| Denise Morcombe | |
| Birth Place: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | child safety advocate |
| Known For: | co-founding the Daniel Morcombe Foundation |
| Spouse: | Bruce Morcombe (m. 1983) |
| Children: | 3 (including Daniel Morcombe) |
| Awards: | Sunshine Coast Region Citizen of the Year (2018) Queensland Great (2020) |
Denise Marie Morcombe (née Beavis, born November 1960) is an Australian child safety advocate.
Morcombe is a co-founder of the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, a non-profit organisation which she established with her husband Bruce Morcombe in 2005 following the abduction and murder of their 13-year-old son Daniel Morcombe in December 2003.[1] [2] [3]
Morcombe was born in Melbourne.[4] By the age of 18, she had found employment in the banking sector, employed by the Bank of New South Wales completing data entry and accounts.[4]
At the age of 19, she and a friend had travelled to Lorne, Victoria where she met Bruce Morcombe who worked at the Board of Works in Melbourne. They became engaged during a holiday to Palm Cove in Queensland and were married on 3 September 1983, after which they bought a four-bedroom house in Forest Hill.[4]
Their first child was born on 4 October 1987. On 19 December 1989, Morcombe gave birth to twin boys including Daniel.[4] They were born eight weeks premature and spent one week in intensive care.[4]
After her husband accepted a redundancy package from the Board of Works in February 1992, the couple purchased a local Jim's Mowing franchise.[4] A year later, Morcombe and her husband swapped their Victorian franchise with a regional franchisor territory on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, As a result, the Morcombe's relocated to Queensland initially living at Mountain Creek and then Buddina but ultimately settling at Palmwoods.[4]
See main article: Murder of Daniel Morcombe. Morcombe's son Daniel was abducted from a bus stop on the Sunshine Coast on 7 December 2003.[5] The circumstances surrounding his disappearance triggered a widespread search and lengthy police investigation, with Morcombe and her husband frequently appearing in the media appealing to the public for information.[6] [7] [8] Following the arrest of Brett Peter Cowan on 13 August 2011, some of Daniel Morcombe's remains were found at a search site at the Glasshouse Mountains on 21 August 2011.[5] Daniel Morcombe's funeral was held on 7 December 2012 at Siena Catholic College.[9]
Cowan's trial commenced on 10 February 2014, where he entered a plea of not guilty and refused to give evidence.[10] Cowan was found guilty on 13 March 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment.[11] [12] Cowan appealed against his sentence but it was dismissed in the Queensland Court of Appeal on 21 May 2015.[13] The High Court dismissed a subsequent appeal on 11 March 2016.[14]
With her husband Bruce, Morcombe established the Daniel Morcombe Foundation in May 2005 to educate children about how to stay safe in both a physical environment as well as online.[2] [3] This has included launching educational resources such as Foundation Red and holding events such as the Walk for Daniel which was inaugurated on the Sunshine Coast in 2005 and the Day for Daniel, a national awareness and fundraising day held on the last Friday of each October when all Australians are asked to wear red, to reflect the red shirt Daniel Morcombe was wearing when he went missing.[2] [3]
In late 2011, Morcombe and her husband Bruce were jointly named as Queensland Australians of the Year, and as a result were nominated to become 2012 Australians of the Year, but lost to Geoffrey Rush.[15] [16]
Morcombe was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of her service to the community relating to safety awareness programs for children.[17]
Morcombe and her husband Bruce were both named as the Sunshine Coast's Citizens of the Year at the local Australia Day awards in 2018.[18]
In 2020, she was named as a Queensland Great.[19]