The murder of a New Zealand prostitute in Brisbane has sparked a hunt for a suspected serial killer believed to be responsible for stabbing to death two streetwalkers in the last six months.
Julie McColl, a 42-year-old mother of four, was found dead in a park last Wednesday morning, with 18stab wounds to the back, throat and torso. She was naked except for her sandals and her hands were tied behind her back. She did not appear to have been sexually assaulted.
A Queensland police taskforce of 20 detectives was investigating similarities with the death of another prostitute, Ms McColl's friend Jasmin Crathern, 41, who was stabbed to death last August.
Another prostitute, Elizabeth Henry, disappeared in February 1998 while working in the same inner-city red-light zone.
Ms McColl and another prostitute were detained by Brisbane police shortly before midnight on Tuesday after they were suspected of carrying drugs. Ms McColl's brother, Ivan McColl, of Winton, Southland, said his sister was a heroin addict.
