The inspector in charge of a large-scale search for missing Tasmanian girl Shayla Phillips, 4, says he won’t stop searching until she is found.
Tasmania Police Inspector Gavin Hallett said rescuers would get “on their hands and knees” to find the girl, who was last seen playing with her neighbour’s dogs near her home in Stormlea, on the island’s south-east, on Wednesday afternoon.
Inspector Hallett said there was a chance the girl could be injured and confused, and would not approach rescuers, but conditions were still conducive to finding her alive and well.
“She’s a happy, healthy four-year-old … there are no medical issues, so we still hold a lot of hope that we’ll find Shayla alive and well,” he said.
“She’ll be confused, she could be scared, she won’t approach us, so that’s where our concerns are.”
A plane and a police tracker dog have been flown in from Victoria to assist with the search as it enters its third day. The state’s police force has also confirmed it will send a helicopter to bolster Tasmania’s fleet.
A fixed-winged aircraft and a drone with thermal imaging capabilities guided rescuers as they scoured the woodland through Thursday night, with horses and all-terrain vehicles joining the search on Friday morning.
Inspector Hallett said rescuers had combed approximately seven kilometres of dense scrub and challenging terrain and would return to areas previously searched on Friday in case the girl was moving between sites.
Police have asked members of the community to stay away from the search area due to the challenging topography of the area.
“We don’t want people who are unskilled being in bad terrain, bad conditions, and we have to deploy resources to locate a person when our effort should be solely focused on Shayla,” Inspector Hallett said.
Tasmania Police say challenging terrain and thick woodland are hampering the efforts to find the missing four-year-old.
Shayla was last seen in her backyard about 2.30pm on Wednesday.
Police said Shayla’s mother Bianca went to check on her daughter about half an hour later and found that the child and the dogs were missing.
One of the dogs returned home shortly after, while the other was found several hours later about 800 metres away from where Shayla was last seen.
Shayla’s mother looked inside the house and around neighbouring properties but could not find the child.
Inspector Hallett said officers had interviewed several people in the area about Shayla’s whereabouts but hadn’t received any genuine leads.
“There’s been nothing through that investigative process which has drawn us to suspicious activity this time, so there’s no person of interest at this stage,” he said.
He said crews were prepared to continue searching into the night for a third day in a row.
Shayla is described as having long, brown curly hair and was wearing pink leggings, a light yellow top and gumboots at the time of her disappearance.
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