By ALENA HIGGINS
DENISE and BRUCE Morcombe were showered with hugs and messages of gratitude when they stopped by Warwick on Tuesday afternoon to sign copies of their new book.
Dozens lined up patiently at Leslie Park to meet the much- admired couple, who posted a message on Facebook about their impending arrival only hours earlier.
Mr Morcombe said he was shocked by the turn-out.
“Warwick is double the interest of anywhere else we’ve been,” he said.
“We’re just so flabbergasted.”
The book, Where is Daniel?, covers the decade-long investigation into the disappearance and murder of their son and the extraordinary courage, dignity, persistence and fortitude the pair displayed under unbearable circumstances.
Daniel was snatched from the Sunshine Coast while waiting for a bus on 7 December 2003.
Since forming the Daniel Morcombe Foundation in 2005, the extraordinary couple have committed themselves to educating children on stranger danger and where in the region having presented to students at Clifton earlier in the day.
“We just throw a box (of books) in the car just as a courtesy, not to get extra sales,” Mr Morcombe said, who was dressed, along with his wife in obligatory red, the colour of the T-shirt Daniel was wearing the day he disappeared.
“We say if you’re in town and you’ve brought one we are happy to sign that, and if you don’t have one, we will supply one.”
Launched in August, book sales are fast approaching 25,000, excluding e-book purchases.
“We don’t really have the number for those but it will boost (the total) up a little bit,” Mr Morcombe said.
“But there’s nothing like a book that you can live and breathe, and how can you sign an e-book?”
Ms Morcombe laughed: “I once signed an Ipad.”
Upon reaching the front of the line, parents and grandparents embraced the couple, praising them for the work they have done and taking the opportunity to pose with the popular figures in a photo.
About half-an-hour into the signing, an apologetic Mr Morcombe was forced to declare “we’ve run out of books”.
Mum-of-four Kirsty Kruger took her young brood to meet the couple and get her book signed.
She said the in-depth account, which she had almost finished reading, really resonates with her kids.
“Having pictures in the book is great for children,” she said.
“It really makes them more aware of anything that doesn’t make them feel right.”
The Morcombes were expected to visit Allora yesterday morning before heading back home to the Sunshine Coast.
On 13 March 2014, Brett Peter Cowan was found guilty of Daniel’s murder.
