A man is in police custody for allegedly murdering Karlie Pearce-Stevenson.
Detectives arrested a 41-year-old man at Cessnock police station, in the NSW Hunter region, about 4.15pm on Wednesday.
Pearce-Stevenson’s body was found dumped in the Belanglo state forest in New South Wales in 2010 but she was identified only in October this year after her daughter’s remains were found in July in a suitcase 1,200km away beside a highway in South Australia.
NSW police state crime command’s homicide squad established Strike Force Malaya and South Australia police’s major crime unit established Task Force Malee to investigate the murders of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter, Khandalyce Pearce.
Inquiries into the murder of Khandalyce are continuing.
The arrest comes after police on Tuesday alleged Pearce-Stevenson’s identity, bank account and mobile phone were used for years after her death to mislead family and defraud social services.
Almost $100,000 was spent or withdrawn from the 20-year-old’s bank account between November 2008, when she was last seen, and March 2012.
Police alleged a female pretending to be Pearce-Stevenson had conversations with family members on several occasions and duped them into transferring money into her account.
It was also alleged a woman in a wheelchair had impersonated Pearce-Stevenson in a Centrelink interview in Adelaide in 2010.
It is believed Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter were killed in December 2008 at different times and in different locations.
A multi-state investigation has been under way since police linked the two bodies this month with fresh DNA evidence.
