A breakthrough in DNA evidence has seen police arrest a New Zealand man in connection with the death of a woman on Norfolk Island.
The body of 29-year-old Sydney woman Janelle Patton was found on Norfolk Island at Easter 2002.
Police in the South Island city of Nelson were asked yesterday to arrest a 28-year-old man and will file extradition papers at the District Court this morning.
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner, Peter Drennan says the breakthrough came from a re-examination of material collected earlier in the case.
"Throughout the investigation we've been collecting evidence and particularly forensic evidence and we've recently had a breakthrough with the DNA in relation to some of that evidence, now that in conjunction with other witness accounts we've collected, we've identified this person as a suspect."
Peter Drennan says the arrested man is not one of 16 people named as persons of interest at the 2004 coronial inquest into Janelle Patton's death.
