Missing Melbourne mum Karen Ristevski’s husband reveals argument details
EXCLUSIVE: THE husband of missing Melbourne woman Karen Ristevski says they argued over a sum of hundreds of dollars but that money was not behind her mysterious disappearance.
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THE husband of missing Melbourne woman Karen Ristevski says they argued over a sum of hundreds of dollars but that money was not behind her mysterious disappearance.
Mrs Ristevski has not been seen since June 29, when she left her Avondale Heights home after an argument with her husband, Borce, over the previous day’s poor takings at their Bella Bleu boutique in Taylors Lakes.
Police hold grave concerns for her welfare, and have twice searched the Maribyrnong River for her body.
Speaking exclusively to the Herald Sun for the first time, Mr Ristevski refused to discuss possible reasons for his wife’s disappearance.
“No one knows what’s happened. I wouldn’t want to speculate,” he said.
“My main concern is getting everyone to understand that Karen hasn’t done a runner on the basis on our finances,” Mr Ristevski said.
“It had nothing to do with our financial situation. It (the disagreement) was about the takings from the previous day that we were discussing.”
Asked whether he would like to make a fresh appeal for information, Mr Ristevski said: “We have been told (by police) that we strongly recommend that you don’t speak to the media. They’re telling us that they’re going through all the phone-ins, and whatever else, and we don’t need anything extra at this stage.
“The police are saying we just want to go through all that first, otherwise we will just keep getting information and we can’t go through it. We want at least two or three weeks to go through all this and then we will do another appeal,” he said.
Mr Ristevski dismissed as “fantasy” claims by his son Anthony Rickard, a confessed ice user, that he had overheard Mrs Ristevski talking about leaving Borce when their daughter Sarah turned 21.
Sarah had celebrated that milestone birthday earlier this year.
“Why would he come up with that?” Mr Ristevski said.
“You really need to speak to an expert on that type of addict, because I’m not an expert,” Mr Ristevski said.
“All I’m interested in right now is the facts.”
An angry Mr Ristevski also denied that the Broadmeadows Bella Bleu store, which the couple also ran, had closed weeks before his wife disappeared, or that they were on the verge of losing their home.
“Broadmeadows closed down in February,” he said.
“That was a caveat put on (the house) by the shopping centre, but a caveat does not mean that you are on the verge of losing your home.
“It just means that there is a dispute, and then the dispute gets resolved,” he said.
“Broadmeadows closed because there was a short-term lease and retail was not what we were told it was going to be by the leasing people,” Mr Ristevski said.
“They gave us figures, we went on those figures, and we had to make a business decision whether to continue running it or come to an agreement with the centre and pay out the rent.”
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the investigation was continuing.
MORE:
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MISSING MELBOURNE MUM STEPSON TWIST: FAMILY CONFLICT REVEALED
KAREN PLANNED TO LEAVE HUSBAND, STEPSON SAYS
NEW MISSING MUM LEADS TRICKLE IN
SECURITY CAMERAS DID NOT CAPTURE MISSING MUM LEAVING HOME
SAMUEL JOHNSON MAKES IMPASSIONED PLEA FOR KAREN’S SAFE RETURN