Suspect arrested in 30 year old apparent homophobic cold case death of American man in Sydney
An arrest has been made in a cold case killing of a gay man in Australia, more than 30 years after it occurred.
American Mathematician Scott Johnson, 27, died in Sydney, Australia, in 1988 after falling off a cliff in what was categorised at the time as a suicide.
On Tuesday, the New South Wales state police announced that they had arrested a 47-year-old man on suspicion of murdering Mr Johnson in an apparent homophobic hate crime.
The man, who lives in the suburbs of Sydney, was arrested on Tuesday and refused bail.
He will appear in court on Wednesday and has been charged with murder.
Mr Johnson moved to Australia in the 1980s after studying at the California Institute of Technology, Harvard and Cambridge university in the UK.
There have been three inquests into Mr Johnson’s death, each with different findings.
The first inquest ruled his death as a suicide, the second inquest in 2012 resulted in a open finding, but the last inquest in 2017 ruled that Mr Johnson fell to his death after he was violently pushed off the cliff by an attacker who thought he was gay.
In 2018, a reward of one million Australian dollars ($647,000) was offered for information into his death. His family pledged to match the amount.
Mick Fuller, the New South Wales state Police Commissioner, released a statement on Tuesday and revealed that he called Mr Johnson’s brother, Steve, in Boston, to tell him the news.
“Making that phone call this morning is a career highlight — Steve has fought so hard for so many years, and it has been an honour be part of his fight for justice,” Mr Fuller said.
In a statement, Steve Johnson said that he hopes more case like his brother’s can be solved, to help bring justice for gay men and their families.
“He courageously lived his life as he wanted to. I hope the friends and families of the other dozens of gay men who lost their lives find solace in what’s happened today and hope it opens the door to resolve some of the other mysterious deaths of men who have not yet received justice,” he said.
A 2018 police review in Sydney, found that 27 men were likely murdered because of their homosexuality between 1976 and 2000.
Nicolas Parkhill, the chief executive of ACON, a sexuality and gender-diverse health organisation in New South Wales, said there needs to be more investigations to bring justice to those in the LGBT community, who were killed because of their sexuality or gender identity.
“While this is a significant development in this particular case, it highlights the need for ongoing investigation, truth-telling and the delivery of justice for so many other gay men and trans people, who were murdered or bashed in similar cases,” he said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press.
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