One of the volunteers who led the search for murdered schoolgirl Charlise Mutten has described the impact of her death as "a very personal and deeply distressing experience".
Rural Fire Service (RFS) volunteer Darren Rodrigo spent days scouring dense bushland and tackling steep terrain in the Blue Mountains with one thing in mind — finding a missing girl.
He said although the hundreds of search volunteers had suspicions that Charlise wasn't in fact missing, they couldn't give up searching.
"We knew things didn't stack up from the beginning when we started the search but we had to operate on the basis we were looking for a missing girl," Mr Rodrigo said.
But any hopes they had turned to tragedy when police found the nine-year-old's body in a barrel on the banks of the Colo River, north-west of Sydney, late on Tuesday night.
"Murder and death when it happens to other people, it seems so detached — but it becomes much more real when you are there looking for the person for hours in the bush," he said.
"There was a lot of love for Charlise here — hundreds of people I think gave their heart and soul to find her — it is just devastating.
"It's affected me in ways I didn't expect really, it's been tougher than I thought it would be."
Charlise was on holiday with her mother Kallista Mutten and her fiancee Justin Stein at his family's luxury estate in Mount Wilson when she was reported missing last Friday.
But court documents allege the primary school student was killed as early as Tuesday.
Hours after discovering her remains, homicide detectives arrested Mr Stein at an apartment on Riley Street in Surry Hills, in Sydney's inner city, and charged him with murder.
Police said abnormalities in his version of events, CCTV, telephone intercepts and GPS tracking helped them reach a breakthrough.
They traced Mr Stein's movements and discovered he had bought 100 kilograms of sandbags in 20 kilogram lots and tried to launch a boat in Sydney before driving to the Colo River.
The hundreds of volunteers who searched day and night for Charlise in dense bushland have been offered counselling, including Mr Rodrigo, as they begin to process the news
"We gave everything we had and she didn't pass without a lot of love," he said.
"Everyone was exhausted, but they just didn't say anything. There was a real sense of determination out there.
"I am really sorry this has happened to her, I hope she had found peace, of course our deepest condolences to Charlise's family and friends."
Charlise won a literacy award while attending Tweed Heads Public School on the border with Queensland, where she lived with her grandmother Deborah Mutten.
Dozens of people continue to place bouquets of flowers, photos, messages and teddy bears outside the gates of the school.
"It's really put a dagger through the heart of the local community," Tweed MP Geoff Provest said.
Kallista Mutten remains in the care of doctors after being hospitalised not long after reporting her daughter missing on Friday.
Homicide detectives have been unable to formally interview her and have been unable to establish a motive, nor determine exactly how Charlise died.
Once Ms Mutten is deemed "medically fit", she is expected to be questioned about the alleged murder.
A forensic search of bushland around the Colo River is continuing, with police insisting the investigation is still in its early stages.
Mr Rodrigo was keen to point out his opinions about the search did not necessarily reflect those of the RFS.
