Determining what killed murdered Melbourne mum Karen Ristevski remains crucial in charging the person responsible, according to a top criminal lawyer.
This comes after initial autopsy results failed to find visible signs of injury during forensic testing of the 47-year-old’s badly decomposed remains which were discovered in bushland at the base of Mt Macedon earlier this week – nearly eight months after she first disappeared.
“It’s a process of elimination,” defence lawyer Bernie Balmer told The Age.
“In order to charge and prosecute someone for murder you’ve got to eliminate all other possibilities – that it wasn’t an accident.”
“It’s crucial to find a cause of death.”
The Herald Sun reports that while Mrs Ristevski’s husband Borce is a lead suspect in her murder, new developments have emerged that his older brother, Vasko, also has connections to a property previously involved in the investigation.
It is alleged that Vasko part-owns a horse whose former trainer’s stud is at Toolern Vale, which borders properties on Blackhill road where detectives drained two dams during the search for the missing woman in December.
Witnesses have also claimed to have seen a man matching his description at an abandoned restaurant nearby around the same time that Mrs Ristevski vanished.
Furthermore, a Macedon resident told police that in July 2016 he saw bags of concrete and lime along with two men matching Borce and Vasko’s description in a small truck on Salisbury Road only 200m from where Mrs Ristevski’s body was found.
“I thought it was rather strange,” he said.
“You’d go down there in a 4WD, you wouldn’t go down there in a car and you certainly wouldn’t go down there in a truck.”
The man called CrimeStoppers shortly after his strange sighting and on Monday he told police he was prepared to testify in court over the incident.
Speaking with police in August last year Vasko revealed that he believed his sister-in-law had fled overseas, most likely to China or the US, where she had travelled previously for work.
“I reckon she’s run away,” he said.
“I don’t think she’ll come back, I reckon she’s gone for good.”
Mrs Ristevski was last seen alive by Borce at their home in Avondale Heights on June 29 2016.
You might also like…
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
