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The "area of interest" identified in a community-driven search for the remains of a British child who vanished in the land down under 55 years ago has proven to be a mistaken lead, New South Wales Police said.

A group of searchers who used cadaver detection dogs in the quest for the missing child had hoped their finding would represent a major development in the investigation, which has remained a unsolved puzzle since she vanished in 1970, when she was three.

But skeletal fragments that were uncovered in the area are from an animal, law enforcement stated in reply to queries, adding that the search had "ended."

Investigators suspect the young girl, who had emigrated from her UK hometown with her family, was abducted from Fairy Meadow beach in the city in the start of 1970.

Recent Search Efforts

The recent operation happened in Balgownie, on a tiny section of forest referenced in a admission made by a teenage boy.

In the year 2019, a court case of the suspect, known only by a alias, the pseudonym, who'd been charged with Cheryl's abduction and murder, ended abruptly. The individual, in his sixties then, had denied any involvement.

Legal authorities later dropped charges against him as a judge disallowed the statement he made as a minor.

Unsolved Case

Police have carried out numerous investigations in the years since she went missing, but have uncovered few clues as to what happened to her.

NSW authorities have offered a A$1m incentive for tips on the case of Cheryl's disappearance and presumed death.

Relatives' Views

Her sibling Ricki Nash, sixty-two, has openly discussed what he believes are mistakes in the official inquiry dating back to the day she disappeared.

Mr Nash was seven years old then. He final sighting of his sibling in the locker area at the beach on the date she disappeared.

Public Response

A petition asking the state parliament to establish an investigation into cases of disappeared individuals overseen by the police force, such as Cheryl's, gathered more than ten thousand supporters this summer.

It was debated in parliament, but in a response responding to petitioners, state authorities made no commitment to conducting an review.