27th of March 1984 was a Tuesday. It was a fine, warm, sunny day in Wellington. (EERIE MUSIC) Ernie Abbott was a caretaker at the Trades Hall building. Throughout the day, Ernie had seen a suitcase at the rear of the Trades Hall on the ground floor. It was a foreign item in the building, so he'd left it there throughout the day. When he was closing up, he decided he needed to secure the suitcase. He picked the suitcase up, which triggered the detonator and the subsequent explosion. (BOOM!) The explosion killed Ernie almost instantly. Ernie was lying face down. His right leg was curved at a very unnatural angle. His hands were so mutilated. Naturally, at the moment, we just assumed it was some sort of gas explosion or something like that. You know, bombing ` that's something that happened overseas. It was an incredible event for New Zealand. It was a homicide. It was a murder, and an horrific murder... of an honest, hard-working, innocent man. And it was our job to get the guy who'd done this. More than 30 years on, no one has been brought to justice for Ernie's death. But police believe it's never too late to solve a cold case. Your help, though, is imperative. We've brought together a specialist team to review some of New Zealand's most haunting unsolved murders. I just want him to go to jail, get a life imprisonment for what he did. They'll use their skills, expertise and the up-to-date technology to look at things with fresh eyes. We continue to work on any investigation with dedication and resource to get the matter resolved and to hold any offender to account. It's not anything that the New Zealand police will ever forget. Can you help us solve the murder of Ernie Abbott? (ELECTRONIC BEEPING) Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 REPORTER: At 5.19 tonight, the blast hit the Vivian St Trades Hall. Damage downstairs was extensive, police say. I first heard about Trades Hall, actually, when it happened. I recall hearing it and seeing it in the media. I was just a young schoolboy at the time. As caretaker for the Trades Hall building, Ernie lived in a flat on the top floor with his dog, Patch. He was lovely. He was always smiling. He could be grumpy, but we can all be grumpy. Ernie always had Patch, the dog, with him. Kids liked Ernie, and that always says something good about a person. He just loved Trades Hall. You know, it was in a derelict state; he did what he could to keep it tidy and fixed what he could. He was... just a real character. Ernie was the only victim of the bombing, and police struggled to determine a motive for the attack. In 1984, detectives focused on the political landscape. It was a fairly tense and hostile time in the early '80s. There was a lot of conflict between the unions and workers, employees and the government at the time. Well, one would, actually, probably say it had been going on since at least 1975 with the advent of the Muldoon government ` if you remember little Cossacks dancing ` so unions and opposition to unions was always part of the Muldoon government. And, ongoing, there was a fair amount of turmoil. By 1984, the clashes between unionists and government were escalating. We were under a wage freeze. It had been imposed by the Muldoon government, and we were fighting to try and break the wage freeze, so there were various numbers of industrial actions going on. A lot of that action was orchestrated from the offices in Trades Hall. The building was quite well tenanted ` not all unions, but a lot of unions, a lot more than now. Occupying a ground floor room were the tramways union and the coach workers' union. Just in this corner was the caretaker's office. So, Ernie's cleaning stuff and desk and whatnot were all kept there. Ernie was a member of the cleaners' union. He was a competent ship's delegate, which meant that he was a bit of a stirrer. And he used to wander into the offices and start up political, heated discussions in the morning. It was almost like his morning tea. (LAUGHS) 'I'll go round and rark a few people up. We'll get into a bit of a, you know, political debate here.' On the day of the explosion, the Trades Hall was buzzing with activity as high-profile unionists prepared to do battle with the National government. The trades council management committee was meeting here to discuss ways to break the Muldoon government's wage freeze. Our printer, George Thompson, was busy printing leaflets about breaking the wage freeze. Here was the coach workers' union print room. Meanwhile, Ernie had his own issues, dealing with the building's plumbing. Something must have happened with the water tanks. I had been up on the roof with Ernie while we tried to figure out what was going on, because there was no flushing in any of the toilets. I imagine Ernie would have been quite frazzled while they were all talking about what were we gonna do. During all this activity, someone carrying a small suitcase housing the bomb walked in and left without anyone noticing. However, police believe the person may have tried to deliver the suitcase more than once. Police