Murder of Sydney women may have been work of two killers, detectives say

For more than four decades police believed they were on the hunt for a serial killer after two young married Sydney women were murdered in their Eastern Suburbs homes ten months apart.

But now a shift in the investigation of Lynette White and Maria Smith’s murders has led police to believe there may be two killers still at large, Fairfax Media reports.

Detectives overseeing the cold case have split the investigations into two after a review found there was no definitive link between the crimes.

It was 1973 when Mrs White answered a knock at the door at her Coogee apartment.

The 26-year-old was at home alone with her 11-month-old baby boy, Shane.

A man forced his way inside and ordered her to undress at knifepoint.

Her clothes were found folded in a pile on the floor near her body which was stabbed 11 times.

Her son was found unharmed in a separate room when Mrs White’s husband returned home later the same day.

Ten months later in 1974, Maria Smith, a 20-year-old student teacher was found bound and gagged inside her Randwick home.

Mrs Smith had been raped and strangled with her own stockings.

The similarities between the two cases led police to believe they were dealing with the same killer.

But Unsolved Homicide Team co-ordinator Detective Chief Inspector Chris Olen told Fairfax the murder of Mrs Smith was now being handled under a separate investigation, Strike Force Auris.

"While Maria Smith and Lynette White were both young recently married women living in the Eastern Suburbs in the early '70s, we don't have a definitive link between their murders," Chief Inspector Olen said.

"As we reviewed the cases, we saw that there was more potential for success if the investigations are conducted independently of each other.

"Of course we are keeping an open mind, but we are being led by the evidence we have at hand and the results of more recent inquiries."

Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.