Former tourism executive Warren McCorriston has been charged over the alleged abduction of a teenage girl more than four decades ago.
In 2019, NSW Police set up Strike Force Arapaima to re-examine the unsolved disappearances and suspected murders of teenagers Robyn Hickie, Amanda Robinson and a third girl from Lake Macquarie in the 1980s.
Investigations led officers to arrest McCorriston, 62, from a government facility in Silverwater on Monday over an unrelated incident.
McCorriston has been charged with four offences: forcible abduction of woman with intent to carnally knowledge, threaten injury to person with intent to commit an indictable offence, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and detain for advantage and cause injury to victim.
The offences allegedly occurred in Gateshead and involve a girl who was 16 at the time.
McCorriston has been a suspect in the disappearance of Amanda and Robyn, however, no one has been charged in relation to those two teenagers.
McCorriston will face Newcastle Local Court on March 13 as investigations continue.
Robyn, 18, left her home about 7.15pm on April 7, 1979, and was last seen at a bus stop on the Pacific Highway in Belmont North.
Two weeks later, Amanda, 14, was last seen walking along Lake Road in Swansea after attending a dance at her high school in Gateshead.
The girls were never found and a coronial inquest eventually ruled they were dead, most likely due to foul play.
Two years after police established the strike force, a $1 million reward was offered for information into their disappearances.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
