At least 10 women reported being assaulted in Sydney's Moore Park and inner-west areas between 1991 and 1993, prompting an investigation into the "Night Stalker" or "Moore Park rapist".
But the trail ran cold and NSW Police disbanded its task force in July 1993 after eliminating all suspects.
Nearly three decades on, a strike force was established that linked four of the sexual assaults to a single male DNA profile.
A national database search returned a familial match, leading police to funeral director Glenn Gary Cameron and a stealthy operation.
After the Alice Springs resident finished his meal at a Sydney International Airport restaurant in January 2024, police officers swiped his fork and glass for forensic analysis.
The DNA was deemed to be a match and Cameron was arrested for his two-year reign of terror when he returned to Australia.
The 61-year-old on Tuesday faced the Downing Centre Local Court to finally admit to 18 sexual assaults and one attempted sexual assault against eight women.
With a clean-shaven face, neat white hair and rectangular glasses, he was a far cry from the descriptions of a muscular brunette provided by his victims.
He admitted to raping and indecently assaulting the women while wielding a variety of knives, which he held against their skin and threatened to use on them.
"If you don't let me do this, I will kill you," Cameron told one of the women, according to court documents.
Then aged in his 20s, he approached a 17-year-old girl and offered her a modelling job in an advertisement for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 before pulling out a 23cm knife.
When she screamed in pain as he raped her, Cameron squeezed her neck and told her to "be quiet".
Another woman was groped and raped five times in just half an hour at Moore Park.
Cameron pleaded guilty to 13 charges on Tuesday, with another 14 to be taken into consideration when he is sentenced.
Nine charges - including that Cameron punched two women in the head, hit another in the face multiple times and robbed two women - were withdrawn by prosecutors.
He will face the NSW District Court on October 24 before being sentenced.
At the time of his arrest, a magistrate made suppression orders preventing media from identifying Cameron or publishing the charges against him.
The orders were quietly revoked in May 2024.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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