Tears flowed outside a school near the border of NSW and Queensland last night as classmates and community members gathered to grieve for Charlise Mutten.
About 100 people who attended the vigil at Tweed Heads Public School came holding candles, balloons and flowers to remember the nine-year-old.
Children and parents cried in the street and left tributes next to a shrine bearing a photograph of Charlise.
"I feel for any of the family members and the nan that she lived with," said local woman Kimberley Gathercole.
"And all her friends and teachers, it's sad, it really makes me sad."
Hours earlier, they learned the search for Charlise had come to a shocking conclusion, after police officers found a child's remains dumped in a barrel near Sydney, about 800km away.
The girl, who lived in Queensland with her grandmother, had been holidaying at a luxury estate in NSW's Blue Mountains with her mother and her mother's fiance, Justin Stein.
After five days of searching, police made the devastating discovery.
"Today's news is not what we wanted to hear. I mean this is horrible," NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole said yesterday morning.
"This is horrific. This is shocking."
This is what we know about the case.
The murder charge
Mr Stein, 31, has been charged with murder after remains consistent with Charlise's body were found in a barrel that was dumped in bushland.
Police made the discovery on Tuesday evening in the vicinity of the Colo River, about an hour from where Charlise was last seen at a luxury estate in Mount Wilson.
A crime scene has been established near where the barrel was found and is being examined by specialist forensic officers.
Police said Mr Stein provided inconsistent accounts about events that unfolded around the time Charlise went missing.
"Many investigative strategies revealed inconsistencies in two versions provided to us by the accused," Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said.
It was CCTV and GPS data that led police to the barrel and following the discovery, Mr Stein was arrested at his apartment in Surry Hills, Sydney, about two hours from the Colo River.
Mr Stein has been charged with murder but has refused to be interviewed by police.
The 31-year-old appeared at Central Local Court via video link yesterday morning wearing a cream jumper and a face mask.
He showed little emotion as his lawyer told the court about his mental health issues and concerns for his safety in prison.
Mr Stein will remain behind bars until he faces Penrith court in March.
Who was Charlise Mutten?
The Tweed Heads Public School student lived with her grandmother at Coolangatta in Queensland, but was holidaying in the Blue Mountains with her mother, Kallista Mutten.
The pair were staying at a wedding and function venue in Mount Wilson with Mr Stein and police were told Charlise disappeared on the afternoon of January 13.
She was not reported missing for at least another 10 hours.
The school issued a statement on Facebook, writing that the community was "absolutely devastated".
"We cannot begin to imagine the distress they must feel. Charlise was a much-loved member of our school who brightened all our days, every day."
Tweed Heads woman Lee Monley, who has a child in year 4 at the school, said she was confident the proper support systems would be in place when classes resumed next week.
"The school has already reached out and said that they will provide counselling support and everything for the children," she said at last night's vigil.
"So yeah, that's a good thing, especially after everything that's happened."
The investigation
Police were tight-lipped during the initial search for Charlise and said previous missing person cases had taught them to not rule out anything.
Deputy Commissioner Hudson said police used a "two-prong" approach.
"Basically, utilising our normal searching capability for a missing person, which is quite well known, but also parallel to that, an investigative search with targeted strategies."
There were 200 investigators from the state crime command working on the case and investigations will continue to analyse what happened in the lead-up to Charlise's death.
"We are still uncertain of what exactly happened to her," Acting NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.
"The search will remain ongoing to look for any clues to help us identify the cause of the death."
At this stage, police have not identified a motive.
The young girl's mother, who was hospitalised for a medical condition several days ago, is yet to be interviewed by police.
The search
A massive ground and air search was launched last Friday after Charlise was reported missing.
Hundreds of people were involved including volunteers from the Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service, who helped scour challenging, rugged terrain around the Mount Wilson property.
Homicide detectives were later brought onto the case and a white boat and a red ute were seized for forensic examination.
Police divers also spent hours searching the Hawkesbury River at Windsor.
Deputy Commissioner Hudson said their investigation started wide as to not exclude anything but their focus quickly narrowed when they suspected foul play.
"Obviously, we start off these searches with a lot of hope but, unfortunately, we always have in the back of our minds the worst," Deputy Commissioner Hudson said.
