Bone DNA matched Daniel's mother

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Human bones found in isolated bushland on Queensland's Sunshine Coast almost certainly belonged to murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, a court has heard.

However, the exact cause of the 13-year-old's death couldn't be determined, the trial of his accused killer Brett Peter Cowan was told on Wednesday.

Jurors heard of the massive bushland search in the Sunshine Coast hinterland that uncovered more than a dozen partial bones and a pair of boy's shoes in August and September 2011.

Forensic crime scene manager Inspector Arthur Van Panhuis said police divers, State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers, scientific experts and cadaver dogs were involved in the search of an old sand mine, a macadamia farm and bushland near a creek at the Glass House Mountains.

Inspector Van Panhuis said metal detectors, sieves and an excavator were also employed in the meticulous hunt, in which 500 cubic metres of sand was shifted.

'It was an extremely intensive search,' he told the Supreme Court in Brisbane.

A boy's shoe was found within four days and within a month police had recovered a second shoe and 17 partial bones belonging to a human aged in their early teens.

DNA from an upper arm and thigh was compared with DNA from Daniel's mother and brothers.

'It was an exact match,' microbiologist Dr Dadna Hartman told the court.

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Bone DNA matched Daniel's mother