A 24-year-old mystery in the heart of the Territory has been solved using new DNA evidence.
The Northern Territory Police Force Missing Persons Unit and Forensic Science Branch have matched the unidentified human remains to a long term missing person, Owen Ryder.
In August 1999, Mr Ryder’s wife noticed her husband had not returned to their home at Kwala Outstation, located about 10km east of Hermannsburg.
Community members made several attempts to locate and track Mr Ryder but were unsuccessful before reporting his disappearance to police, who ran a land and air search.
Mr Ryder was declared deceased by the coroner five years after his disappearance.
But in 2007, the case was reopened after the discovery of unidentified human remains in a paddock about 8km from the Larapinta Dr and Wallace Rockhole Rd turn off.
“Although a forensic analysis occurred, at the time, no DNA profile could be extracted from the remains and inquiries were exhausted,” NT Police said.
Last year a sample of those remains were sent to the Australian Federal Police’s National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons laboratory in Canberra.
Loading embed…
A partial DNA profile was recovered, with the results compared to Mr Ryder’s family.
“The NTPFES Biology Unit has substantially increased its capability to recover DNA from remains, already resulting in identifications, and continue to expand their capabilities to help establish links between any recovered remains and family members,” NT Police said.
“This new capability in combination with DNA samples provided by the family of missing persons can provide another avenue for the investigation and identification of unidentified human remains.”
Police have urged anyone with missing family members to contact the NT Police Missing Persons Unit on 131 444 to discuss providing DNA.