A man has been arrested in Melbourne's south-east this morning in connection with the murder of a Filipina woman who was bludgeoned to death in Sydney's south almost 20 years ago.
Homicide squad detectives arrested the 40-year-old man at a house in Langwarrin just after 7.15am today.
He is being questioned over the murder of Pia Navida, 37, whose naked body was found by bushwalkers on February 1, 1992, near a trail in the Royal National Park south of Sydney.
A second man was also arrested this morning at a house in Bathurst, in central western NSW, about 6.30am. He is also helping police with their inquiries.
Two weeks ago, detectives said a routine check of "cold cases" had uncovered new DNA evidence at the crime scene and they appealed for information about the case.
At the time, Detective Inspector John Lehmann of the Unsolved Homicide Team would not reveal exactly what that evidence was but he did say: "We've uncovered further evidence and that includes ... speaking to persons that were never spoken to in 1992."
A key part of the investigation was a silver-coloured Nissan Pintara abandoned on Wattamolla Road, seven kilometres from where Ms Navida's body was found in Bundeena.
Ms Navida first came to Australia from the Philippines in the early 1980s after marrying an Australian.
She lived in Melbourne for some time with her husband but it is not known for how long.
When the marriage failed and the couple separated, Ms Navida moved to different cities across Australia.
Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Peter Cotter said today’s arrests were the result of hard work undertaken by detectives over a long period.
“It’s only because of the doggedness of this team of investigators that we have achieved this breakthrough after 19 years,” Detective Superintendent Cotter said.
“It’s another tremendous example of police persevering and not losing hope in their search for answers.
“No matter how long ago a crime occurred or how cold a case might seem, there are police working behind the scenes with the resolve to bring those responsible to justice.’’
Police said the 40-year-old Melbourne man was expected to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court today when police will seek his extradition to NSW.
Police have compared the ‘‘troubling’’ case of missing schoolgirl Siriyakorn ‘Bung’ Siriboon with the disappearance and suspected murder of an eight-year-old girl in a Melbourne bayside suburb 35 years ago.
Eloise Worledge was discovered missing from the bedroom of her Beaumaris home and her window’s fly wire cut in January, 1976.
Despite the state’s biggest-ever missing person case and years of subsequent police work, nobody has discovered what happened to the little girl and her body has never been found.
Detective Superintendent Brett Guerin today said detectives had even less to work with to find Boronia schoolgirl Siriyakorn, who vanished four months ago, than those who investigated Eloise Worledge’s case.
Siriyakorn was last seen by her step-father Fred Pattison and her mother Vannida as she set off for the short walk from her Elsie Street home to her Boronia high school on June 2.
The couple still believe their daughter is alive.
Detective Superintendent Guerin today said the newly formed Task Force Puma would double the number of police officers working on the case, which he described as ‘‘very unusual’’ and ‘‘troubling’’.
He said the diligence of the homicide squad, originally tasked with investigating Siriyakorn ’s well-publicised disappearance, had led to a large number of enquiries that still needed to be worked through.
Police have received more than 500 phone calls relating to the case and 70 people have been touted as possible suspects.
Detective Superintendent Guerin said this list had been whittled down to a ‘‘handful’’ and police had no ‘‘firm suspects’’.
‘‘Some of these have been discounted reasonably quickly but others need far more work,’’ he said.
‘‘We have a number of individuals that cannot be alibied at the moment. That doesn’t make them suspects, it just makes them people of interest to the investigators.’’
About 100 registered sex offenders in the surrounding areas and the residents of 450 homes that live on routes that Siriyakorn could have walked to school are to be spoken to by police.
Detective Superintendent Guerin said there ‘‘was no evidence whatsoever’’ that whoever was responsible for Siriyakorn ’s disappearance would target another victim.
But he warned parents to discuss ‘stranger danger’ with their children, including trusting their natural instincts and going to a populated area if they felt threatened.
‘‘They have a good sense of what’s dangerous to them,’’ he said.
Detective Superintendent Guerin said the lack of evidence surrounding Siriyakorn’s disappearance had reminded investigators of the case of Eloise Worledge, which has never been solved.
‘‘The detectives in that case at least had a crime scene to work from - there was a bedroom with a cut wire window so they knew that she had been taken from her bedroom from an intruder,’’ he said.
‘‘The detectives in this case have an absolutely cold start, like opening a bag of dirt with a spoon and taking the first bite. This is not a sexy investigation, it will take a long time, it’ll be painstaking and thorough.’’
Detective Superintendent Guerin said investigators had been in contact with Thai police and Siriyakorn ’s biological father in Thailand and her step-father and mother were not considered to have been involved in her disappearance.
‘‘At this stage, no one’s ruled in, no one’s ruled out,’’ he said.
‘‘However, in cases like this we often start with the family obviously, and we’re satisfied at this stage that we’re on the right track by pursuing alternative avenues of enquiry.
‘‘There’s no evidence to suggest that they’re involved in any way’’.
