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Cold-case reward for Lynette White’s 1973 killer lifted to $1m

Lynette White and husband Paul on their wedding day.

Lynette White and husband Paul on their wedding day. Photo: NSW Police

Police say there are “a million reasons” to come forward with information into the murder of a Sydney mother brutally stabbed to death 45 years ago.

Lynette White, 26, was in her Coogee apartment in the city’s east on June 8, 1973, when she was killed as her 11-week-old son lay in his cot nearby.

Less than a year ago, Minister for Police Troy Grant announced a $100,000 reward and on Friday increased it to $1 million.

Police had previously thought Ms White’s murderer could have been a fan of her Hawaiian dance troupe.

All these years later, Paul White still doesn’t know who stole the life of the woman he loved. Photo: AAP/Peter Rae

But the search has since narrowed to anyone who lived in the block of apartments at 26 Beach Street in Coogee between 1971 to 1973, in particular, a group of men believed to be from the UK.

“They (the group) often had loud parties and visitors,” NSW Detective Superintendent Scott Cook told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

“She had her throat slit and three stab wounds with a kitchen knife still implanted in her chest,” Det Supt Cook said.

She was also naked from the waist down.

“This murder needs to be solved, there are now a million reasons for someone to come forward and provide information,” he said.

Ms White’s widower, Paul, said he arrived home at their second-floor apartment after visiting his parents following work at the local newspaper, to find the door ajar and his wife’s bare legs protruding from their baby’s room.

“I felt for a pulse but knew straight away, she felt cold and clammy, and I knew I couldn’t get her back,” Mr White said on Friday.

He described his wife as “a very beautiful lady, very radiant, a beautiful personality, and always laughing,”

No DNA matches have yet been found from the patch of blood found under the carpet, Det Supt Cook said.

This is the third time in NSW history a $1 million reward has been offered, matching the amount that remains available in the case of missing toddler William Tyrrell.

In May, a $1 million reward was announced for information leading to a conviction over the 1974 murder of young Sydney woman, Maria Smith.

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