In a significant cold case development, a man has been detained in relation to the death of a teenage boy in a home fire more than two decades ago.
In connection with the suspected murder of Redfern adolescent Arthur Haines, Homicide Squad investigators detained a 55-year-old man in Queensland on Wednesday.
To extradite the individual to NSW, Queensland Police and NSW Police are now cooperating.
On Thursday, April 9, 1998, about 10.30 p.m., a fire ravaged a friend’s home in Sydney’s Waterloo where Haines, 13, was staying.
The adolescent was seriously hurt and sent to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, where he tragically passed away 11 weeks later.
The case was reopened in January 2020 by investigators from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad after lengthy investigations had failed to provide a resolution.
The 55-year-old male is thought to be out of state, but after enquiries and requests for information from the general public, strike force detectives requested and were given an arrest warrant for him.
Detectives from the Queensland Police Service Homicide Investigation Unit apprehended the guy at a Brisbane residence on Wednesday about 11 a.m.
Detectives from the NSW Police have subsequently travelled to Queensland, where they will ask Brisbane Magistrates Court to order the man’s extradition to the NSW on Thursday.
When a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the Walker Street house, 13-year-old Arthur was asleep in a room on the top level.
As the fire spread throughout the house, he was stuck on the third level of the terrace.
In order to get away from the fire, he had to dash through it, and 60% of his body was burned.
There were perhaps six other individuals in the house at the time, but they all made it out safely.
The bottom level had been damaged when the fire department arrived.