A schoolgirl killer with a Maltese name in Australia is a prime suspect in one of Melbourne's most haunting cold case murders.

Australian media reported that Les Camilleri, who was born in New South Wales, is under scrutiny over the 1992 disappearance of Prue Bird, 13, who disappeared five years before the murders of Bega schoolgirls Lauren Barry, 14, and Nichole Collins, 16, in October, 1997.

He is serving two life sentences after he and his accomplice Lindsay Beckett abducted the girls at Bega, then raped and murdered them by a creek in eastern Victoria.

Investigators have been trying to piece together the movements of Camilleri at the time Ms Bird, who was last seen alive preparing lunch in the kitchen of her mother's house on February 2, 1992, went missing.

"The investigation into the murder of Prue Bird remains unsolved and police urge any person with information in relation to the homicide to contact Crime Stoppers," a police spokesman told the Herald Sun.

Victorian Supreme Court Judge Frank Vincent in 1999 sentenced Mr Camilleri to become one of a small number of Victorian prisoners to be given life in jail with no minimum term.

Camilleri, 39, is serving his term in Victoria's most secure jail, Barwon Prison near Geelong.