spoke to a witness who saw Ernie's dog, Patch, barking at a person carrying a suitcase. This potentially could have been the first attempt by the bomber to place the suitcase within the Trades Hall building. The bomber would have come in through that door in Vivian St and would have walked down the foyer, and the bomb was actually placed in this area, just about here. There would have been people going in and out to the tramways union who would have walked past the bomb. Pat and I left the building, carrying loads of George's leaflets, and we walked past the bomb. Pat saw it; I didn't. And because we had our arms full of leaflets, no one stopped to pick it up. So, at 5.19pm, Ernie Abbott was locking up and securing the Trades Hall businesses at the end of the day. He approached the suitcase at the rear of the premises on the ground floor, and decided that he would secure the suitcase and move it, as it had been there all day and he didn't know who the owner of the suitcase was. As he picked the suitcase up, the detonator set off the explosive, and a large explosion detonated within the Trades Hall. (BOOM!) Walking into the Trades Hall, there was absolute devastation. Doors were blown off hinges; windows were broken. This was my first whodunnit investigation where a massive team had been assembled. I was pretty junior in the CIB, and I was very nervous, and I was working with some people who were legendary detectives at the time. Ernie was severely burnt, so facially it was impossible to identify him. He didn't have a fingerprint record, so we couldn't actually match them against something. We didn't have DNA testing and that; that was at least a decade away. So we worked through his tattoos, his visual tattoos, and then we found a photo of Ernie at a trade union meeting where he had his sleeves rolled up and you could visually see the tattoos that were on his arms, and we were able to match the two of them up then. It's the most heinous crime. It was cowardly. I worked with the express intent to bring this bastard to justice. But after nine months and hundreds of thousands of police hours, the investigation team was scaled down. The killer remained at large. In 15 years in the CIB, never ever spent that long on an inquiry, and it's frustrating that we weren't able to bring it to a successful conclusion. I don't know if he's alive or not, but if he is, I'd just like to bring him to justice. (SMARTPHONE RINGS) (BIRDS SING OUTSIDE) - Life is beautiful. (PHONE TRILLS) - (PHONE CHIMES) - Hey! - Gorgeous. - (CLICK!) - Have you seen this? - This is so you! - (CHORTLES) - Five new likes. - How are you even real? - Hotdogs or legs? - So much prettier. - ...meeting request. - Matt waved at you. - (DING!) - Did you see his video? - Did you hear the news? - It's going viral. - Mystique started following you. - You have a` You have a` - You have a match. - Wish Jack a happy birthday. - Happy birthday, Jack! - Happy birthday, Jack! - Sold out. - New season arrivals. - Yasss, queen. - Someone tagged you. - Plans for tonight? - SING-SONGS: Plans for tonight! - Sorry, did you say something? - Sign the petition. - Don't forget` - Are you paying attention? - Oi. Are you even listening? - I'm right here! - Software update. - Important! - Please reply ASAP! - SOLITARY VOICE: Hello? (CLICK!) (EERIE MUSIC) * On the 27th of March 1984, Ernie Abbott, the caretaker at the Wellington Trades Hall building, was killed when he picked up a suitcase containing a bomb. Over 30 years on, the bomber has never been identified. We have brought together a group of cold case detectives to spearhead a new inquiry. Leading our review will be Detective Senior Sergeant Warwick McKee, the new officer in charge. It was a significant file. There's 40 boxes of paperwork. I have analysed the matter and sat down with a couple of staff, and we were determined to put some resource into it and bring some resolution to the matter. Detective Sam McKenzie is the 2IC on this case. It was one of New Zealand's first terrorist acts. And someone's lost their life ` an innocent person ` so I think for that reason it's really important that we hold that person to account for what is one of the worst crimes in New Zealand. Inspector John Spence worked on the case in 1984 on the suspects team, and will provide invaluable insight into the original investigation. We spent nine months hard work chasing, you know, thousands of people to try and establish who did this. He was a murderer, and he wasn't particularly worried who he killed or how many people he killed. Three detectives, one cold case. It's time for the Trades Hall review to begin. We will also be looking to you, the viewer, to help solve this murder. We'll start with you, Spencey. Can you just give us a bit of an overview of your role back in 1984? I was just a young detective in those days. Been in the CIB a few years ` qualified as a detective. I was actually working late shift that night when the word came in that there'd been an explosion just on Vivian St. What made police believe that it wasn't an accident and it