The search for the body of a Melbourne sex worker kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered more than 33 years ago has resumed in southwest NSW after police obtained new information on the case.
Jodie Larcombe, then aged 21, was abducted by Daryl Francis Suckling from Melbourne in December 1987 and murdered in an unknown place in NSW.
Ms Larcombe's body has never been located despite the conviction of Suckling on murder charges in 1996 and his sentencing to life in prison.
Suckling unsuccessfully appealed the conviction in 1999 and was in 2001 denied special leave to appeal to the High Court over the matter.
NSW Police on Friday said it received new information earlier this year on the location of Ms Larcombe's remains. The force will now begin a land search around Mourquong, near Mildura on the NSW-Victoria border.
"It has been more than three decades since Jodie's murder and detectives would like nothing more than to return her remains to her family so they may finally lay her to rest," Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said.
Suckling, now aged in his 80s, had boasted to a former cellmate while in prison for unrelated offences about his 1987 abduction of Ms Larcombe from Melbourne.
The jury at his trial in 1996 heard tapes of Suckling telling the man how he drugged and handcuffed Ms Larcombe before taking her to an isolated property where he was caretaker in NSW's southwest.
Suckling took photos of her naked, chained her, raped her, killed her and buried her but later dug up her body and chopped it up before burying the pieces.
Ms Larcombe's father Ken thanked police for their perseverance.
"The pain of losing a child never leaves you and there has always been a hole in our hearts as we were never able to farewell Jodie," Mr Larcombe said.
Australian Associated Press
