The mother of an Adelaide cold case murder victim has rejected criticism of plans to bolster CCTV in her council area, saying more security cameras could help prevent horrific crimes like the one that claimed the life of her daughter.
WARNING: This story contains content that readers may find distressing.
Emma Pawelski, 30, was last seen alive in Adelaide's northern suburbs on November 26, 2005 — a week before her body was found by a bushwalker in Mount Crawford Forest about 45 kilometres away.
A post-mortem found she died from head injuries, before her body was burnt.
Ms Pawelski's mother Sharon McKell was recently elected to the City of Salisbury council in Adelaide's north, partly on a platform of boosting security in public spaces.
The council is expected to make a decision on a plan to extend CCTV rollout under the so-called 'Smart Cities' initiative on Tuesday night, which has the support of the local mayor.
It has not been without controversy — criticism of the proposal has circulated online and been distributed to letterboxes across the council area, calling on residents to attend tonight's council meeting to resist "Big Brother technologies".
But Ms McKell said that, despite what some have claimed, facial recognition capability was "definitely not" part of the proposal.
She said it could prevent others going through trauma similar to what her family has had to endure.
"My daughter Emma was taken from the Regency Road, Prospect area and she was murdered and she was dumped up at Mount Crawford Forest and set on fire," she told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee and David Bevan.
"If there'd been more CCTV coverage along that area of Prospect and Regency Road – there's a lot more today of course with businesses, but there wasn't as much then – we might have just seen what car she got into."
Salisbury Mayor Gillian Aldridge last week voiced support for the Smart Cities proposal, saying it extended to "things like pedestrian monitoring" and was intended to "improve the quality of life of residents".
"It's a program to increase your safety and that includes the ability for us to know what your needs are, and that's not invading your privacy," she said.
Ms McKell described the technology in similar terms, saying it was a surveillance tool that "takes data and monitors different issues around the city hub".
She said that some critics had inappropriately likened it to a "concentration camp".
"It's only going to be … where people are going to use the businesses — it's not going into people's streets, it's just in that hub area around the city of Salisbury," she said.
"If I had young grandchildren and they were going to play in the park at Salisbury, of course I want surveillance there.
"You just don't know who's hanging around — and I actually feel I have more freedom if I've got surveillance because I feel a little bit safer."
Despite police identifying a person of interest, no-one has ever been charged over the murder of Ms McKell's daughter.
"It's a cold case still," she said.
"More than one person took her body up to Mount Crawford – she was taken more than 400 metres up a hill … even though she was a very petite woman, it would have taken more than one person to carry her up.
"We're basically hoping someone who might be loyal to someone who did it might one day just think, 'I'm going to come out and tell the truth'."
