NT Police now using facial reconstruction technology to solve missing persons cases

New technology is giving families - and police - hope some of the Territory’s most enduring cold cases could finally be solved.

Sergeant Toby Wilson explaining the new technology that is assisting NT Police in Missing Persons Cases. Picture: Harry Brill

NT Police have launched a campaign to identify the Woman in Yellow ahead of National Missing Persons Week.

The cold case is one of 170 outstanding missing persons in the Territory and a key focus as technology advances to identify human remains.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael White said facial reconstruction was one of many avenues police used to advance older cases.

He said other obvious avenues for locating missing persons was financial records.

“One of the obvious ones is financial,” Deputy Commissioner White said.

“And we do check bank records when people are reported missing and there’s agreements with all financial institutions that they will assist us to help trace peoples’ movement.

“Other things now with social media and all those sorts of things clearly are other avenues that we didn’t have back in 1987 to trace peoples’ movements.”

Deputy Commissioner White said engaging with families was also a sad part of the investigation.

“We want to look after our victims and look after the families of those victims,” he said.

“So it is really important that we provide them as much information possible.”

Deputy Commissioner White stressed the “important” working relationship NT Police and the Australian Federal Police had in finding missing persons.

“NT Police has been working closely with the AFP in relation to identifying unidentified human remains,” he said.

“The Northern Territory at the moment has around 64 unidentified human remains that are currently being assessed by the police in the Northern Territory and the AFP.”

Investigators hope the new technology could help solve the three-decade old cold case dubbed the Woman in Yellow, with new facial recognition imagery released as part of the awareness appeal.

Detective Sergeant Toby Wilson, who has carriage of the case, said investigators were “optimistic” it would be solved.

“We are optimistic and we think with this new current media release we’re hopeful to get the assistance from public,” Sergeant Wilson said.

“What I can tell you is that its state of the art and it’s a lot more accurate than the traditional methods, for example use of clay.”

Originally published as NT Police now using facial reconstruction technology to solve missing persons cases