Jew World Order

The eight-year-old girl was last seen in the company of Augustine Miller, a family friend.

The eight-year-old Aboriginal girl who died from severe dehydration in Western Australia’s eastern Goldfields desert had been moved from home to home, eventually landing with a convicted child snatcher and a child sex offender.

The young girl, whose name and photograph have been withheld for cultural reasons, went missing in the desert for four days after leaving her latest home on a hunting trip with Augustine Winter Miller, 38, on December 31.

Mr Miller had a relationship with Tania Louise Little, who had informally taken over care of the girl when the girl’s grandmother died.

Chewed-up tyres… damage done to the Police Vehicle involved in the search yesterday shows how rough the terrain was. Photo: Courtesy WA Police

Mr Miller had previously spent 15 months in jail after being convicted in January 2006 over his sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl who had been promised to him as his wife.

Ms Little, meanwhile, had been convicted in 2008 of snatching a newborn baby girl from a Perth maternity hospital but was granted a suspended sentence.

Mr Miller and the girl were found by a police rescue team on Tuesday afternoon, having walked half-way back towards the Tjirrkali Aboriginal Community, 180 kilometres north-west of Warburton.

The Tjirrkali Aboriginal Community is 180 kilometres north-west of Warburton. Photo: Rania Spooner

Their two-wheel-drive car was stranded 25 kilometres into the desert.

The girl was unconscious and despite more than an hour of CPR efforts by police and a Warburton nurse she was never revived.

Ngaanyatjarraku shire president Damien McLean said the Warburton community was reeling from news of the death.

“The community is stunned and distressed obviously but they are still confused about what has gone on. No one knows what has gone on really pending the police investigation,” he said.

“It could be anywhere between a terrible misadventure and a ghastly crime and there’s not much that can be said until more information comes out.”

Mr Miller now also faces tribal law, with threats of pay back since the girl’s death.

An angry reaction in Warburton

More than 100 angry Warburton residents threw rocks at a police plane carrying Mr Miller and he was forced on to a Royal Flying Doctor Service plane which then flew to Kalgoorlie on Tuesday night.

“There were a lot of angry people who thought he was going to come off the plane,” Mr McLean said. “There’s a strong depth of feeling.

“He was responsible for the child’s safety and there is an ongoing issue there definitely and he would be aware for that.”

Police Inspector Bill Munnee had earlier said that police would have to speak to the community before Mr Miller could return there.

“The mood of the community is not good, understandably it’s still very raw and they are very emotive,” he said.

The girl’s mother Ann-Marie Lane told GWN News that she remembered her daughter as a shy and happy baby. Ms Lane had not lived with her daughter for the past six years.

Mr McLean said Ms Lane had not been coping with the care of her daughter and passed care for the then two-year-old child on to her own mother, Nola Grant, who became the principal carer.

Unfortunately the grandmother died from kidney failure when the girl was six years old and principal care passed to Tania Louise Little. Ms Little had befriended Ms Grant and taken care of the eight-year-old as Mr Grant became increasingly unwell over the past six years, he said.

‘Just wanted a baby to look after for a little while’

Ms Little admitted in the Kalgoorlie District Court to taking three-day-old Courtney from Perth’s King Edward Memorial Hospital in November 2007 after speaking to the baby’s mother in the hallway.

Ms Little had suffered from phantom pregnancies and believed she had suffered a miscarriage prior to taking the baby, the court heard.

The court also heard Ms Little took the baby because she “just wanted a baby for a little while to look after”.

In September 2008, District Court judge Christopher Stevenson imposed a 12-month suspended term on Ms Little, who pleaded guilty to one charge of stealing a child under the age of 16.

The following year Ms Little took over custody of Ms Grant’s granddaughter and it is understood from those who knew Ms Little that she “came good” and had only gone through that one strange episode.

Earlier this year she moved from Kalgoorlie to the remote Tjirrkali Aboriginal Community to be with Mr Miller.

It is understood that she has since returned to Kalgoorlie but has been unable to be contacted for comment.

“She’s been the child’s carer for most of [the girl’s] life and she’s just devastated,” Mr McLean said.

He said she had taken up a relationship with Mr Miller in the past few months after he was released from jail earlier this year after committing driving offences.

The Department of Child Protection issued a statement yesterday saying it was not aware that the girl was living with Mr Miller since it was not responsible for her living arrangements.

“In May 2010, the department was aware that [the girl] was living in Kalgoorlie-Boulder in an arrangement made by extended family,” the statement said.

“It is unknown at this stage if the person who was caring for her is a relative. This person is not a department relative or foster carer, and the department had no involvement in these living arrangements.”

The department said that the only interaction with the girl’s carer was primarily related to requests for financial assistance, with the most recent request being in June last year.

“The department had no knowledge that the family had recently moved to the Tjirrkarli Community where ‘Gus’ Winter Miller (aka Darcy Miller) resided,” it said.

Police are continuing forensic investigations into whether the girl had been mistreated, which includes an autopsy to be conducted later this month.

Inspector Munnee said the death was being treated as suspicious as a standard procedure and nothing more would be known until police had spoken in depth with Mr Miller and examined the car and area where the pair was found more thoroughly.

– with Rania Spooner and AAP