Eerie footage emerges of police interviewing Hayley Dodd's killer

Eerie footage has emerged of WA police questioning Hayley Dodd's killer just weeks after she was abducted and murdered.

Police were close to catching Francis John Wark back then - but he slipped through their net.

It wasn't until this week, almost two decades later, that Wark was finally convicted of killing the teenager.

The footage has never been seen outside a courtroom - until now.

It's 1999, and a bearded Francis John Wark is leading police through his Badgingarra home less than three weeks after he murdered Hayley Dodd.

But police let him go, and the investigation was downgraded to a missing persons case.

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Wark can be seen showing officers through several rooms as they examine items of interest.

Also shown are several utes; inside one of them, a seat cover contains crucial evidence, a distinctive earring worn by Hayley Dodd.

At the time of this video, police failed to find it, and the car seat cover wasn't properly examined until 14 years later.

Weeks after this footage was taken, Wark was able to move to Queensland, where years later he was jailed over the abduction and rape of a hitch-hiker.

But on Monday, Wark, 61, was finally convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Dodd after she disappeared on July 29, 1999.

Despite the verdict, former major crime squad Detective Sergeant Edward Rowe said he is angry it took nearly two decades to bring justice to the family, especially after he identified Wark as a suspect in the days after Hayley’s disappearance.

He said had the investigation not been downgraded to a missing persons case by more senior officers, a crucial piece of evidence would not have gone unnoticed for 14 years.

So far, Wark is still refusing to say where he dumped Hayley Dodd's body - a final insult to her family, who have never stopped looking for her.