"The 1,267th caller was the person who initiated the breakthrough and then a couple of days later another person [provided information], and then that enabled us to do investigations which sort of opened it up further," Detective Superintendent Bray said.
The first call, on October 8, "nominated Khandalyce as possibly being the little girl in the suitcase".
"The initial caller identified that Karlie and Khandalyce had been missing since about 2009, although at the time of the call there wasn't a missing person report in existence," Detective Superintendent Bray said.
He said the "caller advised us that Karlie and Khandalyce had been reported missing in 2009" but it was shelved a week later after Northern Territory Police were reassured by Karlie's mother, who has since passed away, that the pair were safe.
Detective Superintendent Bray said the 1,271st caller provided a photograph showing Khandalyce in a stroller with the quilt tucked behind her head.
"I can tell you that the quilt was made by Khandalyce's grandmother, who had died before they had been located," he said.
"As a result of that information we were able to identify another person who had been closely associated with Karlie, and that person provided information in relation to meeting with her in November 2008 at Marion and provided a photograph to us."
He said that photograph "again showed Khandalyce and it showed her wearing the pink dress".