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KASAMA Vol. 12 No. 4 / October–November–December 1998 / Solidarity Philippines Australia Network

Victorian police are confident DNA tests will help them solve the killings of three women. Techniques are now so refined that a sample of forensic evidence from one of the victims, previously considered too small, can now be tested for a match to a suspect.

Police have been holding on to the evidence since 1990 when the body of Milagros Dark, a Filipina, was found in Melbourne’s outer south–east. She is the only one of the three women, all linked to the exclusive Melbourne Club, whose body has been found. Inspector Rod Collins of the Homicide Squad appealed for anyone with information about the locations of the other two bodies or associates of the women to contact police.

Anna Marie Pontarollo arrived in Australia from Italy in 1950. She disappeared in 1954. Police are confident she was murdered. Another Filipina, Nenita Evans, who worked at the Melbourne Club, has not been seen since visiting the club one afternoon in February 1987. Insp Collins said Ms Evans knew Ms Dark. The link between the three cases was stumbled upon during a review of homicide cases.

"There are similarities in how their disappearances were carried out and in the victims all knowing the one person who could be considered a suspect," he said. Insp Collins refused to identify the suspect but indicated police had long believed him to be responsible.

—Source: Andrea Jackson, The Courier Mail, 31/10/98