Police in Australia are searching a Queensland dump site for the remains of a lady whose body they suspect were in a trash container that was dumped into a garbage truck as part of a routine garbage collection.
Late in March, Lesley Trotter’s family in Brisbane reported her missing. Initially, search efforts for the 78-year-old woman concentrated on the local bushland walking trails where she liked to go trekking.
However, earlier this month, Queensland homicide detectives revealed they had proof that she had passed away and that her body might have been inside a bin that was emptied into a garbage truck. This information caused the search to take a morbid turn.
The truck was one of 23 that took their waste collections to a transfer station, where it was compressed before being distributed to two landfill sites, Queensland Police said in a statement.
On April 18, officers partially cordoned off one of those sites and have been sifting through rubbish for Trotter’s body, or any clues to her whereabouts.
At the time, Detective Acting Superintendent Andrew Massingham described the search area as “quite enormous.” “There is some 3,000 tons of general waste that we need to sort through,” he said.
“The waste will be exhumed from the ground. It will then be tipped into lanes approximately 30 meters deep, at which time our police and ADF (Australian Defense Force) personnel will sift through by hand and using rakes,” he said.
On Thursday, police said less than 13% of the search area had been covered, and the entire process could take several weeks. Though they said paperwork belonging to a nearby resident had been found, suggesting they’re looking in the right place.
Previously Massingham said he could not “rule out foul play,” according to CNN affiliate 7 News.
Police confirmed they were looking into a possible link between Trotter’s disappearance and her recycling habits – she was known to go through trash cans outside her home and neighboring properties for recycling waste that had been put in the wrong bins.
She’d then put it in the correct bin to be recycled, police said.
“Whether that’s created some angst amongst the tenants, we’re working through that at the moment,” Massingham said.