Kerryn Mary Tate

A 22-year-old woman's holiday visit to Perth ends in her brutal murder, her body found dumped in remote bushland, sparking a decades-long mystery.

Kerryn Mary Tate, a 22-year-old woman originally from New South Wales, was brutally murdered in December 1979 while house-sitting in Karragullen, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. She had moved to Perth about a year before her death and was described as a quiet person who enjoyed her own company but also had a circle of close friends. She was known to hitchhike frequently and even carried a motorcycle helmet with her for that purpose.

On the evening of Friday, December 28, 1979, Kerryn attended a dance at the North Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club. After leaving the club around midnight, she spent the night at a friend's house in Swanbourne. The next morning, Saturday, December 29, she was given a lift and dropped off in the suburb of Mount Lawley at approximately 11:00 am. This was the last time she was seen alive.

On the morning of Sunday, December 30, 1979, workers from the Forestry Department discovered Kerryn's body in a remote bush area within the Canning Dam catchment area, about 800 meters south of the Brookton Highway in Karragullen. The location was roughly 40 kilometers from where she was last seen in Mount Lawley. An autopsy revealed she had been bludgeoned to death and her body had been set on fire. For over four decades, the case remained unsolved, a mystery that haunted both her family and investigators.

In a major breakthrough announced in March 2025, WA Police Cold Case detectives identified a suspect in Kerryn's murder through the use of advanced DNA technology and genetic genealogy. The suspect was named as a man who died in 2000. While he cannot face justice, the identification has brought a sense of closure to Kerryn's family after 45 years of uncertainty.