was a act of criminality? Slowly but surely, the word started to trickle through that there may be something suspicious about it. Then it became a homicide inquiry pretty quickly. Acts like this were obviously very uncommon. Especially in Northern Ireland they were taking place, but that was 10,000 miles away. I'm not quite sure who he was specifically aiming for. It was probably just a general attack on the trade union movement. That is probably one of the challenges for me investigating this file in 2019, cos in 1984, I was, obviously, not even at school. (UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC) I was 4 years old when the bomb went off, and when you talk to me about trade unions and all of those political goings`on, it's a lot of concepts that are reasonably foreign to me. If I'm looking for something like a motive, I have had to learn about those things. Right from the outset, police struggled to pinpoint a specific motive and believed the bombing was targeted at the union movement. The team now turn their attention to the crime scene and bring in forensic scientist Peter Wilson, who conducted the scene examination. Thanks for joining us today, Peter. So, when you went in later that evening, can you describe what it is you saw? There was very poor lighting, and what I saw was just a large amount of debris around the floor. There was obvious burning of the walls and burning of the ceiling area. At that early stage, I would not have been thinking 'bomb' straight away. So when did it become clear that it was a bomb as opposed to a gas explosion? When you start looking at the exhibits that are pulled up from the scene, you start seeing everything is extremely small ` I'd say about the size of your thumbnail, or a bit bigger ` and that means something with a large amount of energy has torn items apart. OK, so that indicates a bomb, as opposed to gas. That indicates that there's a high explosive, rather than, say, a low explosive, like confined gunpowder or just an ordinary petrol bomb. It just wouldn't have the energy to rip metal, cardboard, paper, wire into small pieces. Sure. Walking into the aftermath of the explosion, the officers were faced with the enormous task of picking up and cataloguing every last scrap of evidence scattered throughout Trades Hall. I think there was about 1500 items that were uplifted from the scene. And so that they know exactly where these items have come from, they decided to set up a grid, and each grid would be given a designation ` you know, A3, A4, B5, B6 ` on the floor. The priority is identifying... what or where the items have come from. It was a magnificent job they did completing a scene examination ` the attention to detail ` and to the point where they've picked up every individual item within Trades Hall and exhibited it. One of the most important and early discoveries for Peter and his colleagues was determining what housed the bomb. So, initially, you're finding material ` maybe as big as your thumbnail ` that's got black and white markings on it and grey on the other side. So, we were putting items in a pile called paper, another one called wire, another one called metal. Once we've got all our little pieces together and are starting to identify the possible source, you get this, sort of, 'aha' moment, when you think, 'Oh, I've seen that before. 'That's` An old suitcase I used to have looked like that.' Then the police might be able to use that information to connect it to a perpetrator. Once they'd identified the bomb was hidden inside a suitcase, the forensic team began establishing the other components that went into making the device. Most of these items were kept under wraps. John, are you able to tell me what information was released to the public in 1984 about the bomb? Naturally, you wanna keep some things to yourself` Sure. ...because when it comes to interviewing the person, you want them to be able to tell you things that no one else` that only they know. Sure. There was the type of case used, which was a small case common in those days. Yep. There was the banana label. I can't remember exactly what the third one was; can you refresh my memory? The Eveready 6 volt battery. Oh, the Eveready. Yeah, the battery. Just jump back there; tell me about the banana label. PETER: It was adhering to the material inside the suitcase. That Rica Banana label was unique at that time, I read. Bonita Bananas are obviously the most common banana imported into New Zealand. However, there was a shortage, so they had to source bananas from the Rica company` Yeah. ...in Ecuador, and that label was located, burnt, inside the lining of that suitcase. Just shows you that, you know, tiny little things like that may or may not lead` Yeah, of course. ...as Peter says, to the person that did it, so you followed up every single clue or every single little bit of information, whether it looked important or not important. Now, you were on the suspects team, Spencey. Yep. I read that there were over 550 suspects that had to be looked at, investigated and spoken to. Yep. Tell