Australian police are searching for a man in relation to a missing 16-year-old girl after a body was found in a barrel on the back of a ute on the Gold Coast.
Larissa Beilby was reported missing two weeks ago, and hasn't contacted her family since June 2018. She is believed to have been in the company of a white man in his late teens.
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On Wednesday afternoon (local time) police were called to a property in Buccan, south of Brisbane in relation to Larissa's case. When they arrived a man fled the scene in a black ute.
His vehicle was tracked to a caravan park about 15km away a short time later.
When police arrived at the park and searched the ute, they made a grim discovery: a female body in a barrel on the vehicle's tray, covered with a tarp.
9 News reports that the body was in an advanced state of decomposition. It has not yet been formally identified.
The man driving the ute fled the park in a silver sedan when police arrived.
A manhunt for 34-year-old Zlatko Sikorsky, who police believe can assist with their investigation, is now underway. He is believed to be armed and dangerous.
Detective Acting Superintendent Mark White told media that police are treating the death as a homicide, and are conducting an "intensive" forensic examination on the ute.
Newshub.
