Borce Ristevski can’t explain movements for almost 100 minutes on day Karen vanished
EXCLUSIVE: THE husband of murdered woman Karen Ristevski cannot explain to police what he was doing for almost 100 minutes on the day she vanished.
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THE husband of murdered woman Karen Ristevski cannot explain to police what he was doing for almost 100 minutes on the day she vanished.
The Herald Sun can reveal detectives have been trying to pin down Borce Ristevski’s movements on June 29 last year, the day he said his wife went missing.
He told police he took his wife’s car for a drive on the Calder Freeway that day. But when pressed by detectives, Mr Ristevski could not account for his actions for a period of just under an hour and 40 minutes.
We can also reveal that the couple’s daughter, Sarah, was spoken to by missing persons squad detectives around the same time as her father.
KEY WITNESS RAISED CRUCIAL INFO MONTHS AGO
During an interview last July, Mr Ristevski told police his wife walked out of their Avondale Heights home on June 29 after an argument. Sarah, their only child, was the last person to see Mrs Ristevski before that row.
Sarah, now 22, was present at the family home earlier in the morning before leaving, police have been told.
The Herald Sun understands police believe they were close to making a key breakthrough in the case during the interview with Mr Ristevski.
The interview, which took place not long after 47-year-old Mrs Ristevski was reported missing, came to an abrupt end when he refused to answer any more questions.
He told police that after the row, he took his wife’s car for a drive on the Calder Highway to fix a faulty fuel gauge. He hit a bump and the fault corrected itself, so he drove home.
Mrs Ristevski’s body was found in bushland at Mt Macedon on February 20 this year.
Prior to the discovery, police strongly suspected her body was in that area.
Shortly after Mrs Ristevski vanished, police obtained evidence from her mobile phone and that of her husband which showed that on the day she disappeared the phones had “pinged” off transmission towers on the Calder Freeway.
Mr Ristevski’s phone was last tracked near Diggers Rest and Mrs Ristevski’s phone was tracked near Gisborne.
His phone was also switched off for two hours on the day.
CCTV footage which police released last month showed a car investigators believe could have been Mrs Ristevski’s distinctive black Mercedes coupe being driven through Diggers Rest on the day she vanished.
Mr Ristevski, 53, has denied any involvement in his wife’s death. Both police and his legal team have confirmed he is being treated as a suspect in the case.
Last month, the Herald Sun revealed an iPad seized from the Ristevski home included a Google search on how forensics officers can detect traces of blood.
Another suspicious search found in the iPad’s history canvassed how mobile phone data can be deleted and how police might track phones.