us about that. Naturally, there's a lot of people who are nominated as suspects, or a lot of people who come to our attention for various reasons. Every single suspect had to be alibied by visual witnesses, so it was all about interviewing lots and lots of visual witnesses. There was no electronic corroboration of people's movements at all. So the detail and the interviews that went on was just quite staggering in today's terms. Despite the meticulous and exhaustive investigation carried out in 1984, police hit a roadblock. The cold case team now firmly believe the way forward is to focus on the bomb. This is where they need your help. * Investigating the Wellington Trades Hall bombing was a mammoth task. All of the physical evidence linking the bomber to the device actually exploded into thousands of pieces. Literally hundreds of thousands of different exhibits, which have been individually packaged up ` a lot in small pottles ` and they still all exist. The work and the manpower and the hours that went into it is` to be honest, I found it quite unbelievable. As a result of this tireless work, the forensic team were able to piece together a clearer picture of how the bomb was constructed. The cold case detectives are now prepared to reveal more detail to jog people's memories. It is a bold move. It's important, 34 years later, that we disclose the contents of the suitcase. The offender potentially may be deceased now or is an old man, so I think it's important that we make an appeal to the bomber or anybody with any information in regards to the investigation in the Trades Hall bombing to come forward and provide any information to us so we can resolve this before it's too late. There were items that were removed from the body ` for example, pieces of wire, maybe, or bits of the timer. When you start seeing springs, and then you see bits of brass and cogs, so you know you've got some timing mechanism that's been in the device. So, we identify things like the timer and the battery and their position in the device as to where they were found in Trades Hall. If we found that the battery pieces were to the right, we knew they were to the right of the explosive within the suitcase, and if pieces were to the left ` the timer pieces, for example ` you could say that the timer was to the left of the charge. (SINISTER MUSIC) And the bits that were found were quite badly disrupted, and the brass was quite torn and quite ripped, which starts to give you some indication that it was a high explosive, maybe, that's been used. So, in this particular timer ` it was from an old stove, and it was a dial ` turn it round to 60 minutes for timing. So, he's sat somewhere and set up the device. He's turned the timer round to whatever time delay that he requires, and during that period of time, he has the nerve to take it down to Trades Hall, deposit it inside and then go on his way. The bomb itself was an intricate explosive that obviously took some skill to construct. The next thing to be disclosed is how the device was detonated. It was a mercury switch. It was the first and probably the only device that I've dealt with that's had a mercury switch in it. So, the mercury switch itself would be a glass envelope; it might be, I dunno, as big as your thumb. And inside that enclosed envelope, there is mercury, and there would be two electrodes, and when the mercury switch was tilted, the circuit would be completed, the detonator would detonate, and the whole explosive would then detonate itself. So, that's the key component of the bomb here; as Ernie has picked the suitcase up, the mercury has moved and hit the electrode connecting the circuit` Yep. ...within the bomb, setting the explosion off. But you don't want that to happen when you're taking the suitcase to the scene. This is high risk for the bomber, isn't it? From my point of view, you'd need a lot of nerve, in making it and also in delivering it. Shows a fair degree of planning, doesn't it? Oh, it does. OK. And the actual explosive? Well, that is probably one of the few things that we didn't identify. The explosive itself can consume itself if it is in good condition, and so residues of it can be very difficult to find. Back 34 years ago, our analysis procedures were nowhere near as good as what they are today. But through a discussion process with the explosive inspectors, it was decided it was probably equivalent to three sticks of gelignite. How difficult do you think that would have been to get back in 1984? It wasn't unusual for farmers to get explosives if they want to blow a stump out of the ground` OK. ...so it was, I think, probably back then, more accessible than it might be these days. So, let's talk about the bottle of accelerant that was located inside that bomb. While we were looking through the items, we came across pieces of cork, and on the cork` base of the cork was printed Asti Riccadonna, which is a sparkling wine. Fairly cheap brand at that. Fairly cheap? I don't know; it was pretty up there ` bit of Asti. My goodness. You must have had more money than