GOLD COAST BULLETIN

Wednesday January 29, 2014

GREG Hutchings had come to think of the idyllic stretch of white sand a 30-minute walk from his modest Pottsville unit as his hideaway from the world.

And it was there, under a giant Pandanus tree metres from the beach and only accessible by foot across a sandy track littered with rocks, that two bodies believed to be his and that of his four-year-old daughter Eeva were found.

Hundreds of surfers, fishermen and swimmers potentially wandered past the spot in the 18 days after the 35-year-old and Eeva were reported

missing as tourists flocked to the northern NSW coast, filling up all four caravan parks between Pottsville and Cabarita.

The bodies were found by a State Emergency Services volunteer in a lonely spot not visible from the beach due to dense scrubland but within earshot of beachgoers and the main road between Pottsville and Hastings Point.

Thick grass lines the area,

knee-high in most parts; a haven for snakes with reptile holes dotting the ground, on a small hill overlooking the beach.

Mr Hutchings’ mother Diana Hutchings and sister Sheri Hutchings walked arm-in-arm along that same stretch of beach, close to an area where police say some clothing relating to the case may have been found, within one kilometre of where the bodies lay.