A ‘body’ found in a suitcase was actually a sex doll. How did NSW police get it so wrong?

New South Wales police were called to Oallen, a town near Goulburn, on Sunday after two members of the public found a suitcase containing what they believed to be human remains. The police statement released on Sunday said the body was believed to be female, and the bag was sent to the forensic medicine laboratory.

However, after forensic examinations on Monday morning, it was confirmed that the "body" was actually a life-like doll dressed in clothes, with hair, a nose piercing, and markings that resembled bruises and grazes.

According to criminologist Vincent Hurley, a former NSW police officer, investigators had done the right thing by not fully unzipping the bag to avoid destroying evidence. Hurley noted that if it was a real body, unzipping the bag could have compromised the investigation.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Guardian, The Guardian Australia — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.