Prosecutors tell Supreme Court judge there is ‘no doubt’ Dieter Pfennig killed Hackham West schoolgirl Louise Bell in 1983

A TRAIL of evidence over three decades proves convicted murderer Dieter Pfennig abducted and murdered schoolgirl Louise Bell in the 1980s, a court has heard.

Dieter Pfennig has denied murdering Louise Bell. Image: SA Police video interview.

A TRAIL of evidence, spanning three decades, proves Dieter Pfennig abducted and murdered Louise Bell — but cannot solve every puzzle created by the infamous cold case, a court has heard.

After 10 months of evidence, prosecutors on Wednesday began their expected three-day-long closing address in the Supreme Court trial of Pfennig, 67.

He has denied abducting Louise, 10, from her Hackham West home in January 1983 and murdering her some time before March 1 that year.

However, prosecutor Sandi McDonald SC said that denial was refuted by “layers” of evidence “topped off” by the results of cutting-edge DNA analysis.

“There remains, and probably will always remain, some mystery surrounding the abduction and murder, and the prosecution cannot provide answers to all those questions,” she said.

“However, we say there’s one answer the evidence has provided: that it was Pfennig who took Louise from her parents, from her bed, in the middle of the night and murdered her.

“We say the evidence proves that beyond reasonable doubt.”

Pfennig is already serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of Michael Black, 10.

Louise Bell’s body has never been recovered.

Neither child’s body has ever been recovered — witnesses claim Pfennig has said they are buried together — but Louise’s earrings were found after her disappearance.

Central to the prosecution case is a DNA sample taken from Louise’s torn, discarded pyjama top, found days later, which analysis suggests is a one in one billion match to Pfennig.

The trial, which started on September 20 last year, was temporarily delayed when Pfennig suffered, and then recovered from, a heart attack in his Yatala Labour Prison cell.

On Wednesday, a packed public gallery listened as Ms McDonald began recounting all of the evidence heard in the trial over the past 10 months.

She told Acting Justice Michael David — who is sitting in the absence of a jury — it would “be easy” to dub the matter “a DNA case”.

“It’s a lot more than that,” she said.

She said witness testimony had clearly established Pfennig knew Louise, prior to the abduction, through his daughters, the school they attended and the basketball team on which they played.

She said Louise, though shy and withdrawn, trusted adults she knew and “would have gone compliantly” with Pfennig had he asked.

She said Pfennig knew the street lights in Hackham West — then a newly-developed suburb — went out at 1am because he would often go walking or jogging alone at night.

A photo of Dieter Pfennig taken days before he allegedly abducted Louise Bell in 1983. Image: Supreme Court registry.

“How Louise was taken (from her bedroom) is a question that has occupied many minds for three decades,” she said.

“It really is a question that still puzzles anyone involved in this case.

“At the end of the day, Your Honour may well reach a point where you just don’t know how it occurred.

“The plain and unassailable fact of the matter is someone did succeed in getting her out of her bedroom, and the logical inference is that same person murdered her.”

Ms McDonald said there were multiple ways Pfennig could have removed Louise’s flyscreen window and taken her.

Most likely, she said, Pfennig “lured” Louise outside before taken her back to his own home, six minutes’ walk away.

“Yes, it’s brazen and audacious, but what is there about this crime that isn’t?” she said.

“To take a child from her bedroom with the parents next door, to taunt the police, to lay a trail of her belongings — it’s all audacious.”

The trial continues.

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