Police in New South Wales launched a suspected death investigation after a suitcase found beside a rural road appeared to contain a woman's body, only to discover it held a highly realistic doll.
Two men out for a weekend walk found the suitcase on Sunday in the Oallen area, about 60 kilometers south of Goulburn. When they looked inside, they believed they had found human remains and immediately called police.
Officers who arrived at the scene treated it from the start as a possible suspicious death, cordoning off the area and beginning standard investigative procedures.
Forensic Examination Reveals the Truth
The suitcase was taken to a forensic laboratory for detailed examination, where investigators found the object was not a human body but an extremely lifelike doll. Police said the doll wore clothes, had hair and a nose piercing, and had markings on its body resembling bruises and abrasions. Its realistic appearance was convincing enough that both the men who found it and the first officers on scene believed it was a dead woman.
Police Defend the Response
Local police chief Linda Bradbury defended how authorities handled the case, saying all standard procedures had to be followed so that potential evidence at a possible crime scene would not be lost. She said officers had "absolutely no regrets" about the scale of the operation, since the priority was securing the site until it was confirmed exactly what the suitcase contained. The homicide investigation was called off after forensic results confirmed there were no human remains.
