MEET THE COLD CASE DETECTIVES

Between 1995 and 1998, four women were sexually assaulted across Perth, WA. Their attacker remained unknown until he was finally unmasked in 2023 as Michael Anthony Woodhall, now 53. His downfall? His genes.

- Sarah Marinos.

Senior Constable Lisa Rosenberg was working on the case when the breakthrough occurred. She specialises in a new forensic technique called Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG), where police can access data from private testing companies, and link the data to DNA found at a crime scene or in human remains. Police can only access the results from people who have opted-in to share their data with authorities.

“The Woodhall case was the first in WA to use IGG,” Lisa, 54, tells New Idea. “I was in the Serious Crime Squad working on sexual assaults and realised it might be a technique that could help.

“We spent six months examining genetic matches based on DNA left at the crime scenes and used that to build family trees and narrow down the suspect to being within one family.”

Lisa was also part of the team that used IGG to identify the suspected killer of Kerryn Tate.

Kerryn, 22, was murdered in Perth in late December 1979. Her body was found in bushland on December 30, a day after she was last seen alive by friends.

In March this year, WA Police named Terence John Fisher as Kerryn’s suspected killer. DNA from the site where Kerryn’s body was found was handed over to Lisa and her colleagues.