DNA solves mystery of human jawbone found on NSW beach

A jawbone found on a beach a decade ago has been matched to a mariner lost at sea in 1979.

The family of a man who went missing in a tragic boasting disaster 40 years ago have spoken of their relief after a DNA breakthrough identified a washed-up jaw bone as his, cracking a decades-old cold case.

Bill Moran was 24-years-old when he and his 21-year-old wife Philippa died after their boat was swamped by horror swell off the state’s north coast in 1979.

While the body of Philippa – known as ‘Pippi’ to her family – was found shortly after the disaster, Bill’s family waited more than 40 years to find out what happened to the man described as “young, fit and a champion swimmer and footballer”.

Missing mariner William Moran with his wife Philippa Moran, who drowned at sea. Picture: NSW Police

Ray and Maria Moran, Bill’s sister-in-law and her husband, were on board the boat that day.

What was meant to be an idyllic day spent on the ocean off Evans Head turned tragic when they ran into “the biggest southerly you’d ever come across”, according to Ray.

Swamped by waves, the foursome and the boat’s captain ditched into a dinghy, only for it to overturn. What followed was a six-hour struggle for survival.

Rough swell ripped Ray and Maria away from the overturned boat and they bobbed in the ocean until they were winched to safety alongside the captain in a daring helicopter rescue. They had been confident Pippa and Bill would survive.

“They were both young and very athletic people, we thought...they had every chance,” Maria told the NSW Police’s ‘Lost at Sea’ podcast.

The headstone of William and Philippa Moran. Picture: NSW Police

But answers as to what happened to Bill would take nearly four decades, beginning after a jawbone was discovered washed up on Kingscliff Beach in 2011 – 32 years to the day after that boat sank.

It triggered an extensive NSW Police Investigation, but for nine years the jawbone remained among the dozens of unidentified remains contained in the Missing Persons Registry.

Continuous searches on DNA databases failed to find a direct match, until a ‘familial DNA’ search in August 2020 linked police to a potential living relative.

It led investigators to a 34-year-old man imprisoned in Goulburn Jail in 2020 whose DNA profile had been added to a database for convicted offenders in NSW.

An investigation by the Marine Area Command and State Crime Command’s Missing Persons Registry confirmed the inmate was the nephew of Bill.

There was a large-scaled sea search and rescue in 1979, when a small cabin cruiser with five people on board was lost at sea in treacherous conditions. Picture: NSW Police

“I was so excited just to know…kind of a little bit more of what happened and that he was found on the same beach (as Philippa), so obviously they were together to nearly right at the end, which is kind of comforting,” Maria said.

While Bill and Phillipa’s gravestone at Nelson Bay had always stated that Bill had been ‘lost at sea’, the family were now looking forward to reuniting the young lovers, Maria added.

Expressing their gratitude to the Marine Area Command and State Crime Command’s Missing Persons Registry for cracking the case, Maria and Ray added the investigation had given the family closure after 40 long years.

“It’s just a tragedy that two wonderful people like that…who knows what they would’ve done. We miss them every day. It’s just a tragedy that they were taken so young,” Maria said.