me, John, in those days. Yeah. Residues of petrol were present on that cork. Cos it was such a large, sort of, fireball after the event, that led us to the, probably, conclusion that maybe there was petrol inside a container within the device` Right. ...and that that container had had the cork put in it. Mm-hm. Peter and his team considered the possibility that there were two bottles of accelerant in the suitcase, and that one was sealed with a Teal bottle top. Teal was a popular soft drink brand in the '80s. Now, the reason the bomber would have put accelerant, petrol, inside the bomb clearly is to enhance the explosion itself, the power of the explosion? Yes, to enhance the effect. There wasn't enough explosive to demolish the building. Maybe another way of thinking about it was, 'I'll put some accelerant, and that might start a good fire,' and then that would burn the building down. And probably the most important element of the bomb to be divulged, because of what it might reveal about the offender, is paper. They picked up a number of pieces of newspaper. You know, a lot of it's only as big as your thumbnail, cos it's just completely disrupted by the explosion. And some of them had advertising on or writing on them. To explain this phase of the investigation, the team call upon forensic document examiner Gordon Sharfe. They did a fantastic job, because the pieces of paper that were recovered were mostly tiny ` sort of, 5 cent, 10 cent size. You try imagine the manual process of finding a few scraps of phrases and words that can be matched back to something that was printed at one particular time. Amongst the various pieces, there was a piece which I found which contained several classified advertisements. This would have given some information to be able to go and start looking for where the newspaper has come from, as to what the original date of the newspaper was, by cross-referencing what was being advertised, the phone numbers of the people advertising. Once they had identified the edition that fragment had come from, then there would be a laborious process of going around checking the other fragments to see whether they also came from that paper. Police examining those pieces of newspaper determined that the newspaper had come from an Evening Post newspaper dated 18 June 1977, some seven years earlier. They identified that pages 9 and 10 and pages 19 and 20 from that Evening Post were lined within the suitcase within the bomb itself. That was obviously a lot of work for the team to go back through in that time, to identify a paper from seven years ago. That's right. The identification of the date the newspaper was printed may seem trivial, but together with the newly disclosed information on how the bomb was constructed and the contents of the suitcase, the team now hope it could identify the person or people responsible for Ernie's death. To construct and build a bomb that was this delicate takes a lot of risk. The person would have significant knowledge in handling and experience around explosives and how to construct a bomb of this nature. The fact that he's had to transport it and carry it inside the Trades Hall and set up it ` there's huge risk to the offender himself. So what sort of person could have planned and carried out such a deadly attack? The cold case team now turn their attention from the actual device to the bomber himself. * For the first time ever, the cold case detectives have revealed more details of the components of the bomb that killed Ernie Abbott in the 1984 attack on Trades Hall. They're quite interesting and sort of specialist things that are not easy to obtain, especially the mercury switch, so it's hoped that someone will recall a person who's got these items or recall an interesting transaction with someone, and they might be able to give us some information around that. They may hold a key piece of evidence that would lead to identifying and locating the person who planted the bomb. Can you help police? Back in 1984, criminal profiling was in its infancy. But police used the emerging tool to give them an idea of just who was capable of such a horrific crime. For somebody to do something like this, which is so very extraordinary, suggests that they were in an extraordinary state of mind. Dr Tony Marks was part of that 1984 profiling team. Will discussing the new inquiry with the retired forensic psychiatrist shed further light on the perpetrator? I think it's likely that this was an individual who was very sensitive to criticism, liked control, had probably grown up in circumstances where his upbringing was harsh, unpredictable... and possibly belittling. It would be in keeping with a person who bore grudges, harboured resentment over a period of time and was probably fairly tortured, to the extent where they finally wanted to do something about it. So he could be` quite easily become fixated on something small, and that would drive him to do such a violent act? Yeah, fixation is a good word, yes. OK. But it could be the tail end of a whole series of... frustrations with the trade