Cold Case Files: Vicki Jacobs shot dead as she slept, new clues may reveal who killed her
SHE testified against her ex over a double murder and was shot dead as she slept with her son. Now new information could crack the case. | Cold Case Files
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WAS loving mum Vicki Jacobs murdered for testifying against her former husband at a double murder trial?
This is the unsolved $64,000 question that cold case homicide investigators want to answer, once and for all, 15 years after Ms Jacobs was cold-bloodedly killed.
In fact, it now stands as an unanswered $1 million question after a reward of that amount was announced for any information leading to a conviction.
And police could be closer to cracking the case, it can be revealed.
“We have uncovered new evidence against a possible suspect,” the Victoria Police cold case squad’s Acting Det-Insp Boris Buick has told the Herald Sun.
“We believe we know the motivation behind the Jacobs murder ... This killing has all the background, apparent motivation and circumstances of a planned and swiftly carried out execution.”
A mystery gunman shot Ms Jacobs, 37, dead as she lay asleep with her six-year-old son, Ben, on a sofa bed in the lounge room of her commission flat, near Bendigo.
Ms Jacobs had been a prosecution witness in her former husband’s double murder trial.
Vicki Joy Jacobs, formerly known as Vicki Preston, had given evidence against Gerald David Preston over the August 1996 murder of two motor mechanics in South Australia.
The double murder was said to have been ordered on behalf of the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club.
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The silent gunman shot Ms Jacobs in the head and body at point blank range about 2am on Saturday June 12, 1999.
It was a killing police described as “one of the most calculated, brutal crimes we have seen in this state”.
Investigators believe the murder was “meticulously planned” by a killer or killers who knew Ms Jacobs’ movements and the layout of her unit.
“(But) I wouldn’t go so far as to say (it was) professional,” Acting Det-Insp Buick said of the slaying.
“We have had a small number of people nominated as the actual killer.”
A week before her murder, the wayward woman turned born-again Christian had celebrated her 37th birthday.
On the night of her death, Ms Jacobs had entertained friends at her modest unit in the Bendigo suburb of Long Gully.
“She was very happy that night. She had friends home and she was laughing,” one friend recalled.
After farewelling her friends she did some computer studies homework and was asleep by midnight.
The stealthy gunman shot her execution-style with a small-calibre firearm about two hours later; Ben curled up by her side.
Her 13-year-old niece was sleeping in the main bedroom at the time.
Immediately after the murder, Det-Chief Insp Rod Collins said Ms Jacobs was not a major witness in her former husband’s trial but detectives could not rule out that her murder was linked to that court case.
“We have to now keep an open mind as to what it (the motive) is, and we are very careful at not grabbing at an obvious one,” Chief Insp Collins said at the time.
There was no indication a reformed Ms Jacobs had a new man in her life or had large wealth or debt.
She was known as a friendly, quiet and community-minded mother who helped her neighbours.
She was undertaking tertiary studies and had devoted her whole life to her young son.
Ms Jacobs married Gerald Preston in 1992 and the couple split two years later, after she gave birth to their son.
In 1995, she changed her name by deed poll and moved to Bendigo to escape her troubled past.
In 1998, she gave evidence implicating Preston over the murders of mechanic Les Knowles, 37, and his employee Tim Richards, 28.
During the trial, the South Australian Supreme Court heard Preston was hired by a Melbourne Hell’s Angels biker to kill Knowles for $10,000, but the motive for the hit has never been revealed.
In her evidence, Ms Jacobs said Preston had visited her and the Hell’s Angels club in Melbourne after the mechanic murders.
Prosecutor Adam Kimber told the court bugging of Preston’s home and phone had caught him talking about the killings.
“There had been discussion (at the club) about the shooting,” Mr Kimber said.
“They said it was nothing and they should just get on with the next one. (Ms Jacobs) asked if there was going to be another one and (Preston) said, ‘Oh yeah, it’s only just starting’.”
The court was told Preston walked into Les’s Auto Repairs just after noon on August 15, 1996, and confronted Mr Knowles and Mr Richards.
The court heard Preston asked: “Are you Les? Are you Les?” before shooting and killing both men.
Preston then asked another employee if he was Les before shooting and wounding him, the jury was told.
That man died of cancer before the trial.
Preston and an accomplice were sentenced to life sentences with record non-parole periods.
In the days after his mum’s callous slaying, Ben wrote a letter to her in heaven.
It read:
Dear Mummy,
I know you are in heaven with Jesus.
I miss you but know you are watching me. I wish you could see all the things I am doing.
I am trying to be strong for you. I miss your reading night time stories and rollerblading with you. Even though I was better than you at it.
You gave me so many cuddles I have enough to last me forever.
I love you Mummy.
Written by Ben.
Colleen Hunter, a close friend of Ms Jacobs, said the devoted mother had spent the past two years living in fear.
