Christine Djukich remembers the disappearance of her daughter Radina Djukich, ten years ago to the day. Source:WA News

Detectives believe they have cracked a 27-year cold case after charging a 69-year-old man with manslaughter over the 1992 disappearance of teenager Radina Djukich.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Gary Budge said police would allege the man injected the 14-year-old with substance that caused her death and buried her body in a bush grave.

Radina was reported missing from her Alvis Place home in North Beach on May 16, 1992. Despite several searches taking place over a number of years, her body has never been found.

Mr Budge said there had been several attempts over the past 27 years to recover Radina’s remains, though none in the past year or two, but they had all been unsuccessful.

He also said Radina’s mother, who still lives in WA, had been made aware of the breakthrough.

“At this time we think about the family who will find this quite traumatic,” he said. “It’s obviously very traumatic for families in these situations.

“This matter has been investigated a number of times over the past 27 years and… families are advised when we are doing that.

“This provides some outcome for the family in that we’ve charged someone.

“We are very pleased to have brought this to a charge but there’s still a long way to go.

“Over a period of time friendships and acquaintances change and there may be someone out there who has some information about Radina’s manslaughter or circumstances around that and we’d like to encourage those people to come forward.”

Deputy Commissioner Budge said cold case homicide investigators had been working on the case for about a year but could not say what had provided the breakthrough.

“None of these matters are ever closed, they’re always open but the team have been doing some particular investigation into this matter for about the past year,” he said.

He explained there was some satisfaction for officers when they reached a point that “prima facie evidence exists to be able to charge someone”.

“But they are very aware that this matter still has a long way to go… and will now go to the court,” he said. “We will never give up on these cases, there are a number of unresolved homicides and other serious crimes and we’ve very committed to having a look at them.”

He said police owed it to the community to re-visit unsolved cases to see if there were any forensic or investigative opportunities that could help give families some closure.

The charged man will appear in Perth Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Originally published as Police crack missing teen cold case