union. They may have let him down in a negotiation or a job dismissal or something like that. There are some people who get litigious and querulous and that will go on in a persistent manner complaining about things that they perceive as having been wrongs done against them by an organisation. We say these sort of people have paranoid personality disorders. How would someone know that someone was suffering from that? It's really quite hard to lead a successful and good life if you have this paranoid personality disorder. They would have difficulty maintaining satisfactory relationships. So they might have had a marriage, one, two or even more relationships that broke up. They could end up feeling impoverished, maybe leading isolated lives. So it would be fair to say that the person would be likely to be some` a recluse or some form of...? Yeah, that's right, cos relationships have gone so badly; circumstances always seem so bad to them that if they keep to themselves, at least they can control what's around them at the time. Sam is satisfied the 1984 profile of the bomber as a loner with difficulty maintaining normal relationships and grievances against the unions still holds up. And Tony is particularly interested in one of the cold case revelations. In the suitcase, as part of the debris that came out of it, was located a newspaper from 1977. Seven years later is a long time later to have a newspaper. Mm. Does that say something about his living circumstances, that he lived in a house where` or in a dwelling where there was a lot of junk from the past? (UNSETTLING MUSIC) There was a huge, wide net all over New Zealand of people who had a beef or an angst against the trade union movement. We looked at people who've previously threatened the unions and so on. Virtually all of them, I think, were quickly ruled out because they didn't have the ability or the capability. They just` They were just twisted and bitter about what the union movement had done. We certainly paid close attention to some people who had experience with explosives. From all accounts, this guy was pretty inconsequential; he didn't have a big sign on him, you know, saying 'bomber', so he just melted in and blended in. However, we can now reveal there was one man who's been interviewed a number of times over the past 34 years, and to this day remains on the list of persons of interest. About three years ago, we received some new information in regards to a suspect who was a key suspect at the time, back in 1984. In August 1984, you were part of a team that went and executed a search warrant at an address in (BLEEP). During the search of his address, they located some items of importance or relevance to the investigation. Police located four Teal brand soft drink bottles` JOHN: OK. ...a vice, some electrical tape, a roll of insulation tape, a packet of detonators, safety fuses, a plastic torch minus the battery and a copy of the Evening Post dated 18 June 1977, pages 29, 30, 31 and 32 and pages 41, 42, 43 and 44. Missing? No, those pages were there and located, found, so pages 9, 10, and 19, 20, weren't located at the address. To have pages inside the bomb that were also found at the suspect's address for the same date is huge. It's a very strong evidential clue for us. Is there further circumstantial evidence to corroborate the conclusions the cold case team is beginning to draw? Did you get the impression that he would have the knowledge to build such a device? He described himself as an expert in explosives when he was spoken to in 1984 in interview. He fits the profile now; he fit the profile then. He lived by himself, he had vast experience in explosives, and he was a drinker who didn't engage with people very well and was a bit of a loner who hoarded a number of items at his home address. The profile that was given to us for the bomber back in 1984 fitted the profile of this suspect to the letter T. And finally the cold case team is prepared to reveal that recently they were given an item from the person of interest's former address that is significant in terms of the reconstruction of the crime. Despite this, there's still not enough direct evidence to link that person to the bombing. However, over 30 years on, will advances in technology now be the key to change all that? * No one has ever been charged for the murder of unionist Ernie Abbott, who was the sole victim of the Wellington Trades Hall bombing. Having reviewed the file, the cold case team believe developments in DNA technology will be vital to resolving this case. Advances in analysis and technology, particularly through the ESR, have been significant over those 34 years, so just wanna discuss as a group what we think is relevant now to potentially send back to the ESR to analyse and re-review. There are some pieces that are, I would think, from the device, which would be probably suitable to have a look at. At the time when we looked at the device, there was` fingerprints was the main way of pointing towards a person, but now we would be looking hard for DNA. There's quite a