Xanthe Mallett identifies ONE unusual detail in the search for missing Charlise Mutten, Mount Wilson

A top criminologist says the 15 to 20 hours between when Charlise Mutten was last seen and when she was reported missing could be one of the keys to finding the schoolgirl.

The nine-year-old was staying with her mother Kallista and her fiance Justin Stein at a sprawling estate in Mount Wilson, in the Blue Mountains, on Thursday when she disappeared.

Her family told police she was last seen that afternoon, but they didn’t file a missing persons report until 8.20am on Friday.

Criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett said it’s ‘unusual’ for so much time to have elapsed between when a child vanishes and when authorities are notified.

‘I think what is unusual is that she wasn’t reported missing for a number of hours,’ she told Sky News.

‘That is quite unusual in a child disappearance.’

Dr Mallett said police will need to interview Kallista and the Stein family, who own the estate where she went missing, to properly determine why there was such a delay.

She pointed out that police missed out on the chance to find Charlise during the first ‘critical’ 24 hours of her disappearance.

‘The first 24, 48 hours are so important in any serious investigation. Certainly those first 24 hours have been lost but [police] would be making up for it, throwing every resource possible at this.’

Charlise’s mother collapsed when officers stormed the property on Friday and was unable to speak with police, but she was expected to be interviewed on Monday.

Mr Stein spoke with investigators on Friday, after police impounded his red Holden Colorado Ute in Penrith for examination.

There is no suggestion Kallista Mutten or Justin Stein are connected with Charlise’s disappearance.

It is understood police investigators are scouring CCTV footage for evidence about the recent movements of Mr Stein’s ute.

A small group of emergency services workers, whose numbers have been depleted by a Covid outbreak among volunteers, were warned on day five of the search on Tuesday that the nine-year-old would be by now ‘lethargic’ and ‘stationary’.

‘It’s day five. She’s not going to be mobile,’ a police officer told the Rural Fire Service and SES searchers.

The officer warned them that Charlise would need water from a ‘bottle, puddle or dam’.

He couldn’t provide them with a description of what clothes she might be wearing as ‘we don’t have clothing unfortunately. We don’t know what she is wearing’.

The stepfather and mother of Charlise Mutten have told police they can’t remember what she was wearing when last seen on the verandah of the wedding venue property Wildenstein last Thursday afternoon.

While Charlise was initially said to be wearing a pink top, black knee-length skirt and pink Nike thongs when she was last seen, neither Kallista Mutten or her fiance have not been able to definitively say how she was dressed.

On Sunday night, Charlise’s biological father issued a cryptic social media post.

‘Has anyone won the ‘Worlds most hopeless person award’ twice? We have a repeat entry this year!’ he wrote on Facebook.

Detectives are treating the disappearance as a possible homicide, with officers spending five hours on Monday scouring the property she vanished from.

Asked directly if police believed her disappearance was suspicious on Monday, Police Area Command Acting Superintendent John Nelson would only say detectives were ‘not discounting any scenario’.

The search was hampered by heavy rain yesterday, forcing SES and RFS volunteers to wind up their search ahead of what would be Charlise’s fifth night missing in the mountains.

Dramatic footage captured by Daily Mail Australia showed police cars and a large number of detectives on foot swoop on the retreat at 11.30am on Monday.

Investigators ordered the media to ‘leave, now!’ from outside the gates on Monday morning - moments after plain clothes child protection squad officers drove into the property.

A police bus followed by unmarked police cars rolled through the gates as a uniformed officer stood guard.

They stayed at the property for five hours before leaving that afternoon.

Rescue teams spent Monday scouring dense bushland, fire trails, murky ponds and rivers in 30C heat following a promising development on Sunday.

Rural Fire Service volunteers found a ‘very small and barefooted’ footprint along a trail just a few kilometres away from where Charlise was las seen, with NSW Police Chief Inspector Gary Sims also telling reporters ‘certain items’ had been found.

But Inspector Sims said the items ‘unfortunately haven’t led to anything that gives us a definite indication of her location’.

More than 90 Rural Fire Service officers have been deployed in groups of seven to ten across Mount Irvine and Mount Wilson to search for Charlise, and items of the mystery clothing she was wearing when she vanished.

NSW RFS Commander Peter Bennett told Daily Mail Australia the search parties had reached the ‘saturation point’ of available officers from four different stations at Chifley, Macarthur, Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains.

He described the search areas as ‘inhospitable’ and the task as ‘exhausting’, with officers were on the lookout for traces of Charlise ‘or anything unusual’.

Ten groups of firefighters searched an area of 10km on Monday.

‘It’s pretty thick scrub,’ he said, ‘walking in line through that is exhausting.’

Ms Mutten is not believed to have given a formal interview on Monday, despite expectations she would be spoken to.

Ms Mutten collapsed and was taken to hospital shortly after her daughter was reported missing.

There is no suggestion she or her fiancé were involved in her daughter’s disappearance.

Searchers who set off to comb vast areas of bush have been encouraged to call out Charlise’s name as they conduct line searches.

Police divers searched the waters of the Hawkesbury River on Saturday and seized a boat, which is being scanned for fingerprints.

Following her daughter’s disappearance, Ms Mutten collapsed and was taken to hospital. Mr Stein spoke to police on Friday.

‘For any parent this is a distressing scenario, so yes she is quite distressed so we’re providing her with support,’ acting superintendent John Nelson said.

The nine-year-old is described as being of Caucasian appearance with brown hair and blue eyes, and is between 130 and 140 centimetres tall.

Rural fire service volunteers have used ‘line searching’ tactics and marked out any items found in their painstaking search.

NSW Police sent out multiple geo-targeting text messages to all residents in the area on Friday and Saturday evening to inform them of Charlise’s disappearance and request help.

They also asked social media users to share the missing girl’s photo widely.

Police are appealing for anyone with information about her whereabouts to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.