearby bush searching for AJ.
Police said on Tuesday that the dense terrain complicated the search for the boy, who was spotted within a few hundred metres (yards) of his home.
âThe young fellow was sitting in a small creek and was drinking water. He was able to catch the eye of the pilot and the crewman,â New South Wales Police superintendent Brad Monk told reporters after the rescue on Monday.
âThere is no doubt emergency services during that search passed closely by the little boy who may have even been sleeping at the time. There is a lot of area there where he could have been hidden,â he added.
AJ was found sitting in a shallow, muddy creek at the base of what appeared to be a barely visible path, but the question remains as to how he made it down such a steep track safely
Mr Cassar said he planned to head down with his search party and explore the area to find any potential paths that AJ might have taken. The creek where AJ was found in pictured
Mr Cassar queried whether AJ (left and right) had in fact travelled further from this family home and somehow looped back to the dam where he was found, which is just 500m from his family home and was explored extensively in the days he was missing
Mr Cassar explained it was very possible that, even with hundreds of volunteers, little AJ avoided detection while in the bush. He is pictured (left) with AJâs mother Kelly
Detectives confirmed an investigation was ongoing into the 72 hours AJ was missing
A white ute was also reported to have driven away from the property around the time AJ disappeared, with a similar vehicle seized by police on Sunday, as well as CCTV from a service station 40km away.
AJâs mother said on Tuesday she felt âblessedâ that her son was found alive.
âHe is with us. He is safe and well and healthy. That is all that matters,â Kelly told television reporters Tuesday at the family home in the village of Putty.
âI want to thank everyone. I am so blessed,â she said.
AJ had a few scratches and bruises, Kelly said. âOther than that he is perfect.â
âWhat a relief. I canât imagine how traumatic this experience has been for AJ and his parents,â Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a message on Twitter Monday.
The boy was reportedly treated at the nearby Maitland Hospital before returning home. The hospital declined to comment.
On Tuesday, Putty Community Initiative Facebook page reported a confirmed case of Covid at a nearby monastery which had sent volunteers to help in the search.
The community group called on any locals who offered assistance or came into contact with the family to get tested for the virus immediately.
Ms Grace said sheâd been serving customers who were assisting with the search all week, many of whom she didnât recognise.
âThey were out-of-towners,â she said. âA lot of them certainly werenât from here, but some of them Iâve seen around before.â
Many of AJâs loved ones had earlier claimed they lived at the Putty address and had not travelled from Covid hotspots in Sydney.
The Elfalak family only moved into the home permanently three months ago, reportedly to escape Covid-19.
AJâs godfather Alan Hashem, who served as a spokesman for the family after the toddler disappeared, is the founder of anti-vaccine movement âOur Voices Matterâ.
âWhen weâre lost, we almost always walk at a slight curve to the right or left, therefore itâs easy to travel in directions that might be missed by search parties,â Mr Cassar said. The area where AJ was found is pictured
Mr Cassar (pictured on Tuesday) hoped to provide the family some further guidance as to whether AJ likely wandered off on his own or was abducted, which is what the family initially believed
âWhen weâre lost, we almost always walk at a slight curve to the right or left, therefore itâs easy to travel in directions that might be missed by search parties,â Mr Cassar said. Bushland near where AJ was found is pictured
Source: Daily Mail
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