Law enforcement have accused a man with homicide, just hours following skeletal remains were located during a search for the body of a female who disappeared over 20 decades ago.
Breakthrough in Longstanding Investigation
This finding of skeletal evidence, thought to be those of Susan Goodwin, buried in the garden of a house in Port Lincoln, a southern state, signaled a major breakthrough in the cold case.
Major crime investigators took into custody and accused a senior Port Lincoln man with the killing of Goodwin, who was reported missing in July 2002.
Legal Proceedings
The accused was due to face charges in the local magistrates court on Thursday.
Search Efforts
Earlier, police indicated they had paused their search after the unearthing of bones at a Port Lincoln address during initial digging.
An anthropologist from Forensic Science SA and extra personnel from the forensic response section and homicide division travelled to the town to verify if the remains were human and continue excavations.
Investigators had been employing specialised ground-penetrating technology to scan a site on Pamir Court, which is near Moonta Crescent, where the missing woman had lived.
Relatives' Long Wait
On Tuesday, a senior detective stated that it was “heartbreaking that the victim’s loved ones have spent the last twenty-three years without closure”.
Case History
Goodwin was last seen around lunchtime on 19 July 2002, after shopping at grocery stores in Port Lincoln.
Police had previously suggested she was killed “by someone who was familiar to her” and suspect the killer still lives in the town.
Several years ago, police revealed that a call for tips for information had resulted in seven persons of interest being cleared by the investigation.
A financial incentive of as much as two hundred thousand dollars is offered for information that results in the conviction of the perpetrator and/or information that helps locate the discovery of her body.
