The family of a six-year-old girl who was found dead in a waterway at the bottom of a bushwalk cliff has visited her school to collect her belongings.
Airlie Montgomery was last seen in the NSW South Coast town of North Nowra at 2.15pm on Sunday.
Police were immediately concerned for her wellbeing due to her young age and several medical conditions, including being non-verbal.
Airlie went missing in The Grotto Walk, a bush hiking area with cliff-top views.
Her home was just 800m from the cliff’s edge.
A body, believed to be Airlie’s remains, was found four hours after she was reported missing.
The remains were in a waterway beneath The Grotto.
NSW Police are not treating Airlie’s death as suspicious, officers instead believe her death was a case of misadventure.
A close neighbour of the family, Cathy, told Daily Mail she was the last person to see Airlie alive before she wandered off and died in a tragic accident.
Cathy said Airlie normally played on grass strip out the front of a home two houses down from her parents’ place.
‘She was a lovely little thing, non-verbal, but a happy girl always smiling and blowing kisses when she saw you,’ Cathy said.
‘Except yesterday she was crying, no-one knows why… and then I didn’t see her.
‘She must have wandered off. Everyone in the neighbourhood was so good. We all went out to look for her.
‘But then we found out she must have gone over the edge above The Grotto.’
Cathy said Airlie ‘broke her neck, that’s what we’ve been told.’
The family live just metres from North Nowra Public School, where Airlie was a pupil.
Corey Montgomery, Airlie’s father, left the school with a bunch of small pink flowers in hand after a visit on Monday.
Several more flowers have been left at the family’s home.
Airlie’s mother, Katie Amess, was too heartbroken to speak on the loss of her daughter.
‘I can’t talk right now, I can’t say anything,’ she said through tears as she was comforted by a neighbour.
Krishnan, a local from North Nowra, was one of about 100 volunteers who helped search for the six-year-old.
He told the ABC he saw the little girl running along a housing estate on Sunday morning.
‘I feel very sad for the passing of a six-year-old girl,’ Krishnan said.
‘This morning I was sitting on the bench there and saying a prayer for her and saying bye-bye to her.’
Krishnan returned home as it was getting dark and heard helicopters continue the search.
‘There were two helicopters; one arriving around 12 o’clock and a police helicopter at 5pm,’ he said.
Shoalhaven mayor Patricia White said Nowra is a ‘town in mourning’ following news of the body’s discovery.
‘This is just an absolute tragedy,’ she told the Daily Telegraph.
‘Hold your kids tight, chat to your neighbours to see if they’re okay.’
Several others shared their grief online, describing Airlie’s death as ‘unfair’.
‘Incredibly sad. Fly high Airlie,’ one wrote.
‘My heart is broken for the family and her many friends,’ another said.
The NSW Department of Education issued a statement saying: ‘We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and our thoughts are with the family and all those affected’.
‘We are providing support to students and staff and will continue to do so for as long as it is needed.’
A report will be prepared for the coroner.