This is the derelict former factory where Jefferson Lewis, the man charged with murdering five-year-old Aboriginal girl Kumanjayi Little Baby, is believed to have been hiding out in the days before his arrest on Thursday.

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The abandoned building, just a short walk from where Lewis was found at Charles Creek camp, may have provided the suspect with shelter until he was ultimately caught attempting to slip away under the cover of darkness.

Well known in the area, the building in Alice Springs contains several vandalised rooms strewn with old mattresses, rubbish and empty bottles of alcohol.

The victim, Kumanjayi Little Baby – the name used after her death at her family’s request in line with cultural protocols – had been put to bed by her mother at about 11pm on Saturday, April 25, after which it is alleged Lewis snatched her from her bed, then disappeared into nearby bushland.

After an extensive five-day search, her body was found near the riverbed about 5km away on Thursday, April 30, but Lewis remained at large.

Later that night, a group of young boys saw Lewis walking through their camp and recognised him from media coverage, sparking a violent vigilante response.

Eyewitnesses told the Daily Mail that Lewis emerged suddenly from long grass on the edge of the camp, and that they believed he was attempting to pass through unnoticed en route to his hometown of Lajamanu.

While the two locations are 1,300km apart – a journey that would take more than a month on foot – locals say that such distances are routinely travelled in remote Australia and are not considered unusual.

Jefferson Lewis is in police custody in Darwin after being airlifted from Alice Springs

Kumanjayi Little Baby’s body was found south of Alice Springs on Thursday, April 30

This is the squalid factory where Lewis, the man charged with murdering five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby, is believed to have been hiding out in the days before his arrest

‘He was using the darkness to get through here,’ a witness said. ‘Probably to go back to Lajamanu, where he is from. You’d pass through this way to get there.

‘We think he came from that empty place next to Hungry Jack’s. It’s been empty a long time and everyone knows that.’

While police held concerns that somebody had been harbouring Lewis during the days he was at large, those in the close-knit community say that scenario is unlikely.

‘No one will help that fella,’ one local told the Mail. ‘No one wants to help. She was a young girl. No one. Not here. Not anywhere [would help Lewis].’

‘He wouldn’t even ask for help because he knows no one is going to.’

The building where Lewis is believed to have been hiding – riddled with holes and covered in graffiti – sits just a few hundred metres from the camp where he was eventually discovered.

In a particularly chilling detail, photos taken by the Mail show the words ‘LIKE TO… HURT KIDZ’ scrawled on a surface beside the entryway, presumably by a vandal who entered the premises after Lewis’ arrest.

There’s another message below it, in what appears to be different handwriting.