Kelly Hodge murder: Ex-detective reveals how a homicide team caught brutal killer Novica Jakimov
Former Victorian homicide detective Charlie Bezzina says most people believe a murder investigation unfolds like a TV drama. This is how he found Kelly Hodge’s killer. Listen to the podcast.
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The call came in just after 3pm, when Charlie Bezzina was working in the offices of the Victoria Police’s Homicide Squad.
“A passing motorist had discovered what he thought was a bit of rubbish on the side of the road,” he told the I Catch Killers podcast.
It turned out to be a woman’s body, naked, wrapped in a blanket and dumped in a ditch not far from the city’s airport.
That was August, 26, 2003. Bezzina knew he wouldn’t get any sleep that night.
“People only see and believe what they see on TV about homicide investigations,” Bezzina, who has since retired, said.
“It’s far from that. The man hours that go into it and what’s actually involved in getting to the end of it and getting a result for the families is so crucial.”
That’s why he sat down with the podcast’s host, former NSW homicide detective Gary Jubelin, to walk him through this investigation.
“We’ve got no idea who the deceased is and no idea how long they’ve been there. It’s all unknown,” Bezzina said.
As one of the squad’s team leaders, he had two detectives working for him but they were also handling other cases.
Driving out to see the body, Bezzina “had myself and two or three other detectives,” free to work on this case. “That was a good response”.
On arrival, after being briefed by the local cops, “we don’t just walk straight into the crime scene and start pulling things apart”, said Bezzina.
A huge part of the job is paperwork. Then it’s getting in contact with key people like the coroner, organising forensics, keeping a log of everyone who walks into the scene and when, Bezzina says.
“I want to know, ‘Who’s been where? Who’s touched what?,” Bezzina said.
“I’m taking notes, the crime scene examiner is taking notes.”
Already, he was thinking forward to a potential trial, during which he might be cross-examined about exactly what happened.
“What could I be asked about? Any slip could be crucial. Make one mistake and a murderer could walk free from court,” were the thoughts going through his mind.
Shortly before midnight, Bezzina ordered the body to be taken to the mortuary. Soon after, he pulled on a gown to go into the autopsy room himself.
The next four to five hours of surgical examination revealed the young woman had suffered a brutal beating, including 11 separate blows to the head.
But it was her fingerprints that gave police their first lead.
They matched those in police records, identifying the victim as 26-year-old Kelly Hodge.
She lived with her grandmother, had a criminal record for drug use and was making money as a sex worker.
By now it was 5am. Bezzina got three or four hours sleep.
“That’s the momentum you’ve got to keep up,” he said.
Waking up, Bezzina had to organise a fresh search of the crime scene in daylight, door knocks on neighbour’s houses and meet with Kelly’s grandmother to break the news.
On the doorsteps, he was surprised by some attitudes to the killing.
“A number of responses we got were ‘Why are you worried about this girl who’s just a sex worker?’. I thought … no one deserves to die that way and everyone’s life is important.”
They kept working. Kelly’s phone was missing, so the police contacted the carrier for her records.
All this took time, much longer than people expected the former detective said.
Weeks passed. Working through the list of those who knew her, the police found suspect after suspect.
An old boyfriend who had been jailed for murder. Kelly had given evidence against him in court.
A client who’d raped her in the past and been reported.
Her last known client.
All were ruled out, as were a fourth man and a fifth who had histories of sexual assault.
“After that, it started going cold,” Bezzina said.
In January 2004, five months after Kelly’s killing, they got a breakthrough.
Her mobile phone had been switched back on.
This led police to a sixth man, Novica Jakimov.
He denied killing Kelly but when the forensic team went to his house, they used a chemical called luminol which reacts on contact with blood.
“The luminol was like an iridescent light show. Bloody footprints … and bloody handprints on the wall, so it’s just like a horror movie,” Bezzina said.
Jakimov was arrested, confronted with the evidence – kept in those notes – and admitted bashing Kelly, but claimed it was in self-defence.
“The jury didn’t bite. They said, ‘You’re full of it’,” Bezzina said. “They looked at the significance of the injuries and said ‘This is a guy who’s gone berserk on a petite … young girl’.”
Jakimov got 19 years. Bezzina got to “hold my head up with a family and say we did 110 per cent.”
Soon he was being asked to give that much to another killing. Bezzina’s team worked 14 different homicides that year.
Listen to Gary Jubelin’s I Catch Killer’s podcast.
Originally published as Kelly Hodge murder: Ex-detective reveals how a homicide team caught brutal killer Novica Jakimov
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