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Although Joanne Teterin was mixing with some of Newcastle’s shadier characters in 2000, she had a strict system in place. Anyone looking to score drugs from the 37-year-old was to call ahead of time and announce their planned visit; there were to be no surprise call-ins.
At 7.55am on May 11 of that year, Teterin received a call from a public phone 200 metres from her cottage in the working-class suburb of Carrington. The call, police believe, was short and from a person known to Teterin, who was involved in street level drug dealing at the time.
Far from business as usual, though, that call was likely one of the last conversations Teterin had. Shortly after, she and her friend Susan Kay, 32, were bludgeoned to death, their bodies left in the home undiscovered for six days.
Kay, who would often spend nights at Teterin’s home, had been grocery shopping and stopped in to visit her friend on the morning of the killing. By the time loved ones raised the alarm and police found the pair, the killer was in the wind, where he has remained.
For the past 26 years, the mysterious phone call has remained detectives’ best lead. But last year, they made a significant breakthrough. During a review of the case, more than 150 exhibits taken from the crime scene were retested using enhanced DNA technology and returned new results.
With new information renewing hope of solving the case, detectives reopened the investigation under the second iteration of Strike Force Raphoe. Now, they believe a $1 million reward, combined with the fresh evidence, could finally lead to the arrest of Kay and Teterin’s killer.
“This matter truly is solvable,” Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi, commander of NSW Police’s homicide squad, said on Monday.
“We are almost there. We just need that little bit of information that puts this whole jigsaw puzzle together. There is a million dollars on the table for anyone that comes forward and helps us with that information.”
Investigators were initially able to identify a key suspect in the murders, but hit a wall. The Director of Public Prosecutions declined to lay charges and in 2003 the deaths were referred to NSW Police’s unsolved homicide unit, with a $100,000 reward offered for information.
Detectives believe the women’s deaths may have been a result of an altercation with the person who called Teterin and had been intending to purchase drugs.
Kay’s daughter, Samantha Kay, said her family was seeking the truth about the murders to bring justice for her mother, and peace for her family.
“I was only nine years old when I was told the person I loved most in the world was never coming home,” she said.
“In an instant, my childhood was shattered. Every milestone, every birthday, every hard moment in life has been lived with the ache of her absence.”
The investigation into the deaths remains active, and investigators continue to interview potential witnesses and follow leads in and around Newcastle, Doueihi said.
“While we have spent decades grieving, searching for answers and trying to rebuild what was broken, the person responsible has remained free,” Samantha Kay said.
“Somewhere, someone knows what happened to Mum.”
Kay’s older sister, Desiree, said the 32-year-old remained “very much loved, often spoken about, and very much missed”.
“Nothing brings Susan back and makes up for the years that we have lost, but it would be good to have a resolution of this aspect of our grief at least,” she said.
“We have missed Susan in our lives for a long time.”
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