Siriyakorn left her home just before 8.30am on June 2 dressed in her BoroniaHeightsCollege blue-and-white striped uniform, blue raincoat, blue-patterned backpack and black Dunlop Volley runners with white socks.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
_______________
Fears held for missing Vic girl
Xavier La Canna June 24, 2011 SMH
Police fear a 13-year-old Melbourne girl who disappeared without a trace on her way to school three weeks ago could be dead.
Siriyakorn Siriboon, nicknamed Bung, vanished during a 10-minute walk to school, Detective Inspector John Potter from the homicide squad said.
The last person to see her was a neighbour who watched her begin the walk to Boronia Heights College, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, on June 2.
Det Insp Potter said there was a possibility the teenager had died and the homicide squad had taken a more active role in the investigation in the past week.
Despite the fears, Det Insp Potter said Bung's family still believed she was alive.
He said the girl may also have been abducted, but he discounted early speculation that Bung led a double life using social media websites.
"We don't believe her use of social media is connected to this case," Det Insp Potter said.
"This is a worrying case, worrying because here is a girl 13 years of age walking to school who disappears.
"We have had nothing, no information to suggest what has happened to her."
Asked whether there could be links to the Mr Cruel attacks on young girls in the late 1980s and early '90s in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, he said no connection with other disappearances had been drawn.
Child rapist Mr Cruel was believed to be responsible for at least four attacks on children, and two of his victims were 13-year-old girls.
While three of the victims were released, Mr Cruel went on to murder his last known victim, 13-year-old Karmein Chan.
Mr Cruel was never caught but police last year said a fresh taskforce had been established to track him down.
Over the last 25 years in Western Australia there has been multiple incidences of young women being attacked, murdered or ...vanishing. With several attacks put down to the Claremont Serial Killer (CSK). A 5km section of Stirling Hwy running through Claremont, Cottesloe and Mosman Park has seen many attacks. Statistically far too many attacks and with the Pamela Lawrence murder back in the unsolved column and The Sharon Mason murder conviction looking less and less safe the statistics only seem likely to get worse. 1988 June 20 Julie Cutler was last seen leaving the Parmelia Hilton Hotel Perth on St Georges Terrace at 12.30am after a staff function. Julie is not seen again. Her car is found 2 days later in the sea off Cottesloe Beach. 1994 Jan 1 woman driving home from Club Bay View fights off man who dragged her from her car and tried to rape her near the Claremont subway 1994 May 23 Pamela Lawrence is murdered at her shop in Mosman Park. Andrew Mark Mallard is wrongfully convicted of her murder in 1995. He is ultimately cleared some 12 years later 1994 Oct A 31-year-old woman breaks her ankle when she leaps from a speeding taxi on Princess Road after the driver and another man try to attack her. 1995 Feb 12 Teenager abducted in Rowe Park, tied with electrical flex and raped at Karrakatta Cemetery. 1996 Jan 27 Sarah Spiers 18, spends the evening with friends at Club Bay View. At 2.06am, she calls taxi from a Claremont phone box. When the taxi arrives she has gone and is not seen again. 1996 Feb Police confirm they have received reports of bogus taxis in Perth. 1996 Mar 3 A 21-year-old woman is bashed and indecently assaulted in Church Lane behind Club Bay View. 1996 Jun 9 At 12.15am Jane Rimmer is last seen by four friends outside the Continental Hotel after deciding not to share a taxi home. 1996 July 1 Police issue questionnaires to 100 suspects. 1996 Aug 3 Rimmer's naked body is found in bush at semi-rural Wellard, 35km south of Perth, lightly covered with sticks and twigs a few metres off road. Police comb bush, divers search lakes. 1996 Aug 31 More than 35 taxi drivers are sacked during August after new checks reveal histories of violence or perversion. The search for overseas convictions eventually leads to 78drivers losing their licences. 1997 Mar 14 Ciara Glennon farewells friends outside Continental Hotel about midnight. 1997 Mar 16 Police say they fear a serial killer is on the loose, release year-old photo of Glennon with dark, curly hair. 1997 Mar 17 State Government announces $250,000 reward for information. 1997 Mar 18 Denis Glennon makes an emotional appeal for help from the public. "Clara's alive - we believe that," he says. Police say more than 3,000 people have come forward with information. 1997 Mar 19 Police release up-to-date photo of Glennon, showing much lighter hair. 1997 April 3 Glennon's body found in bush north of Perth. 2000 November 8 Sarah Anne McMahon, finishes her shift at a Claremont retail store. Leaves work and fails to make it home.
Convicted murderer Arthur Greer is unlikely to be granted parole, despite new evidence that suggests he may not have killed 14-year-old Sharon Mason, according to former attorney-general Jim McGinty.
Greer has served 16 years of his life sentence, more than double the minimum term set by the Supreme Court, but has had his parole request continually knocked back by the Prisoners Review Board.
His pro bono lawyer Jonathan Davies has applied to the board to allow Greer parole in light of the new evidence, which may explain his long-standing refusal to accept responsibility for the schoolgirl's murder.
The evidence uncovered by John Button, who was also wrongly convicted over a murder committed by serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, was presented to the Innocence Project in WA and Edith Cowan University law students, as well as criminologists and psychologists.
