A tiny girl looks straight into the camera, wide-eyed and still. She holds up two fingers in a peace sign, her pink dress soft against her small shoulders and her expression somewhere between shy and proud.
It should have been one of countless photos taken of this sweet and innocent five-year-old — now known as Kumanjayi Little Baby — as she grew up. Instead, it is now one of the few.
Kumanjayi Little Baby — who was nonverbal and communicated through hand signals — was last seen alive late on Saturday night at Old Timers Camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs.
At about 11pm, she was seen holding hands with 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis — a non-blood relative with a history of violent crime. He had been released from prison just days earlier.
Sometime after that, relatives noticed she was gone.
After four days of intense searching, hoping against all odds that she was still alive and the nation holding its breath, came confirmation of the “worst possible outcome”.
Just before midday on Thursday, police found the tiny girl’s body about five kilometres from where she was last seen.
A group of officers, carrying a bright blue tarp above them — its colour cutting sharply against the long buffel grass — moved deliberately to shield her from the sun, onlookers and this cruel world.
Hours later, Mr Lewis, who had been on the run for almost five days, turned up at Charles Creek town camp, where locals bashed him unconscious before calling police.
He was arrested and taken to Alice Springs Hospital where all hell broke loose.
Up to 400 people gathered, attempting to force their way inside.
Outside the hospital, the crowd swelled and violence erupted.
Hundreds of people shouted and pressed forward as a frighteningly thin blue line pushed back.
After days of searching around the clock and little sleep, police formed a line with shields up to hold their ground and protect those inside the red centre’s only hospital.
Amid the chaos, police cars were smashed and set alight with flames licking into the dark and smoke rising in thick plumes as red and blue lights flashed.
Bottles, brick and rocks were hurled towards them. Officers ducked behind vehicles, regrouped and pushed back, deploying tear gas and firing rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
At a service station across the road, windows were smashed, shelves were ransacked, and everything it sold strewn across the floor.
By the time the sun rose on Friday, the carnage was clear.
Amid the destruction, the community was in pain.
Outside Old Timers camp, people — including children — had started pinning flowers to the fence as they grappled with how a five-year-old child could vanish from here and end up dead just kilometres away?
In an opinion piece for The Australian, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price described the case as “a national disgrace”.
“How did this happen? It is a question that demands honesty,” she wrote.
“For too long, there has been a reluctance to speak plainly about the conditions in and around town camps.
“In reality, too many have become environments where safety is not guaranteed, particularly for children.”
She said town camps were places of “constant movement”.
“People coming and going. Individuals with long criminal histories moving in and out. Alcohol restrictions that exist on paper but are not enforced in practice. Overcrowding. Poor maintenance. Limited oversight,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, the opposition has offered to work with Labor to improve the “state of affairs” in town camps, with Angus Taylor decrying it “a completely untenable, unsustainable situation”.
“It’s the denial that has led us to this place where people aren’t prepared to have honest conversations about the state of affairs in our town camps and what options there are to address it,” the Opposition Leader said.
“We’ll work with the government on any reasonable options to address this.
“But we’ve got to get out of denial about what this is doing to those communities.”
All Labor offered was condolences.
On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for the Alice Springs community to “come together” in the wake of the horrific alleged crime.
He said the situation “breaks your heart” but praised the hundreds of people who “came together to search for this young girl before the tragic result”.
“And so this is a community that is hurting, that needs to come together,” he said.
“And we want to see the community come together, but we certainly understand people’s anger and frustration and that was expressed.”
Indigenous Affairs Minister Malarndirri McCarthy called for de-escalation.
“It’s tough . . . People are really deeply traumatised, hurting, angry because we’ve lost a beautiful little girl, and a lot of people want to blame people.
“Now we have to just let justice take its course.”
In response to repeated questions about reform, she insisted the immediate focus must remain on the family.
“Right now we have a community in absolute trauma, in grief, and we have to get through this first,” she told the ABC.
Senator Price, who was related to Kumanjayi Little Baby, is demanding more than sympathy.
“An independent inquiry must now be on the table,” she wrote.
“Not only into the circumstances surrounding this case, but into the broader conditions that allow such vulnerability to persist.
“That includes the governance of town camps . . . and whether current laws and enforcement mechanisms are adequate to protect the most vulnerable.”
She said there had long been a need for greater scrutiny of how funding was being used, whether services were delivering real outcomes, and whether the organisations responsible for town camps were being held to account.
“This moment demands that they are not ignored any longer,” she said.
She said that must include the governance of town camps, the organisations responsible for their upkeep, and whether current laws and enforcement mechanisms were strong enough to protect the most vulnerable.
“Because if they are not, they must change,” she said.
“We have the resources. We have the knowledge.
“What is lacking is the willingness to insist on accountability and to follow through with meaningful reform.”
The case is eerily similar to that of a two-year-old girl who was raped in Tennant Creek in 2018.
On February 15, 2018, sometime between 10pm and midnight, 25-year-old Kingsley Corbett, entered the Tennant Creek home as the toddler, her brother and mother were asleep in the living room.
Corbett picked up the child without waking anyone and took her to the main bedroom.
After removing her nappy and raping her, he returned her to the living room and left. He also infected her with gonorrhoea.
The horrific crime sparked national outrage and led to Malcolm Turnbull making the first visit to the region by a prime minister since 1982.
Corbett was jailed for 13 years with a non-parole period of nine-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, back in Alice Springs, Kumanjayi Little Baby’s grandfather and senior Yapa elder Robin Granites, urged calm.
“It is time now for sorry business, to show respect for our family and have space for grieving and remembering,” he said.
“Everyone is feeling very upset and emotions are very high, I understand that.
“What has happened this week is not our way. Our children are precious, of course we are feeling angry and hurt at what has happened.”
He said the community must allow justice to take its course.
“This man has been caught, thanks to community action, and we must now let justice take its course while we take the time to mourn Kumanjayi Little Baby and support our family.”
Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.
Sign up for our emails