Detective Sgt Russell Sheather told the Wangaratta Coroners Court yesterday the Victoria Police canine unit was used to search a vacant block adjacent to the Lawrence Street house, in the days after the two-year-old boy was first reported missing in October 2003.

However, the dog squad was not used to search under the house where Daniel’s mother Donna Thomas had previously been living.

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Sgt Sheather said the reason was because of the large amount of “traffic” already at the scene and that it would have already been checked.

The house was the base for police operations during the search.

Earlier yesterday, Sen-Const Philip Ryder, who was stationed at Wodonga at the time of Daniel’s disappearance, told the court he and another officer conducted a quick search under the house while waiting for a ride back to Wodonga at the end of a day investigating other properties.

He said he entered about five metres into the crawl space and did not see anything unusual: “There didn’t appear to be any freshly turned earth and the ground appeared to be well-compacted down”.

A sergeant called him away after a short time, saying it had already been searched, he said.

Daniel’s bones were found buried about two metres into the crawl space five years later.