Investigators discovered Ruiz had been in a relationship with Richard White, a convicted criminal with a history of assault and drug trafficking.

The fingerprint found on the newspaper Ruiz's killer had left in her throat was initially considered not to belong to White.

A warrant was sought in England for his arrest, which was eventually made in Newcastle by local detectives and Scotland Yard.

After two trials were aborted due to his abnormal conduct, he was eventually found guilty in 1996 and sentenced to the maximum jail term permitted in New South Wales at the time, which was fifteen years with a minimum of nine before being eligible for parole.

[2][3] She had suffered head injuries, and officers observed something inside her mouth that appeared at the time to be paper.

[2] A post mortem examination found the victim weighed 62 kg (137 lb) and was 1.61 m (5 ft 3 in) tall,[9][10] and was estimated to be between 16 and 25 years old.

[12] Newspaper was removed from the mouth and revealed to be two full-sized sheets of the Sydney Morning Herald, dated 10 December 1991.

Exposure of the surface to ninhydrin converts the amino acids into visibly coloured products and thus reveals the print.

[28] Police eventually received a phone call from a witness who claimed to recognise the victim as her friend, Vivianne Ruiz.

[34] After moving to Sydney, Ruiz took up residence in the Kings Cross property and started working as a prostitute and dancer in local nightclubs.

[39] Investigators sent a uniformed police officer to the home of White's parents, who discovered he was currently living overseas at the house of his aunt and uncle in Newcastle, England.

[1] A committal hearing was held for investigators to demonstrate to a court that there was sufficient evidence for White to stand trial for the murder of Ruiz.

[47] The lawyer concluded with an argument that White may have been eating a meat pie with tomato sauce on it while reading the newspaper and that such a food would react to the test used to demonstrate the fingerprint was blood.

[49] Two attempts to try White for the murder were aborted due to his abnormal conduct, such as threatening to kill the judge and prosecutor.

White's lawyers focused on the fingerprints, attempting to argue they may have appeared on the newspaper innocently at a time prior to the murder.

[51] The judge, Peter Hidden, acknowledged that the case made by the prosecution was circumstantial and that, in isolation, the evidence presented was not compelling.

It is implausible enough that an unknown killer would have seized a piece of newspaper which happened to bear a fingerprint of the accused in a substance that looked like blood.

That the killer might have seized a piece of newspaper which happened to bear a fingerprint of the accused in the blood of the deceased borders on the absurd.

[52] White was later sentenced to the maximum penalty applicable in New South Wales at the time: 15 years in prison of which he served at least 9 before being eligible for parole.