’Blend of science and artistry’ allows mystery Leanyer woman’s face to be seen for the first time in 40+ years

Police hope a technological breakthrough will solve the decades-long mystery surrounding a young Territorian woman’s death.

NT Police have release a cranial facial reconstruction of a young Aboriginal woman whose remains were discovered in dense bushland at Leanyer on May 27, 1987.

The Woman in Yellow has no name, she has no known past, and the only fragments of her existence have been locked away for almost 40 years.

But for the first time since her death, the young woman can be seen across the Territory.

The Woman in Yellow stares out from a missing person’s poster in a campaign hoping to solve a decades-long mystery from the Top End.

On May 27, 1987 a Darwin bushwalker searching for compost material in dense bushland in Leanyer made a gruesome discovery — a human skull surrounded by scraps of yellow cotton fabric.

A crime scene was set up around her badly decomposed remains, about 1.5km from Lee Point Rd and Fitzmaurice Dr.

But a police investigation and coronial report hit dead ends trying to solve the critical first question: “Who was she?”.

The Woman in Yellow — named after the fragments of her dress — is one of 64 unidentified human remains uncovered in the Territory.

Detective Sergeant Toby Wilson said major advancements in technology had allowed investigators to not only get a sample of the Leanyer woman’s DNA, but show what she looked like in life

NT Police Cold Case Taskforce Detective sergeant Toby Wilson.

The Cold Case Taskforce detective said in late 2021 the Territory sent 30 unidentified human remains to the Australian Federal Police’s national DNA program lab.

Sergeant Wilson said for the first time they were able to get samples of her DNA, while an anthropologist was able to reveal more clues about her past.

He said they were able to confirm she was at least 18 years old, about 162cm tall, with brown hair and eyes and she was of Aboriginal descent.

Sergeant Wilson said another breakthrough came in November, when an AFP facial artist scanned eight skulls, with the Woman in Yellow the most intact of the bone fragments.

Sergeant Wilson said within six months the AFP had produced a three-dimensional estimation of her face using cranial facial reconstruction technology.

NT Police have release a cranial facial reconstruction of a young Aboriginal woman whose remains were discovered in dense bushland at Leanyer on May 27, 1987.

“It’s focusing on the individual’s unique anatomy, they study the characteristics of the skull and knowledge of underlying structures that affect the surface of their face,” he said.

“It’s a blend of science and artistry.”

Her photo is the first of its kind in the Territory and will be distributed widely as part of this year’s National Missing Persons’s week campaign.

Missing Persons Unit Detective Senior Constable Joanne Linklater said she hoped someone out there would recognise the young woman, and finally allow her to find peace.

Constable Linklater became a little emotional looking at the Woman in Yellow’s face, so many decades after her death.

“I’ve got a young female, that we have no idea why she was in that area or how she died,” Constable Linklater said.

“When you’re working with remains, there’s not too much information that you have about them.

“Being able to have a photo I think is very powerful when trying to ask for public assistance.”

Constable Linklater said there were 750 unknown Australians like the Woman in Yellow, whose names, stories, disappearances and deaths were shrouded in mystery.

She called on the families of missing persons to come forward and provide a DNA sample in the hopes of identifying one of the 64 unidentified remains from the Territory.

Constable Linklater said any Missing Person’s genetic information was held on a separate system to the criminal database.

“Please come into a police station, give us your DNA, and hopefully we can provide some more answers to loved ones,” she said.