🔗 Share this article Animal Remains Found in Search for Girl Who Disappeared Fifty-Five Years Ago A childhood photo of Cheryl Grimmer and her brother near a pool The "area of interest" flagged in a community-driven investigation for the body of a English girl who vanished in Australia 55 years ago has proven to be a mistaken lead, New South Wales Police said. A volunteer team who used cadaver detection dogs in the search for the missing child had believed their finding would mark a breakthrough in the case, which has stayed a unsolved puzzle since she vanished in 1970, when she was three. But skeletal fragments that were found in the location belong to an animal, police said in response to questions, adding that the operation had "concluded." Investigators believe Cheryl, who had emigrated from Bristol with her family, was abducted from a coastal area in the city in the start of 1970. Latest Investigation Steps Thursday's search took place in a local suburb, on a small pocket of woodland referenced in a admission made by a teenage boy. In 2019, a trial of the accused, known only by a alias, Mercury, who'd been indicted with the crimes against Cheryl, collapsed. The man, in his sixties then, had rejected any involvement. Prosecutors later withdrew charges against him as a judge excluded the statement he made as a juvenile. Ongoing Mystery Police have carried out numerous searches in the decades since Cheryl went missing, but have found few clues as to what occurred to her. Local officials have offered a A$1m incentive for information on Cheryl's abduction and suspected murder. Relatives' Views Cheryl's brother Ricki Nash, sixty-two, has openly discussed what he thinks are mistakes in the official inquiry dating back to the time she disappeared. He was seven years old then. He last saw his sister in the locker area at the beach on the date she vanished. Public Response A formal request asking the state parliament to set up an inquiry into missing persons investigations overseen by the police force, such as Cheryl's, collected more than 10,000 supporters this season. It was debated in parliament, but in a response responding to those who signed, officials made no commitment to holding an inquiry.