Trial to start in SA cold case murder

A 67-year-old man will stand trial next week for the murder of 10-year-old Louise Bell, who disappeared from her Adelaide bedroom more than 30 years ago.

Dieter Pfennig will be tried by judge alone in the South Australian Supreme Court after being arrested in 2013.

In court on Monday a judge lifted longstanding suppression orders on Pfennig's identity as well as other details in the case.

At an earlier court appearance it was alleged Pfennig broke into the girl's bedroom at her parents' Hackham West home in January, 1983.

Her body has never been recovered.

In 1991 police searched a property that used to belong to Pfennig, pulling up floorboards and excavating part of the back yard.

They returned to the home in 2012 and excavated other sections of the yard with the aid of ground-penetrating radar.

At the time police said Pfennig's arrest had followed a comprehensive review of the cold case over a two-year period, which had identified a number of new lines of inquiry.

Pfennig's trial is now listed to start on September 28.