Detectives have named a suspect in a cold case murder investigation which has spanned almost five decades, thanks to DNA evidence uploaded to a public database.
Kerryn Mary Tate was murdered in 1979, found dead in dense Karragullen bushland.
WA Police have made a breakthrough in the cold case murder of Kerryn Tate, with DNA evidence linking Terence Fisher (left) to the case as a suspect.Credit: WA Police
She was last seen alive in Mount Lawley at 11am on December 29 that year, after spending time with friends in Cottesloe and Swanbourne the night prior.
The following morning her body was located in the Canning Dam catchment area approximately 800 metres south of Brookton Highway.
An unknown male DNA profile, believed to be the offender, was recovered from the crime scene.
That profile was recently handed over to the investigative genetic genealogy team and uploaded to a public genealogy database, with a number of genetic relatives identified.
A family tree of more than 10,000 people was then compiled, eventually linking a man named Terence John Fisher to the DNA profile recovered from the scene.
Fisher, a former soldier and carpenter by trade, who died in 2000, has now been named as a suspect in the unsolved murder.
Detectives also believe if Fisher was alive today, he may have been able to assist police with investigations into the 1986 death of Barbara Anne Western and the 1991 death of Kerry Suzanne Turner.
Kerryn’s sister, Annemarie Tate, said it meant a great deal to finally have some answers.
“It just gives you more faith in the detectives and the police and all the people that work together to solve these sorts of crimes, and also gives you peace of mind to know that he’s deceased, so he’s not going to hurt anybody else,” she said.
“I wouldn’t use the word closure, but I personally felt good about it because I didn’t want to have to go through trial. We’ve been on this for so many years now that it’s good to put an end to it.”
Kerryn’s brother, Matt Tate, said he did like the word closure and that finding out police had a suspect had been “uplifting”.
He urged anyone who knew Fisher to come forward.
“There was something strange about the whole thing. I mean, somebody doesn’t just kill anybody for any odd reason,” he said.
“You’ve got to come forward, even if it’s just an insignificant little thing, to just bring that forward because it can be a clue.
“I wish she was still alive.”
Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul Coombes said they had never stopped trying to find the person responsible for Tate’s murder.
“Unfortunately, we may never know the motivations for this horrific crime but with the public’s help we may be able to finally bring some comfort to the Tate family,” he said.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Dion Selby, the lead investigator in the case, believes information from the public could be the final key to solving one of WA’s most notorious cold cases.
“We are trying to build a picture of Mr Fisher’s regular movements, of his routine. For example, we know he regularly attended a sailing club in Fremantle,” Selby said.
“We know he lived in Rivervale and Manning areas at the time of Ms Tate’s murder. There is much we know about him, but we want to know more.
“I strongly urge anyone who knew him while he was alive to reach out to police via Crime Stoppers and share that information – big or small, it could be paramount to the investigation.”
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