Police divers hope to unearth the remains of an Indigenous teenager who vanished more than three decades ago, years after weighed-down clothes were found in a river.
Colleen Walker-Craig was 16 when she was last seen in Bowraville in the mid-north coast of NSW in September 1990.
Her four-year-old cousin, Evelyn Greenup, and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, 16, also went missing from the town in late 1990 but it took years before detectives suspected it could be the work of a serial killer.
Two of the Indigenous children's remains were found in nearby bushland in 1991, but Colleen's body has never been found.
The NSW Coroner concluded she had most likely been murdered.
Investigators on Friday said they were launching a two-day search operation for the 16-year-old's remains, homing in on two key sections of the Nambucca River.
"There may have been some gaps in the search of the river at the time so police are back up there today and tomorrow to finalise another thorough search of the Nambucca River," Homicide Squad Commander Joe Doueihi told reporters on Friday.
The river area had been searched before, uncovering the teen's weighed-down clothes, but the renewed effort was to make sure no stone was left unturned.
Marine Area Command will assist investigators beneath Wilson Bridge in Macksville, police said.
The focus on Saturday will shift to a section of the river located behind private property not accessible to the public.
Detective Superintendent Doueihi said police were meeting with the family in Bowraville on Friday.
He also reminded the public of a $1 million reward on offer for any information about the remains of the deceased teen or information that led to the conviction of the person or people behind the three deaths.
In October 2024, Colleen's mother Muriel Craig urged the public for information that could bring closure to her daughter's disappearance.
"I want to know, I don't want to leave this earth, not without knowing where she is," she said.
"I just want people who know things just to come forward, if you don't karma will get you anyway."
A parliamentary inquiry into family responses to the murders in Bowraville recommended reviews of procedures and training on Aboriginal cultural awareness, as well as funding for memorials for the children in 2014.
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