Forensic testing confirms human remains found in dam are missing woman Cecilia Devine
Police are treating the death of a Newcastle singer as homicide after her naked body was found in bushland at a Katoomba water treatment facility eight months after she went missing.
NSW
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Mystery surrounds the death of singer Cecilia Devine, whose naked body was found in bushland with her clothes and backpack nowhere to be found.
Ms Devine’s body was discovered in the Blue Mountains in March after she was reported missing from Newcastle on September 5.
Police have searched the Upper Cascade Creek Dam and surrounding bushland where the 42-year-old’s body was found.
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Blue Mountains Police Detective Inspector Scott McAlpine said police were unable to find her clothes and backpack plus a scarf, shoes and a jumper she bought from a Rivers Store in Katoomba on September 6.
“The body was located with no property or clothing, it had been there a fair while, we are unable to determine the cause of death at this stage,” he said.
“We are treating this as suspicious like we do with all deaths where we don’t know the cause of death.”
Ms Devine’s brothers, Nathan and Troy Pearson, made an emotional plea for members of the public to come forward with information about their dead sister.
“We don’t know anyone she knows up in Katoomba and that’s the weird thing for us,” Troy said.
“It’s not that she doesn’t have friends up there but we found that strange because she has a lot of Sydney friends.
“But that was the weird thing for her to be up there late last year.”
The family reported Ms Devine, also known as Kristen Pearson, missing in mid-September after last seeing her leave a home on Turton St on September 5.
CCTV footage shows her in the main street of Katoomba the following day, 234km from the Waratah home she left the day before.
On March 18, employees of the Sydney Water Catchment Authority found human remains in bush at North Katoomba.
The human remains were tested and proven to be of Ms Devine, less than 4km from where she was caught on CCTV.
Police have released that footage asking for help from the public from anyone who saw her.
Blue Mountain Police Detective Inspector Scott McAlpine did not say Ms Devine had been murdered.
“We are keeping the investigation open at this stage, As Nathan and Troy stated, she did suffer from bipolar and was known to have episodes,” he said.