Parents shocked as family member charged over brutal 1970s rape and murder cold case

For more than 40 years Colin Newey, has been accused of hiding a dark secret and police now allege he abducted, raped and killed his 17-year-old second cousin Bronwynne Richardson in 1973.

Police will allege the teenager was abducted in Albury on October 12, 1973 and then driven six kilometres out of town where she was raped and murdered. Her half naked body was found two days later in scrub on the banks of the Murray River.

Her family say they are devastated a relative has been charged.

“He wasn't on the radar, I don’t think,” Bronwynne’s aunt Lorna Edwards said.

“It was just such a shock when we saw it we thought ‘this can’t be happening’.”

A 1975 inquest determined Bronwynne died from strangulation and drowning and in 1990 three men were charged but never convicted.

Fresh information from a 2011 inquest linked Newey to the crime. The 61-year-old was remanded to appear in Albury court in late October. He made no application for bail