On 13 August 2011, after an extensive Mr. Big police operation, police took Brett Peter Cowan into custody and charged him with Morcombe's murder, child stealing, deprivation of liberty, indecent treatment of a child under 16, interfering with a corpse, and other offences after having led undercover detectives to Morcombe's remains. In 2006, Cowan had been interviewed over the Morcombe case and had admitted to police that he travelled along Kiel Mountain Road, on his way to purchase marijuana from a drug dealer, on the day of the disappearance. Cowan confessed to having seen and approached Morcombe to offer him a lift to the shopping centre, having parked his car in a nearby car-park of the church he attended.