An aboriginal man suspected of abducting and killing a five-year-old girl near Alice Springs has been arrested after being tracked down by vigilantes and bashed.
Northern Territory Police said on Thursday night that Jefferson Lewis, 47, had been located and arrested over the death of Sharon Granites, who went missing from Old Timers Camp on Sunday.
Sharon’s body was found about 5km from her home on Thursday afternoon, and Lewis was then found at Charles Creek Camp and attacked by an angry mob who then gathered outside Alice Springs Hospital where he was taken by police, NT News reported.
Police were then forced to use pepper spray on the crowd of more than 200 furious community members who screamed “we’re going to kill him”, hurled bricks and rocks, damaged three police cars, and assaulted officers.
Sharon Granites was reported missing from her home at about 1.30am on Sunday, and on Monday police named Jefferson Lewis, 47, who was released from jail six days earlier, as suspect in her disappearance.
Northern Territory Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley said on Wednesday investigators were looking into whether Sharon was sexually assaulted, and suspected members of the local indigenous community knew where Lewis was.
“We believe there are members of the community that absolutely know where Jefferson Lewis is, what I want to say to you is tell us,” he said.
“Tell us what you know, tell us where he is and tell us how to contact him, if you’re withholding information because you are frightened please have the confidence we will treat that information sensitively.
Malley also revealed police had found underwear, a distinctive yellow shirt Lewis had been wearing, and a doona at a site behind the camp. The items are now undergoing forensic analysis.
Lewis has no phone, car, or bank account, which Malley said was making the search difficult, and police have resorted to viewing data from a previously worn ankle monitor to identify search locations.
“It’s like going back to 1930s policing without that digital footprint … so some of the usual practices we do in 2026 aren’t applicable,” Malley said.
Lewis has links to remote aboriginal communities across the NT and Western Australia, and was released from prison just six days before Sharon went missing, but not for child-related crimes.
He was jailed for 18 months in October 2024 for aggravated assault and domestic violence order and bail breaches, and then sentenced to a further three months’ imprisonment while locked up for resisting police and another domestic violence order contravention.
In 2022 he served eight months of an 11-month sentence for aggravated assault charges, in 2018 he was sentenced to 19 months for aggravated assault, in 2016 was jailed for 12 months, also for aggravated assault.
Header image: Left, the angry mob outside the hospital (Facebook). Right, Jefferson Lewis. Inset, Sharon Granites (NT Police).
The post Vigilantes track down aboriginal suspected of killing girl, 5, in Alice Springs first appeared on The Noticer.
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