Mum confronted son to ask if he staged his wife’s barbell death
A MOTHER approached her son at his wife’s gravesite demanding to know if he had killed her, and staged it to look like an accident, after she was found dead with a 30kg barbell on her neck in a Preston home, an inquest has heard.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A MOTHER confronted her son at his dead wife’s gravesite to ask if he had killed her and then staged it to look like a gym mishap, an inquest has heard.
The cemetery question came after police intensified pressure on prime suspect Dragi Stojanovski, his mother, Pisana, and his brother, Vasko.
Vasko Stojanovski told his mother to ask Dragi if he had anything to do with the 2010 killing.
The Herald Sun has obtained Vasko Stojanovski’s police interview, which also revealed he and his brother failed a lie-detector test about the death and he thought he was living out the famous movie Shawshank Redemption about an innocent person being jailed.
SNEZANA STOJANOVSKAS INJURIES SHOWN TO CORONER’S COURT
MORE LAW AND ORDER: BORCE’S STORY FLIMSY AUNT CLAIMS
Vasko Stojanovski said he asked his mum to question her son because of the police probe into his family.
“Mum, please, please ask Dragi … what happened,” he told detectives in his police interview.
“She asked … my brother said ‘no’, he nothing to do with it.”
Dressed in her pyjamas, a dressing gown, no shoes and wearing gardening gloves, Snezana Stojanovska was found dead in the garage gym lying on a makeshift bench press — an ironing board propped up with telephone books — with a 30kg barbell lying across her neck.
Dragi Stojanovski has told police he woke to find her dead, and even suggested a troublesome neighbour could be behind it. Officers have described his behaviour as “exaggerated” and “excessive”.
But the police tapes reveal detectives believe she was dragged into position and her death was staged to look like the barbell had killed her.
Autopsy results revealed she had been strangled and the bruises and abrasions to her neck, jaw, and earlobes were not consistent with a bench press workout gone wrong.
In his police interview, Vasko Stojanovski said he had been wanting to move out of the Preston home, and given what occurred, he now wished he had.
He also struggled to believe when officers told him his sister-in-law did not die from a barbell across her neck, but rather she met foul play.
“I didn’t do this and this whole episode reminds me of the movie The Shawshank Redemption,” he said.
“If it was, as you say, murder, I 100 per cent telling the truth. I did not play any part in that.
“I didn’t do anything that would hurt Snez.”
Vasko called triple-0 after hearing screams from his mother and brother — but hung up mid-conversation. He also told the phone operator she was dead despite not walking into the garage to see her or checking her pulse — he simply took his mum’s word.
Vasko Stojanovski, who went to a priest for guidance after his sister-in-law’s death, also admitted his frail mother wouldn’t have been able to lift a 30kg bar — despite earlier accounts that she had pulled the bar off her daughter-in-law.
When Vasko Stojanovski was told the death looked like a “set-up”, he replied: “Looks like that after seeing that. I did not see it from all those angles before. Oh my god, Oh my god.
Why? Why? Why? I wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“I just wanna disappear into a hole, I just want to disappear into a hole. Oh my god. Oh my god.”
Vasko was unable to answer a question put by detectives if Snezana was killed because she was pregnant.
Pisana Stojanovski told officers in her record of interview she came down the stairs after hearing “”some crying” and “some moaning” and then went to check if all the doors were locked.
“When I saw in the garage I screamed out loudly, it was unbearable. I started calling “Snez, Snez, Snez” and I tried to shake her,” she said.
“That’s the pain on my soul.”
She then turned to Vasko and he said to her: “Mum, what are we supposed to do now?”
After debating whether to call the ambulance or Snezana’s parents, Vasko Stojanovski dialled triple-0 and Pisana Stojanovski told police she lifted the barbell off and placed it on a stool.
Pisana said she didn’t know her daughter-in-law was pregnant but during one of their morning chats she was told: “This year, you will be a grandmother”.
Police have raised several inconsistencies with the theory she tragically died while working out. They point out the victim’s dressing gown was scrunched up behind her back and hanging off her shoulder, the gloves were not on properly, she was not wearing a sports bra, the back of the pants had been pulled down after being caught but the front was up.
A sports scientist also told police the weights were not fixed, making the barbell unbalanced and it was extremely unlikely it came to rest across her throat without falling off.
Dragi, Vasko and Pisana Stojanovski had all been arrested in 2011 but have never been charged.
Also key to the case is that Dragi Stojanovski’s mobile phone called a doctor’s clinic at 10.36am to cancel a pregnancy check-up appointment for his wife on the day she was found dead — 40 minutes before the triple-0 call was made.
When detectives told Pisana that Snezana had been strangled she replied with: “Oh my god, what have I heard today” and when asked who did it she said: “What’s that … dear brother that you ask? What’s that thing you are talking about?”
She was pressed again as to who killed Snezana: “Nobody, nobody, nobody. Oh my god. Dragi is the sort of person who wouldn’t step on an ant.”
Pisana Stojanovski denied her sons had force her to lie.
“This is murder,” Detective Senior Constable Scott Riley tells her. “No,” she replies.
THE MOMENT BARBELL VICTIM’S FAMILY CONFRONTS ACCUSED AT COURT
THIS is the moment the aunt of a suspected murder victim aggressively confronted the prime suspect in her niece’s death outside the Coroner’s Court in Melbourne.
As Dragi Stojanovski was walking to the Coroner’s Court, the woman screamed at him while shaking her umbrella, prompting security to intervene. Police were then called.
The Coroner’s hearing was told Mrs Stojanovska was strangled and her death by barbell in 2010 was staged to cover up the crime.
Autopsy results revealed she had injuries around her jawline, earlobes, abrasions on her neck, chest and deep internal haemorrhaging, and some of the injuries were not consistent with a weights accident.
The Coroner was today told Mrs Stojanovska, who was three months pregnant, was killed somewhere inside the house and then dragged into the garage and positioned on the makeshift branch press, which was an ironing board propped up by phone books.
Barbara Myers, counsel assisting the State Coroner, questioned the family’s theory that Pisana Stojanovski was the one who moved the barbell off Mrs Stojanovska, given she was old, frail and her body riddled with injuries.
“She didn’t have the physical ability to move a 30kg object,” she said.
Ms Myers said that made it even tougher as she was on the phone to triple-0 for some of the time while freeing her daughter-in-law’s throat from under the bar.
The family’s lawyer, Lisa Papadinas, said despite Mr Dragi’s allegations, a neighbour may have been behind the death. Police were unable to identify any such suspects or find any reports of criminal damage reported.
“It was not an accident, rather a deliberate act, where attempts have been made to cover up a murder,” she said.
Josh Taaffe, representing Vasko and Pisana Stojanovski, said there was no evidence the victim had been moved or dragged. He also said the evidence did not support a conclusion of strangulation.
Paul Darcy, who appeared for Dragi Stojanovski, accused the police of not conducting their investigation properly, saying an officer did not check if the garage door was locked from the outside.
The court had heard evidence that all doors were locked and the police officer said the garage door was locked from the inside.
Mr Darcy said there was no evidence of domestic violence, arguments and no financial pressures.
Police had arrested Dragi, Vasko and Pisana Stojanovski in 2011 but they were released without charge.
Key to the police case is Mr Stojanovski’s mobile phone. He had called a doctor’s clinic at 10.36am to cancel a pregnancy check-up appointment for his wife on the day she was found dead. Police say this was done so that nobody would ask questions about her not attending and give him more time to conceal the crime.