lot of insulating tape. So, that would hold components of the bomb together, most likely. Yeah, it was to hold components together. Some of them are multiple layered, so if you pulled` start pulling the layers apart and looking between the layers, you know, a person may have been handling them without gloves. We have historical cases, generally... those involving violence, where there's bloodshed, or in rape cases, where there's DNA evidence that has been retained, and they're just waiting for a person's DNA to be taken so it can be run through the databank, and they come up with a match, and it points towards that particular person. And pieces of cloth were found on the device as well. Let's talk about that cloth now, Peter, cos wrapped around the suitcase was a piece of material. What can you tell us about that? It came, I think, from witnesses who had actually seen the suitcase that there was some cloth around the handle. The handle would have been metal, and someone carrying it, you know, would have left fingerprints on it. Quite interesting, isn't it? It indicates that he's forensically aware, doesn't it, if that's what he's trying to do ` mask his fingerprints? It does. Yeah. We did find a bit of cloth. From memory, it was a relatively large piece of cloth and could well have come from the wrapping around the handle. That was exposed to the blast, Peter. Will it still have evidence or DNA on it, or would that have been destroyed with the explosion? DNA will stay around for a considerable length of time. I can imagine the person would be, or may be, particularly nervous at the time, may have been sweating, so that would be very useful, if they've passed DNA through the sweating process and on to the item of cloth. It would be a prime item for DNA, and, these days, it's just, yeah, the piece that you would go to to grab it and DNA it. Considering much of the evidence that would have held the bomber's DNA was destroyed in the blast, the team consider their options for forensic retesting. So, the standard DNA test, which works with, say, a body fluid, is probably not so applicable to this situation. We're probably looking at what we call touch DNA` Right. ...which is very sensitive. OK. READS: 'Body area storeroom, piece of green tape'. Yeah. Yeah, that's quite a large piece, so again, that would be worth... And one end of it looks reasonably well preserved. Yep. OK. At the scene, it was reasonably clear from witnesses that the suitcase had, basically, a piece of cloth wrapped around the handle. 381 was the item? Mm. Yes. So, we could possibly get a profile if we sampled an area in the middle here where there's less obvious heat exposure. Sure. It's definitely an option for testing, yeah. I've been surprised before. And, you know, DNA can survive; if it's stored dry, it can be stable for a long time. With the prospect of a technological breakthrough, Warwick has one final disclosure about one of the persons of interest. He's still alive. And, uh, spoke to him at length. That reception wasn't received too well, Sam, was it? It was very interesting, because when you look at his forensic profile, he fits it very well, like, a sort of angry chap, bit of a recluse. He, sort of, seems to tick each of the boxes as you go down them. We've spoken to a number of people that have known him over the years` Right. Yep. ...and even the investigation team at the time. He had exposure to and access to explosives,... Mm-hm. ...and certainly had the knowledge around construction of bombs and setting explosives off. And it's believed this person was anti-union, had a history of redundancies, and by 1984 was finding it hard to get a job. The cold case team is confident they are now closer than ever to solving this case, but they need your help. I think every crime is possible to solve. It just takes that piece of information that you currently haven't got, and somewhere, someone may have a bit of information that just could help us solve this investigation. When we detail, you know, the components of the device, it may ring a bell with family members or people who knew him. So if that's so, bring it to us, and just maybe, we might bring this man, or the man responsible, to justice. There is a burden to uphold and, I guess, back up that previous excellent work that's been done and try and get a result for all those people who have been involved, whether that's the victim's family, Ernie himself, and the police who've worked on it. They used to call Ernie a dapper man, a man about town. We remember him in Trades Hall as Ernie the caretaker. I think it's really important for all the people to hear about him as a person. Yeah. 34 years is a long time. However, people out there will remember this, the murder of Ernie Abbott, so it's an appeal to people out there to come forward to us and provide any information that they have that may assist us to resolve this investigation. We haven't forgotten this ` never will. Never forget it. And if we can, we'll bring him to justice, all right. Don't worry; we haven't forgotten. (SOLEMN ROCK MUSIC)