His years as a builder meant he was able to find a discrepancy about where the plumbing was on the Mosman Park site where Ms Mason's remains were found.
It is now suggested that the remains were above pipes that were installed after the girl's disappearance in 1983, and were not located under a shed then-belonging to Greer, which was thought to have concealed the burial spot.
Greer has a violent criminal record, including being convicted of sexual assault, and has been described as "a sexual, predatory psychopath".
Yet advocate Estelle Blackburn said the hairs found in Ms Mason's underwear, when her body was recovered, did not match Greer's, nor did fingerprints found on the rubbish bags that housed Ms Mason's remains.
Ms Blackburn said witnesses attested that they saw Ms Mason running down Stirling Highway at 10 o'clock at night looking distraught after police alleged she had been murdered.
She said she had her own theories about who killed Ms Mason but ruled out Ms Mason's father, who committed suicide after coming under the spotlight during the police investigation into her disappearance.
Ms Mason's mother, who was divorced at the time of her daughter's disappearance, was haunted by reminders of her daughter's gruesome death every time Greer came up for parole, Mr McGinty said.
Mr McGinty was in his role as attorney-general when Greer's parole was first considered in 2001 and said he considered deporting the Liverpool-born Greer but the board rejected parole on the basis that it needed to protect the larger community, not just in Western Australia.
"If there was new evidence like there was in many, many cases such as the Micklebergs, Mallard and Beamish I would have had no hesitation in bringing it for reconsideration before the courts but I can't really comment on this (evidence)," Mr McGinty said.
He said Andrew Mallard, who was wrongly convicted over the murder of Mosman Park jeweller Pamela Lawrence, had "significant evidence proving his innocence" and Greer's case was "not as conclusive", despite many lawyers arguing that his conviction was based on circumstantial evidence.
Mr McGinty said even Mr Mallard had to remain in custody well after he was cleared by court, pending a new trial that was eventually abandoned by the Department of Public Prosecutions.
He said it was unlikely the Prisoners Review Board would grant Greer parole to compile an appeal and ultimately the decision would have to be approved by the current Attorney-General Christian Porter, who could take into account public sentiment.
"It would be unusual for someone to be released on parole in a murder case and from what I know of this case I wouldn't at all be enthusiastic over the prospect of release."
Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/mason-murderer-will-remain-inside-mcginty-20110303-1bgak.html#ixzz1OIhnku23
New bid to overturn Mason murder verdict Aja Styles
watoday.com.auWeb. .March 3, 2011
A prominent Perth barrister is advocating the release of convicted murderer Arthur Greer, saying fresh evidence has since surfaced proving he was not responsible for killing and burying Sharon Mason in 1983.
Greer, who is now 73, was jailed in 1994 for the 14-year-old school girl's murder on the grounds that her remains were found on a Mosman Park site where he had owned a dress shop at the time of her disappearance.
The remains were excavated by building workers nine years after she went missing from the area and were found on top of plumbing pipes, partially intact with flesh still clinging to the bones.
Advertisement: Story continues below The prosecution case relied on the theory that Greer had buried her body, despite it being a well-frequented area, by lifting the floor of his backyard shed in order to dig the deep hole.
Law students at Edith Cowan University, under the auspice of the Innocence Project set up in WA in 2006 to exonerate wrongly-convicted felons, have since traced the manufacturing year of the pipes and utilised aerial surveillance to demonstrate the shed's location was not over the burial site.
Tom Percy QC, who is on the board of the Innocence Project, said the pipes were manufactured many years after the girl's disappearance and long after Greer had moved from his shop.
"There was no evidence at all apart from his very, very bad (criminal) record which was tied to running someone down and assaulting his wife," he said.
"The trial was run on his record because the evidence was threadbare."
He said the body may have been refrigerated and stored and buried on the site at a later date, which "would account for a lot of the flesh still being on (the body)".
"Which totally removes him from the location, so it could not possibly be Greer," Mr Percy said.
He said Greer had never been granted parole since becoming eligible in 2001 because he refused to take responsibility for the murder.
"He says 'I can't admit guilt on this because I didn't do it'," Mr Percy said.
Barrister Jonathan Davies is working pro bono on Greer's behalf and has applied to the Prisoners Review Board to grant him parole to assist him to prepare the new evidence for an appeal.
The decision will ultimately rest with the Attorney-General Christian Porter, who has to sign off on any recommendation for parole.
Mr Davies has overturned the convictions against John Button and Darryl Beamish over the Eric Edgar Cooke serial killings from 1959 to 1963.
Greer also has the backing of Supreme Court Chief Justice Wayne Martin, who worked pro bono as a lawyer at the time of his conviction to take the appeal to the High Court because the evidence was so limited.
"It's awful thinner than (Andrew) Mallard.. He was never convicted of wilful murder but murder, which means he killed her but didn't mean to by causing her serious harm, back in the day when wilful murder was still a charge. How do you deliver a guilty verdict based on that?," Mr Percy said.
"It was the most ridiculous verdict ever known. It's been a devil that has perplexed legal experts for years.
"We find the conviction absolutely bewildering."
