Perth's body-in-suitcase identified

The mystery of the body found in the Swan River two months ago has been solved, with the woman named as 57-year-old Annabelle Chen, a long-time Perth resident.

A supplied Image obtained Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 of murdered woman Annabelle Chen. Ms Chen was dumped in a suitcase and found two months ago in the Swan River, North Fremantle, WA. (AAP Image/WA Police) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Perth's body-in-the-suitcase mystery has been solved, with the victim identified as Annabelle Chen. (AAP) Source: WA Police

Perth's body-in-the-suitcase mystery has been solved, with the victim identified as wealthy 57-year-old Asian woman Annabelle Chen, a talented artist who was estranged from most of her family.

The suitcase containing Ms Chen and weighed down with tiles was found by a fisherman in the Swan River at North Fremantle on July 2.

Now police know who she is, they can properly investigate her murder and hopefully find her killer.

"It is important for us to progress this investigation by providing information to the public so they can come back to us and say, we know this lady from this location, we can look at what we could call victimology," Detective Senior Sergeant Tom Mills said.

"She was very, very private and spiritual, was a good artist, but but we do know some things about her which at this point in time can't discuss.

"She's got a number of children and a very extended family but it's a very complex situation in relation to the family, I'm not prepared to go into too much detail about that at this point in time ... I guess you can call it estranged."

She has children who live in Perth, Sen Sgt Mills said.

She had a violent death with a post-mortem revealing significant injuries.

Police were unable to identify her for two months despite an international search until last weekend.

Ms Chen's daughter travelled to Perth from Melbourne last week because she was worried that she had not been able to contact her mother since she saw her in Perth on June 30, two days before her body was found.

She contacted police when her mother could not be found at her home in leafy Mosman Park near the beach although her car was there, but knew nothing about the suitcase discovery.

Detectives quickly linked Ms Chen's disappearance to the body in the suitcase after examining her home, with forensic tests confirming her identity.

Ms Chen was an Australian citizen, relatively wealthy, spoke English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay, was divorced, and had lived in WA since 1999. She had lived alone at the Meath Mews, Mosman Park home she owned since 2002.

Police want anyone who knew her through the Christian churches or Buddhist temples they believe she attended or her neighbourhood to contact them.



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Source: AAP

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