A leading criminologist has warned the search for a missing Queensland woman whose body was believed by police to have been dumped in a wheelie bin could take weeks.
Police said foul play cannot be ruled out as the search for 78-year-old retired school teacher Lesley Trotter continues.
Associate Professor Terry Goldsworthy, of Bond University, told Today this morning that investigators will be deploying the latest technology but the search was likely to be long and complex.
“I think technology has played a role in this investigation already,” he said.
“We’ve seen comments from the police about the fact they’re certain a woman was in a bin and the positioning of her in a bin. That would either come from CCTV near where the bins were located, or I suspect CCTV from within the bin trucks.”
This week police said they believed Trotter’s body was put in a general waste wheelie bin on Maryvale Street, Toowong, near where she lived, early on March 28.
Specialist police have narrowed down the search area to two rubbish dumps at Swanbank and Rochedale, in outer Brisbane.
Authorities said rubbish from the two sites was quarantined over the Easter long weekend.
The search is expected to begin later this week.
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Goldsworthy said ground-penetrating technology and other technology could help police but success largely depended on police and SES searchers on the ground putting in the “hard yards”.
“In the other two weeks there’s been more garbage collect and deposited in the two sites they’ve identified,” he said.
“It will take a long time to check and find this lady’s body.”
A large-scale search was sparked when Trotter vanished one day after seeing her family, with more than 130 police and State Emergency Services (SES) volunteers involved.
Police confirmed last Friday they believed Trotter had died.
There are no suspects in their investigation.
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