IN COLD LIGHT

A Melbourne mum gunned down. A bookshop owner stabbed to death. A famous designer delivered a tragic end. Three murders three decades apart. Will 2022 deliver resolutions to these infamous Aussie cold cases?

- ANGUS FONTAINE

Something extraordinary is happening in crime investigation around the world. Time, long the enemy of the cold case, is becoming a friend. The first 48 hours – when physical evidence is fresh, witness memories are sharp and public interest is high – are still the most vital if a case is to be solved. But quantum leaps in forensic science, genetic geneaology, DNA analysis and media technology are giving today’s detectives new weapons to solve old crimes. And for families and friends who have been left behind, they offer renewed hope.

Everywhere we go we leave traces of ourselves – sweat, blood, fingerprints or skin particles. This material might be microscopic, but adroitly captured and preserved DNA can identify victims and killers years later.

That’s why, in May 2021, South Australian Police’s Operation Persevere exhumed the mysterious ‘Somerton Man’ more than 72 years after he died on Somerton Beach. As scientists try to match his DNA to that of living descendants, special effects artists have reanimated his face into a living, smiling, moving image. Now, having captured the imagination and interest of the public and media, the hope is he will be formally identified, offering resolution to his family at last.

Our appetite for cold case stories, true crime books and police procedurals on TV is insatiable. It emboldens amateur sleuths to fine-tune their own forensic eyes and do detective work of their own. Often the first step is to track our DNA to unlock the secrets of our family trees via intimate data sent to ancestry sites.