Murdered mum Karlie Pearce-Stevenson's identity, bank account and mobile phone were used for years after her death to defraud social services and trick family and friends into believing she was still alive, police say.
In a major breakthrough in the hunt for the killers of Ms Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter Khandalyce, police believe a woman in a wheelchair impersonated Ms Pearce-Stevenson in a Centrelink interview in 2010.
Her bank account was also kept open for years after her murder and almost $100,000 was spent or withdrawn from it between November 2008 and March 2012.
"People who we believe may be the offenders ... have taken over Karlie's identity," Detective Superintendent Des Bray told reporters in Adelaide on Tuesday.
Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter Khandalyce Pearce. Source: Supplied
"Her telephone, her bank accounts, her Centrelink and family payments."
In June 2010 a woman in a wheelchair updated Ms Pearce-Stevenson's banking records at the Australian Central Credit Union at Elizabeth in Adelaide.
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Police believe the same woman also attended a compulsory interview with Centrelink in Salisbury in December that year.
The suspects kept the murdered mother's mobile phone to deceive family, friends and law enforcers into believing she was still alive.
On several occasions a female pretending to be Ms Pearce-Stevenson had conversations with family members.
"From time to time the message bank on Karlie's phone was accessed," Det Supt Bray said.
"The offenders sent some replies to those messages confirming that Karlie was alive and well.
"Tragically some of those (texts) were sent to family members."
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Text messages were sent duping family members into transferring money to Ms Pearce-Stevenson's bank account.
Police believe at least one of the people involved in the phone and bank fraud was responsible for the murders of Ms Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter, with two female suspects and one male.
Police believe the mother and daughter were killed in mid to late December 2008 and the last recorded sighting was in Charnwood in Canberra.
A photograph of Khandalyce Pearce wearing the dress she was found with in South Australia. Source: Supplied
"We believe that Karlie and Khandalyce were killed at a different time and at different locations," Det Supt Bray said.
The 20-year-old mother's body was discovered in the Belanglo State Forest in NSW in 2010.
Khandalyce's remains were found near a suitcase alongside a South Australian highway 1200km away and five years later.
