Human remains found near murder victim Lyndsay van Blanken’s backpack at construction site - and they aren’t hers

A backpack belonging to Lyndsay van Blanken, who was killed by her jealous ex in 2003, has been found on a construction site in Randwick - along with human remains that aren’t hers.

A BACKPACK belonging to an 18-year-old Sydney woman murdered 13 years ago has been found near a human bone and fragments at a building site in the eastern suburbs.

But in a bizarre twist the bones do not belong to the backpacker’s owner Lyndsay van Blanken, who was killed by her ex-boyfriend in 2003.

The large bone and smaller pieces were found near the backpack and some of Ms van Blanken’s possessions less than a metre under the ground at the back of a boundary fence during the construction of nursing home at Randwick.

William Matheson, pictured in 2005, murdered Lynsay van Blanken.

He couldn’t get over the end of his break-up with the 18-year-old.

Ms van Blanken’s body was found stuffed in a cricket bag about a kilometre away in a garage under a block of flats in Queens Park six weeks after her disappearance. Despite the body being badly decomposed her skeleton was complete.

It later emerged she was strangled by her former boyfriend William Matheson, 21, and her body doubled over into the bag.

The disappearance of the Disney animator, who was about to head to America with her new boyfriend, gripped Sydney in November 2003.

A replica of the cricket bag in which Lyndsay’s body was found in a storeroom in a Queens Park apartment building.

“Everything indicates the bones are human but how they got there, how old they are and anything else is a matter for investigation,” a police source said yesterday.

Detectives from the Eastern Beaches Local Area Command are leading the inquiry, assisted by the NSW Homicide Squad.

The parents of Ms van Blanken have been informed of the discovery, and detectives who worked on the original case are also helping with the inquiry.

Matheson is serving a minimum of 18 years in jail for the murder and police are expected to interview him about the grisly discovery.

The backpack that once belonged to Lyndsay was found in a construction site behind Brigidine College in Randwick. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Investigators at the scene yesterday where a human bone - not Lyndsay’s - was found beside the backpack. Picture Rohan Kelly

The disappearance of the young Disney animator gripped Sydney because the teenager was about to fly to the US to chase her dreams with her new boyfriend, Brandon Leanord.

Ms van Blanken had met the 21-year-old hairdresser on the internet and he flew to Australia when she broke off her relationship with ­Matheson.

On the evening of November 24, 2003, the bubbly brunette left her workplace and got off the train at Bondi Junction to walk home and was never seen again.

An enraged Matheson never got over the break-up of their relationship.

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