Ristevski latest: Daughter Sarah’s questions to Borce aired in court
IT was the first hint Sarah Ristevski doubted dad Borce’s story. This conversation, captured by a police bug, has revealed to court the questions she had for her father. Read the exchange here.
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A LISTENING device planted by police captured Sarah Ristevski questioning her father about his movements on the day her mother went missing, a court has heard.
In the first hint she doubted her father Borce’s story, Ms Ristevski could be heard saying the evidence police were gathering on him made no sense.
“You know what I want to know?” Ms Ristevski said in the secretly recorded discussion on December 21, 2016, as police continued their hunt for Karen Ristevski, 47, who had vanished six months earlier.
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“You were out of the house for two hours. Your phone is off for two hours. They pinged you on the Calder. So you were driving?” she asked.
Mr Ristevski replied: “That’s what they are trying to plant out there, Sarah.”
“Well, that doesn’t make sense,” his daughter said.
“Nothing makes sense as they are making it up as they go,” her father replied.
Mr Ristevski, 54, also told his 21-year-old daughter he had gone to get shisha (water-pipe tobacco) at a place up the Calder Freeway but hadn’t told police because he wasn’t sure the tobacco was legal. “That’s actually where I was, you know,” he said.
When Ms Ristevski pressed him further about where he got the shisha from, he told her he did not want her knowing “the intimate” details.
The recorded conversation between father and daughter was aired in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, the final day of an eight-day committal hearing.
The hearing was to determine if Mr Ristevski should stand trial in the Supreme Court, and if so on what charge.
Magistrate Sue Cameron will hand down her decision next Thursday.
The bugged chat between Borce and Sarah, now 23, came as police and SES teams were draining dams in Toolern Vale, northwest of Melbourne, in their hunt for Karen.
Mr Ristevski could be heard on the police bug saying he did not understand why the search efforts were focused on that area when his wife’s phone was last detected “pinging” off a radio tower in Gisborne.
Prosecutor Matt Fisher raised the bugged conversation in his closing submissions, as more proof Mr Ristevski had lied to police about his whereabouts on June 29, 2016, after he claimed his wife had walked out of their Avondale Heights home to clear her head.
Mr Ristevski had told police he had fought with her that morning about the finances of their boutique Bella Bleu.
He said he had stayed at the house doing bookkeeping, before having a shower then doing an afternoon Uber driving shift in his silver VW, the court heard.
There was no mention he ever drove Mrs Ristevski’s black Mercedes, Mr Fisher said. But days later, when talking to another detective, he revealed for the first time he had driven her car to refuel it as the petrol gauge was broken.
The court also heard on Thursday how an iPad seized by police from the Ristevski home found Google searches on July 1 and 2, 2016, asking how to delete Google map history on an iPhone. One search query read: “Where to find the map that shows Google is tracking your location”. Another was: “Find your location history in Google maps on iPhone”.
Mr Fisher also recounted a conversation Mrs Ristevski had with a cousin at a family wedding in 2016 during which she disclosed “an undertone of dissatisfaction” with her marriage. She and Borce were not sleeping together and she “prefers he falls asleep on the lounge”. “It indicates all was not harmonious in the relationship,” Mr Fisher said.
KILLING ‘WAS NO ACCIDENT’, SAYS CROWN
THE “significant” lengths Borce Ristevski took to cover up the killing of his wife Karen prove murderous intent, the Crown has alleged.
Prosecutor Matt Fisher on Thursday told a Melbourne Magistrates’ Court committal hearing — to determine if Mr Ristevski should stand trial in the Supreme Court — that the bulk of police evidence was post-offence conduct.
Despite no evidence of how Mrs Ristevski died, Mr Fisher said there were “distinguishing features” in her husband’s behaviour in the hours and months after she was allegedly killed on June 29, 2016, which a jury could use to find him guilty of murder.
These included:
MR RISTEVSKI’S 24-hour delay in reporting his wife missing;
INCONSISTENCIES on his whereabouts on the day he claims she walked out to clear her head after they fought about finances;
“PINGS” of both mobile phones going up the Calder Fwy before both disconnected from the network — a sign, police allege, that Mr Ristevski switched them off to avoid detection; and
CCTV footage of a black Mercedes, which police claim is Mrs Ristevski’s, travelling between Avondale Heights and through Diggers Rest on the day.
Police allege Mr Ristevski, 54, murdered Karen at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016, before dumping her body at Mt Macedon. He has denied the allegations.
Mr Fisher discounted submissions by defence barrister David Hallowes, SC, that Mr Ristevski should face a manslaughter trial instead of a murder trial.
“This isn’t just an accidental killing,” Mr Fisher said.
“Something happened in the house … the accused man engages in behaviour soon after he has either killed her or caused her serious injury.
“He then drives many kilometres to dispose of the body. The drive includes a detour through Diggers Rest. He is looking for somewhere to dispose of the body.
“Then after some driving he comes upon a dirt track, away from buildings, houses, people. It’s isolated.
“Before he gets to that point, at 11.09am he deactivates his phone. Then at 11.40, he disconnects or deactivates the deceased’s phone.”
He said Mrs Ristevski’s body was dumped between two fallen tree trunks and covered with leaves.
“His lengths were significant,” he said. “They’re so extreme and so inconsistent with anything other than an intention to kill or intention to cause really serious injury to Mrs Ristevski.
“He treated the body of Karen Ristevski in a callous manner. This is his wife. Someone he told people he had a good relationship with.”
Mr Fisher said Mr Ristevski’s repeated “lies” to police also pointed to Mrs Ristevski dying at his hands.
In an initial interview with police, the court heard Mr Ristevski said he was at home for most of the day doing bookkeeping. He had a shower about 11.30am before going out in the afternoon to do an Uber driving shift.
He then later changed his account, Mr Fisher said, saying he had actually taken Mrs Ristevski’s black Mercedes out to refuel it because the petrol gauge was broken.
“It’s left out (initially) for a reason. It’s left out because he used the car to dispose of the body,” he said.
Mr Hallowes earlier told the court: “It would not be reasonably open for a jury to infer murderous intent. If anything, the evidence suggests this was a relatively spontaneous event.”
He said no evidence of planning or premeditation, or of how Mr Ristevski allegedly killed his wife, had been put.
An autopsy held after Mrs Ristevski’s body was found eight months later determined that the cause of death could not be ascertained as her remains were so decomposed.