Body of missing three-year-old girl found 150 metres from house
A three-year-old girl who went missing on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland has been found dead, police say.
The girl went missing from a home at Cootharaba, near Noosa, at about 3.30pm on Monday.
Around midnight, police divers found her body in a dam approximately 150m from the house.
The little girl, Elenore, had been in her room playing before she went missing, her aunt Penny Lindsay told The Courier-Mail.
"Her mother went down to get the house phone and then she was gone," she said.
"We searched for an hour and half before we called police. That was between 1.30 to 2pm."
Her disappearance had sparked a huge search effort after the girl's grandmother took to a local Facebook group to call for assistance in the search.
"Any help would be greatly appreciated but we (sic) just been told police won't bring in divers until tomorrow ... so if there are any divers out there that would like to search dams tonight thanks," she posted on Monday night.
Just after 8pm, Queensland Police posted on Facebook that "significant resources" had been deployed to the search and no more people were needed.
"Police wish to offer their sincerest thanks to all the wonderful community members offering to come out and assist with the search," Queensland Police wrote.
Police asked the community to "keep the family in your thoughts".
Volunteers were sent home at 9pm but police stayed on actively searching.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
