Five-year-old Sharon missing from Alice Springs Old Timers town camp late on Saturday. (Supplied: NT Police Force)

Northern Territory Police say some people in the community “absolutely know” the whereabouts of five-year-old girl Sharon Granites’s suspected abductor, and are imploring anyone with information that could help find them to come forward.

Police say they’ve had to go back to ‘1930s policing’

Jefferson Lewis’s lack of digital footprint has been a challenge, NT Police have said.

“Yeah it’s horrible,” Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley said.

“Its going back to 1930s policing without that digital footprint. You know this man doesn’t have a telephone, doesn’t have a back asccount, he doesn’t have a car, so some of the usual practices we do in 2026 aren’t applicable.

“Hence the amount of resources we have on the ground, you know we’re knocking on doors, we’re going through houses, it’s old-style policing and yeah it’s a hard slog.”

The search for missing girl Sharon Granites has entered its fourth day while police and community members in Alice Springs cling to hope of finding the five-year-old alive and well.

A large-scale search effort has been under way in the Central Australian outback town since the early hours of Sunday morning when Sharon’s mother first noticed she had vanished from her bed.

Northern Territory Police have previously said the family was visiting the Old Timers town camp at the time, where 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis was last seen holding Sharon’s hand late on Saturday night.

Five-year-old Sharon Granites has not been seen since late Saturday night. (Supplied: NT Police Force )

Neither Mr Lewis nor the five-year-old have been seen since.

NT Police search co-ordinator Karl Von Minden told the ABC this morning Aboriginal trackers had worked into the evening yesterday while drones had continued scouring the landscape from the air throughout the night.

A crime scene established at the Old Timers town camp where missing Alice Springs five-year-old Sharon Granites was last seen on Saturday night. (ABC News: Will Green)

“I spoke to our ALOs yesterday — Aboriginal Liaison Officers — they’ve been searching and using their tracking skills throughout the evening as well,” he said.

“Some of them are fairly weary because it’s been going for four days but their morale’s still high so they’re still going out there every day and doing what they can.

“This morning at first light we’ve started our team briefings, we’re splitting the ground teams up into a number of large search teams and continuing the efforts that we’ve done in the last few days.”

Community members have joined NT Emergency Services volunteers to help in the ongoing search for the missing five-year-old. (ABC News: Will Green)

Senior Constable Von Minden said local residents had continue to turn out in their dozens to help the increasingly desperate search for the missing five-year-old.

“We’ve had probably about 40 volunteers rock up this morning, it’s fairly fluid, people are coming as they’re available which is fantastic,” he said.

“People who are attending early straight up are getting straight out there and searching so we hope to get 130 at least, if not more.”

Senior Constable Von Minden said the air search had now covered almost 80 square kilometres while about 5km2 of a 20km2 ground search area had been line searched on foot.

“We’re going over some key areas a couple of times from different directions as well and expanding that out,” he said.

Search dogs have joined foot patrols, drones, helicopters and mounted police in the search now in its fourth day. (ABC News: Will Green)

Parts of the foot search area are overgrown with buffel grass, making the search slow going.

History of man police are searching for over 5yo missing girl

A man being sought in connection with the alleged abduction of five-year-old Sharon Granites near Alice Springs has a long history of violence and prison time in the Northern Territory.

“The search area, it’s made up of both urban and rural environments, so we’ve got tall grass, it’s especially high for this time of year due to the amount of rain that they’ve had here, which has made it very challenging,” Senior Constable Von Minden said.

“Then we’ve got the river bank as well, a lot of sand and bush area, trees, and then the urban side of it, buildings and structure that we’re going through.”

Police have previously searched the remote communities of Lajamanu and Yuendumu and Senior Constable Von Minden said “if new information comes to light” the current search would be expanded outside Alice Springs.

“There’s a number of possibilities that we’re working on and we’re trying to direct our search efforts to accommodate all of those possibilities, so we’re not ruling anything out still at this stage,” he said.

“We’re looking for Sharon, that’s our main focus, trying to locate Sharon, that’s our mission and has been since the disappearance was reported to us.”

‘We will find her’: NT Speaker joins search

Independent member for Araluen in the NT parliament, Robyn Lambley, who joined the search yesterday, said Alice Springs was “heartbroken”, with residents “doing everything they can to help find little Sharon”.

Ms Lambley told the ABC she was part of a group of about 60 volunteers “combing through very high buffel grass” following “a very wet summer” in the Red Centre.

Robyn Lambley says helping search for Sharon on Tuesday was “a very solemn and sobering experience”. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)

“The buffel grass is extremely high, up to our waist and sometimes our chest so you could barely see your own feet let alone what was on the ground,” she said.

“It was a very solemn and sobering experience … you don’t imagine that you’d ever be in a situation of potentially looking for a lost little girl.”

Ms Lambley said waking up this morning with no good news from overnight had been “deflating”, with locals “all quite distraught about this”.

“I woke up several times during the night, I had dreams about it, the first thing I did was walk out and turn the radio on and see if there was any good news about Sharon,” she said.

More than 100 volunteers have been showing out to join the search for Sharon this week. (ABC News)

“Everyone is doing everything they can to try and find this poor little girl but I guess we’re all very mindful of the fact that as time goes on that prospect becomes less but look, optimism has to drive us all, we’ve got to get out there.

“Every single person in a small community is valued and has a place and a purpose and they are valued, when one of us goes missing we are all on board to try and find them so it’s a very emotional time.

“If she’s out there, we will find her, one way or another.”

Robyn Lambley talking about the search for missing Sharon Granites. (ABC News)

Family ‘reeling’ after disappearance

The head of the Aboriginal organisation that maintains the town camp where Sharon was last seen said he had spoken with her devastated family.

Tangentyere Council chief executive Walter Shaw said the organisation had been providing her family with food and comfort, while helping to co-ordinate the search.

“I’ve visited the house with the family, they were sitting out on the verandah, I managed to have a conversation with them — I’ve had a long-standing history with the family through my community work,” he said.

Walter Shaw says Sharon “needs to be back in the arms of her mother”. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)

“They’re obviously reeling from the circumstances they’re facing with the missing child, but they are appreciative of the work and co-ordination with the police, Tangentyere Council and other key organisations and volunteers within the community.

“This shows that there is community solidarity and social cohesion with the community to band together to support the family in this very trying time with finding this missing child.”

Mr Shaw said Sharon’s disappearance was a time for police and the wider community “to band together for a safe and secure rescue of this child”.

“We want a favourable outcome for the return of this child back to the family,” he said.

“Society’s got a responsibility to look after our most vulnerable and this is a five-year-old child, a dependent, that needs to be back in the arms of her mother.”