Ballarat man arrested over 26-year-old stabbing murder of Suzanne Poll in 1993 following DNA breakthrough
A man arrested in Ballarat over a frenzied stabbing murder at Parabanks Shopping Centre in 1993 lived just 300m from the scene of the crime — and passed unsuspected until a chance discovery.
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A chance arrest and DNA sample has led police to charge a man with the frenzied murder of Suzanne Poll 26 years ago.
Major Crime Branch detectives arrested the man on Friday morning after DNA testing linked him to blood left at the scene of the murder.
The man was living only 300m from Sands & McDougall shop in John St, Salisbury when Mrs Poll, a 36-year-old mother of two, was murdered on April 29, 1993.
The case has remained open for 26 years but was revisited as part of Major Crime Branch’s Operation Persist.
Mrs Poll is believed to have closed the store for the day but left the front door unlocked.
She turned off all the lights except for one over the top of where she was counting the days take.
The man entered the store and attacked Mrs Poll. As she tried to flee he stabbed her 18 times.
In the frenzied attack the killer accidentally cut himself, leaving a DNA sample which remained cold for 26 years.
Head of Major Crime Detective Superintendent Des Bray said the motive for the crime remains a mystery.
“We believe he was trying to rob her, but for reasons which are completely unknown to us, it escalated into a vicious, sustained attack which ended in her death,” Det Supt Bray said.
“We have checked that DNA constantly over the years and on each occasion it has been a negative result.
“We have previously conducted familial searches to try and identify someone that this offender may be related to without success.
“Relatively recently we again submitted the DNA for familial testing and we got a result showing that the offender was likely related to somebody who was on our database.”
From that chance result detectives were able to build a family tree stemming from the new addition to the database.
They traced the DNA to the 46-year-old suspect who is now living in Ballarat. The man has not been a suspect at any point in the 26-year investigation.
He is also understood to have no criminal record and not to have been known to police.
A DNA sample was taken from the man on September 6 and two weeks later detectives received a positive match.
Detectives from the Victorian Cold Case unit spent Friday trying to locate the man and eventually arrested him, charging him with murder.
South Australian Major Crime detectives will fly to Ballarat on Saturday to continue their investigation and are likely to apply to extradite the man on Monday.
“Over the years we have checked the national database constantly and international databases occasionally to link his DNA without success,” Det Supt Bray said.
“It is very much the start of what will be a completely fresh investigation.
Det Supt Bray said Mrs Poll’s family had been advised and were shocked at the arrest.
“This was a case which shocked the community and despite the best efforts of police had not resulted in a breakthrough until this week,” he said.
“This has come about due to hard work and dedication by the investigators and the team with Forensic Services South Australia.
“We believe this crime most likely started as a robbery but don’t understand why it escalated into the murder of a completely innocent woman.”
In 2009 police believed they had made a breakthrough and applied for DNA samples of a man who had died by suicide two years after Mrs Poll’s murder.
At the time associates of the man told The Advertiser they believed the man was responsible and the guilt had weighed on his conscience.