Peter Dupas charged with the murder of Kathleen Downes in her nursing home
GREAT grandmother Kathleen Downes was brutally slain by an intruder in her Brunswick nursing home. But 21 years, later a Melbourne man has finally been charged with her murder.
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MELBOURNE man Peter Dupas has been charged over the cold case murder of an elderly woman in her nursing home bed 21 years ago.
Kathleen Downes, 95, died of stab wounds after an attack by an intruder at Brunswick in 1997.
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Police believe her killer used boltcutters to sever the chain section of a window’s winding mechanism before a flyscreen was cut open.
There were other attempts to break into the home in Brunswick at the same point of entry used the night she was killed.
Police believe great-grandmother Mrs Downes, who lived most of her life in Strathmore, was attacked in her bed.
She was found on the floor in a pool of blood by a member of staff at 6.30am, having last been checked at 12.30am by overnight staff.
Mrs Downes had three children, nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
“She was the type of lady who insisted on sleeping with her bedroom door open. She was a person who was able to get up and get about,” Det. Chief-Insp. Rod Collins said of Mrs Downes shortly after her murder.
Mrs Downes had moved to the Loyola Ave nursing home in 1989.
She was considered a matriarch at the home.
Mr Dupas was questioned over the murder in 2013.
He will appear in the Supreme Court on March 14.