South Australian police officials have discovered the skeletal remains of a young girl inside of a suitcase who they believed was murdered eight years ago.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that on July 14, a driver noticed a black, quaint suitcase in the bushes near the roadside in Wynarka. When the suitcase was pried opened, it was uncovered that a young child’s skeletal remains rested inside, and local police were immediately notified.
A tattered suitcase was found beside the dead boy of the child beside a highway in South Australia http://t.co/Q2SCOZLgQV
— mariaccnr (@mariaccnr) July 26, 2015
It was determined that the child found inside of the suitcase was a girl who was between the age of two and four. Evidence surrounding the incident led South Australian police officials to conclude that the child was murdered, but Detective Des Bray says he refuse to give further details.
Investigators also believe that the child was not murdered in the area in which she was found; she may have been “killed elsewhere and her remains put into the suitcase and shifted in relatively recent times.”
However, investigators have yet to identify the child, but they have discovered that the baby doe must have died eight years ago, considering the clothing she wore, which was dated back to 2007, according to the Independent .
‘We are confident that this child was murdered’ — Australia police says of girl’s skeletal remains found in suitcase http://t.co/6HibwtyvOo
— Judy Ngao (@Judy_Ngao) July 25, 2015
Detective Bray released images of the girl’s clothing, which were a “black tutu, a pink shoe, a Dora the Explorer purple top, and red sports shorts” in hopes that it would help solved the murder case.
Photos of a colorful, degraded quilt that was found near the suitcase was also released to the public.
“Someone loved that little girl and either made her, or gave her, that quilt. I would appeal for whoever loved her to get in touch with us,” Bray said.
“We want people to think back into the past, look at that little girl, someone must remember that suit – it’s a very distinctive set of clothes.”
“Unfortunately we do not have a definite gender from a forensic point of view of DNA profile, the degradation of the skeletal remains has made this very difficult,” he continued.
“However, we are reasonably confident at this time that these are the remains of a girl who had fair hair and was 90-95cm tall.”
Witnesses say they saw a man, who they believe to be about 60-years-old, walking by the roadside with a similar suitcase six to eight weeks ago. Investigators are now on the hunt to find the potential suspect and bring him in for questioning.
Since the skeletal remains of a child was found in the suitcase, there has been an aggregate 237 calls that were made to crime stoppers, but there hasn’t been any leads thus far.
The investigation is ongoing.
[Image courtesy of Michael Coghlan / Flickr / Creative Commons]
