
With AAP.
Martin Meffert lead a transient life. He was not one to call regularly or check in with family. Months would go by without a word.
His three siblings, whom had spent much of their childhood apart, in the care of relatives or the foster system, adopted a “no news is good news” approach to their 23-year-old brother, The Sunday Mail reported.
Then, in October 2013, news.
Martin’s bones had been found in their cousin’s home in Terowie, a small town in South Australia’s mid-north. Police had been searching the property on an unrelated matter when they found partial skeletal remains inside a bag sitting in a plastic tub in the fireplace – in plain sight.
That cousin is Christopher Travis Scott, 30, who today – after a renewed investigation by South Australian police – finds himself in custody, charged with Martin’s murder.
COLD CASE BREAKTHROUGH – Martin Meffert’s cousin CHRISTOPHER SCOTT’S been charged with his murder. He was arrested in his Terowie home today – it’s the same home where Meffert’s bones were found in a fireplace three years ago @7NewsAdelaide pic.twitter.com/1pbAjQI4H4
— Lauren Rose (@laurenrosevj) September 28, 2018
Martin was last seen on February 8, 2005, when he boarded a bus to travel from Adelaide to Terowie, but was never reported missing.
Police now believe he lived there for somewhere between a few days to a few months before his was killed.
Yet for years afterward, his fortnightly disability support pension continued to be withdrawn from ATMs in the area; about $130,000 in total between 2005 and 2013.
Police on Friday interviewed two people in relation to the theft and appealed for further information on the identity of a man filmed accessing Martin’s account after his death.