Man charged after bones found in backyard in breakthrough in 2002 disappearance

Major Crime detectives in South Australia charged a 64-year-old Port Lincoln man with murder on Wednesday after human remains believed to be those of Susan Goodwin were discovered during excavations at a property in the town.

Police said the discovery prompted them to pause further work while an anthropologist from Forensic Science SA and additional forensic response and Major Crime personnel were brought to Port Lincoln to confirm whether the bones were human and to continue excavations. The accused is due to appear in Port Lincoln Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Goodwin, then 39, was reported missing in July 2002 and had not been seen since. Police said she was last seen about midday on July 19, 2002, after shopping at Coles and Woolworths in Port Lincoln. Detectives have long-held the view that she was killed by someone very close to her and have said they believed the person responsible still lived in the town.

Detective Inspector Andrew Macrae said it was "a tragedy that Susan's family have spent the last 23 years without answers." Police earlier deployed specialised ground-penetrating radar to scan a property on Pamir Court, which adjoins Moonta Crescent, the street where Goodwin had lived.

Investigators have previously carried out public appeals and inquiries into the disappearance. In 2017 police said a public appeal had helped clear seven people of interest. Authorities have offered a reward of up to A$200,000 for information that leads to the conviction of Goodwin's killer or the recovery of her remains.

Authorities did not release the name of the man charged or detail the evidence that led to the arrest, citing the ongoing investigation. Police said the arrest followed the discovery of the remains during preliminary excavations at the Port Lincoln property and that further forensic work was under way to confirm identity and cause of death.

The discovery and arrest mark a major development in a long-running cold case that has drawn attention in the regional community since Goodwin's disappearance. Forensic teams are expected to continue work at the site in coming days as they seek to establish whether the remains are those of Goodwin and to gather material for the homicide investigation.

South Australia Police asked anyone with information relating to Goodwin's disappearance to come forward to Major Crime detectives. The case has remained open for more than two decades, and the investigation has included multiple lines of inquiry over the years as police sought to piece together Goodwin's movements on the day she vanished and to identify anyone who may have had knowledge of her fate.