It would take two months, painstaking amounts of police work which saw officers put in 16 hour shifts, and a stroke of good luck until the woman in the suitcase was even given a name. It was a case that would pose many questions. A scooter, a suitcase, a cutting board and a lady with no name In the early stages of the murder inquiry police released a composite image of the woman, and photographs of the clothes she had been wearing. A composite of the woman found in the suitcase and the clothes she was wearing. Credit:WA Police

DNA, fingerprints and inquiries with Interpol overseas failed to shed any light on who she was in the early stages of the inquiry. "We have very little to go from...it is a horrible death," Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Taylor said at the time. A police officer with intimate knowledge of the case said detectives were working 16 hour shifts at about this time, just so they could identify the woman. "From the outset we spent 14 to 16 hours a day canvassing the area around the traffic bridge for information, CCTV, door knocks, traffic stops at relevant times of the night," the officer told WAtoday. "We spent countless hours with Border Force and other agencies to identify her."

Detectives also spent an entire Saturday in early July speaking with Chinatown business owners in the Perth CBD, hoping that someone may hold the key to knowing who she was. Officers put up posters in several different languages all along the William Street area in an attempt to generate leads. The posters read: "Police are investigating the murder of this person and need your help to identify her." The posters put up by police in Perth's Chinatown. Credit:Phil Hickey Several weeks later police held another press conference where they revealed a scooter and a cutting board found in the river were linked to the mystery.

But the woman still did not have a name. Detective Senior Sergeant Tom Mills said at the time the scooter and cutting board were secured together with cable ties. He said detectives were exploring the possibility the scooter had been used to transport the suitcase with the body inside into the water. Tiles found in the Swan River and near the Fremantle traffic bridge were also linked to those found in the suitcase. Tiles recovered from the Swan River. Credit:WA Supreme Court

Sen-Sgt Mills conceded many of the leads police had been following up until this point had been “fruitless.” The major breakthrough police were looking for On September 5, 2016 - just over two months after the suitcase discovery was made - police announced the woman had finally been identified. She was 58-year-old Mosman Park mother Annabelle Chen. Annabelle Chen was described as a private and very spiritual person.

The breakthrough came after one of Ms Chen's daughter's - Tiffany Yiting Wan - flew into Perth via Melbourne and door knocked houses in the Mosman Park area looking for her mother. Ms Wan then reported her mother missing to police. It didn't take detectives long to realise that Ms Wan's mother was the woman in the suitcase they'd been trying so hard to identify. "The key for us in this investigation is learning more about her and the public can play an important role in that," Sen-Sgt Mills said on September 5. The identification of Ms Chen also changed the whole focus of the police investigation.

Detectives went from trying to identify a deceased person, to investigating suspects. Then on September 28, police announced two people had been charged with Ms Chen's murder. They released a statement that Wednesday afternoon saying a 68-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman had been charged. The following day those two people were identified as they faced court for the first time. They were Ms Chen's former husband Ah Ping Ban and the pair's daughter Tiffany Wan, the same person who had reported her mother missing earlier that month.

The trial begins and the finger pointing starts On August 13, 2018 Ban and Wan's murder trial began in the WA Supreme Court before a jury. On the opening day of the trial, prosecutors conceded the case against the pair was "circumstantial" and that no motive for the murder had been established. Prosecutor Justin Whalley said both Ban and Wan had initially told police they last saw Ms Chen leave her Mosman Park home on June 30, 2016 with a man in a white sedan. "They acted together in the murder of Annabelle Chen," Mr Whalley said on the opening day of the trial.

"Their individual involvement in the cover up was of such a nature and such a degree that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from it was that each was responsible." A post-mortem examination found Ms Chen had sustained 25 blunt-force injuries to her head and face and had a fractured skull, injuries the prosecution alleged occurred in the bedroom of her home. Wan cried in the dock as the injuries on her mother's head were shown to the courtroom. Both Ban and Wan elected to give evidence during the trial. They blamed each-other for the killing. Ban had claimed both he and his daughter disposed of Ms Chen's body in the Swan River, but only after he was confronted with a "horrible scenario" once he arrived in Perth on June 30 via Singapore.

That scenario, he had claimed, involved an argument between his daughter and ex-wife on June 27 or 28 at her home, which resulted in her death. "She (Tiffany) dragged me into this situation," Ban testified. Ban admitted to losing his reading glasses in the river while disposing of the body, by balancing the suitcase on the cutting board which was tied to the scooter. A pair of glasses similar to those worn by Ban were later found by police divers. The glasses which were found by police divers. Credit:WA Supreme Court

Wan's defence lawyer Simon Freitag put it to Ban in the witness stand that he "could take responsibility" for what he'd done and that he had killed Ms Chen in the bedroom of her home. "That is not true sir ... I wouldn't do that," Ban responded. "I didn't kill Annabelle, that is a true fact." Wan however claimed that she heard her mother scream and then a "loud metallic thud" as her parents were upstairs having an argument in Ms Chen's home. She said her father later confessed to the murder by using a paperweight and told her words to the effect: "I can be your mother too."

The long wait for a verdict It took four days for the Supreme Court jury made up of eight men and four women to find Ban guilty of murder on Thursday. Wan was acquitted of murder but was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. Police officers, media and interested members of the public who'd become fixated with the case filled the courtroom for the long-awaited verdict. Wan’s lawyer Simon Freitag spoke briefly with reporters as he left court.

It’s been a very emotional experience for her and everyone involved. Simon Freitag, shortly after the verdict His brief comments as he walked off down the street summed up how everyone was feeling. The trial and the entire case had indeed been an emotional experience for everyone, including the police officers who gave up valuable time with their families to investigate the murder. "It is the thankless task we do to get results for victims and families, sometimes at the expense of our own loved ones," one officer said. Ban and Wan will learn their sentence on November 22.