NAT: Divers check dams and rivers in search for toddler

AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-1999
NAT: Divers check dams and rivers in search for toddler

MELBOURNE, Feb 12 AAP - Police divers were today searching rivers and dams in southern New
South Wales in an increasingly desperate search for missing 15-month-old Victorian toddler
James Dean Sette.

"The main priority at the moment is searching the waterways between Deniliquin and
Mathoura," a spokeswoman for New South Wales police said, adding that police were "covering
all bases" rather than acting on any specific information.

She said four NSW police divers were searching dams and rivers before thousands of
water-skiers descended on the area this weekend for a major event centred in Echuca.

Dean has been missing since last Sunday when his natural mother, Julie Jean Sette, 31,
allegedly took him from Daylesford in central Victoria during an arranged visit to a couple
who hoped to adopt him.

Sette has been in police custody since her arrest on Monday, when she appeared in Echuca
Magistrates' Court in northern Victoria charged with false imprisonment.

She has exercised her legal right to decline to be interviewed by police.

Detective Chief Inspector Rod Collins of Victoria's Homicide Squad said yesterday the
search for James was being concentrated in southern NSW because of the number of reported
sightings of Sette's car in that area.

Meanwhile, the couple known only as Jack and Fiona, who looked after James for 12 months
and were six weeks away from formally adopting him, made a desperate plea to the public today
to contact police with relevant information.

Jack said the couple believed Sette might know where James was "or what's happened to him
at the worst".

"Whatever the situation, we need to know," he told reporters at Melbourne police
headquarters.

AAP gf/er/wjf/de

KEYWORD: CHILD SEARCH

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.