Cold case detectives make arrest in murder of teen after four decades
An arrest has been made in the murder of 17-year-old Bronwynne Richardson, who was found murdered in 1973. (AAP Image/NSW Government) (AAP Image/NSW Government)
Cold case police in New South Wales have laid charges in the four decade old abduction and murder of a teenage beauty queen in Albury, making it the oldest unsolved homicide case to result in an arrest.
Detectives arrested 61-year-old Colin Michael Newey in Murray Bridge, South Australia, yesterday before being extradited to Sydney and charged with forcible abduction, sexual assault and murder.
Seventeen-year-old Bronwynne Richardson was attacked and dragged into a car on 12 October, 1973, with her body found two days later in a lagoon off the Murray River.
Ms Richardson had been sexually assaulted, and a coronial inquest in 1975 found that she had died from a combination of strangulation and drowning.
She was described as a happy and charismatic girl that had was the reigning Miss Corowa Showgirl at the time of her death.
Three men were charged in connection to the crime in 1990, however none were convicted.
Ms Richardson’s mother Noel told a coronial inquest in 2011 that the loss of her daughter was tragic at such a young age.
“When Bronnie was taken from me, a part of me died that day,” she said, as reported in The Border Mail.
“We pray that it will haunt the perpetrators for the rest of their lives.”
Mr Newey is due to appear in Central Local Court tomorrow.
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