Robyn Hickie, Amanda Robinson: Exhibits sent away for analysis after Nords Wharf scout camp dig
An anthropologist has determined that bones found at the old Kanangra Scout Camp are animal. But the three-day dig has also uncovered other evidence that will be sent away for analysis.
Police & Courts
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Bags of exhibits have been taken away for analysis following a three-day search of an old scout camp linked to the disappearances and suspected murders of Lake Macquarie teenagers Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson.
Archaeologist and forensic anthropologist Dr Penny McCardle was able to confirm bones found at a third dig site on the former Kanangra Scout Camp were animal and not human.
But forensic experts and Strike Force Arapaima detectives will still send away a cluster of sealed bags for specialist forensic analysis after ground-penetrating radar found man-made soil movement on the site at Nords Wharf.
The three-day search was the third time police had visited the site on the banks of Lake Macquarie to search for evidence, including human remains, relating to the 1979 abductions of Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson.
A two-day ground search in August was followed by the Australian Federal Police arriving to use a drone with state-of-the-art ground-penetrating radar to look for any anomalies in the soil suggesting dig sites.
The radar identified three distinct sites, with Dr McCardle joining forensic officers and investigators this week as an excavator removed soil to be sifted through.
The dig was only expected to last two days but continued into a third after an area near where an old building once stood needing to be examined.
Police have stressed the excavations were for “completeness and thoroughness” as part of the broader investigation.
The old scout camp, which is now a construction site for a new housing development, has links to a person of interest in the investigation.
Robyn, 18, disappeared from a bus stop on the Pacific Highway at Belmont North on April 7, 1979 as she waited for a service to take her to a Belmont pub to catch up with friends.
Exactly a fortnight later, 14-year-old Amanda Robinson vanished just a few hundred metres from her Swansea home after she got off a bus from a school dance and was last seen walking along Lake Rd.
Strike Force Arapaima was established more than two years ago to reinvestigate the 1979 mysteries, detectives ruling out long-held belief that backpacker killer Ivan Milat, who was staying in Lake Macquarie working on the roads, could have been responsible.
Instead, they believe a second serial killer was calling eastern Lake Macquarie home and is responsible for both disappearances.
Detectives uncovered possible links to the old scout camp, prompting the ground search in August following the announcement of $1m rewards for information relating to each of the suspected murders.
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