Police in Adelaide, South Australia, have announced that the 1983 case of Louise Bell has been re-opened. “The unthinkable had happened — a little girl was abducted from her bedroom in a quiet, friendly neighbourhood, never to be seen again.”
Police have re-submitted evidence for DNA testing to see whether it can be linked to a man they regarded a suspect a long time ago. This man has been interviewed and is currently incarcerated.
The case of the missing 10-year old Louise Bell is one of the most famous Australian cold cases. Her body was never found. Read more here.
Update
Raymond John Geesing was initially tried and convicted of her murder but that conviction was quashed on appeal in 1985.
In 2011, after a cold case review, samples from the clothing were sent to the world-leading Netherlands Forensic Institute. And in November 2013 former school teacher Dieter Pfennig, who was already serving a life sentence with a 38-year non-parole period for murdering 10-year-old Michael Black in 1989 and later abducting and raping a 13-year-old boy, was charged with Louise‘s murder. Read that here. Her body was never found.
UPDATE: Dieter Pfennig had argued to the South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal that DNA evidence used to convict him could not prove his guilt beyond doubt. He had been convicted of murdering Louise Bell. Her remains were never found. She was abducted from her bedroom in 1983. Pfennig was given a non-parole period of 35 years for the crime.