“My main concern is for Ben and that his mother is not going to be painted as the former wife of some horrible criminal,” Ms Hunter told the Herald Sun at the time.
“I want her to be seen as the role model she was and wanted to be ... She said she took the stand (to give evidence at the trial) because those murdered men had brothers and sisters and family.
“Vicki said she did not want it to happen to somebody else. She was very brave.”
Ms Jacobs was offered police protection but refused so she could maintain ties with family and friends.
“She talked about the fact she didn’t want Ben growing up always running and hiding and looking over (his shoulder),” Ms Hunter said.
“Ben will be given the opportunity to develop the way Vicki would have wanted. He’s a delightful child. He’s the best testimony to Vicki.”
Detectives sought and were granted permission to speak to Preston, in Adelaide’s maximum-security Yatala jail, about his ex-wife’s murder.
Preston placed a newspaper death notice for his ex-wife on behalf of him and Ben, in which he said he still loved her.
“Soulmates once, you gave us a beautiful healthy son and blossomed as a proud, devoted mother. Truly,” he wrote.
“And while we grew apart, I always admired your strength and never stopped missing you ...
“You will always be in our hearts.”
In July 1999 as part of the investigation, Victorian police bulldozed their way into the fortified Thomastown headquarters of the Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels.
A sawn-off shotgun, bulletproof vest, bags of documents and three motorcycles were seized during the dawn raid by homicide squad detectives and members of the special operations group.
State crime squad boss Commander Rod Lambert said at the time that police were looking for documentary evidence or weapons that could link the gang to the killing.
“Any evidence at all which might connect any person associated with the outlaw motorcycle gang with the murder,” Mr Lambert added at the time.
“Vicki Jacobs’ husband, or de facto husband, is in fact in jail in South Australia in relation to two murders and she gave evidence against him,” Mr Lambert said at the time.
“He had close association with members of the Nomads.”
Then homicide boss Det-Insp Brian Rix said he was confident “people will talk to us”.
“This is a horrific slaying of a young mother who was trying to straighten out her life,” Det-Insp Rix said.
But the silence remained deafening, until another possible break through in December 2000 when detectives seized a white Ford XE sedan they believed may have been used as a getaway vehicle.
“If the connection is there,” said a detective at the time, “and if we can then through the (Crime Stoppers) caller identify the people who had possession of the vehicle at the time, obviously we’d be more than keen to speak to these people.’’
But the case remained unsolved.
In June 2003, Preston publicly denied any involvement in the murder.
He said he believed her involvement with other criminals may have provided a motive for her death.
“For years Vicki was privy to the illegal goings-on of many people — they trusted her,’’ Preston said from prison.
“If Vicki knew of your illegal activities, would you ... still be confident of her silence?’’
Preston said he could not have been involved in her death because for five months beforehand he was being closely watched in prison.
“Vicki was the loving mother of my young boy and, as much as I did disapprove of her actions, I would never have sanctioned any action against her,’’ he said.
On the eve of an inquest into Ms Jacob’s death in January 2004, Ben, at age 11, said he prayed for his mum — and the person who killed her.
“I just pray that she’s up in heaven,’’ Ben said.
“Later, I just pray for the person who did it — that he’d come to Christ. I just wanted to catch whoever killed my mum, but I’ve sort of come to the conclusion that’s not possible because the policemen at the moment can’t even catch him.’’
Documents tendered at the inquest suggested Ms Jacobs may have been killed at Preston’s behest by Hells Angels.
The inquest revealed hate-filled prison diary entries written by Preston.
Diary notes seized from his cell a month after Ms Jacobs’ death described her as a “dog’’ and a “maggot’’, the inquest heard.
Her evidence against Preston over two murders linked to the Hells Angels provided the only known motive for her killing, the inquest was told.
“There was nothing else going on in Vicki Jacobs’ life that would give rise to a reason for her being murdered,’’ Det-Sgt Gordon Hynd said in his tendered statement.
Det-Sgt Hynd, of the homicide squad, described Preston as a control freak and said the diary entries showed Preston’s hatred for her.
In one entry Preston sounded sympathetic: “No point in running any more! My mind won’t stop contemplating how I am responsible for my own end. And maybe even deserve it! I am very sorry for Benjamin and Vicki.’’
But in a later entry in March 1997 he wrote: “My dog of an ex-wife is playing serious access games with my beautiful young boy — what should be her punishment?’’
On May 31, 1998, he wrote: “This is the day we saw Vicki for the dog she is! She signed a statement against everyone ... What a maggot!’’
Poems and other entries spoke of Ms Jacobs’ “treachery’’ and Preston’s fury at her efforts to keep him away from their son.
“It’s all hitting home — my ex-wife Vicki has turned Crown to seal my fate and ensure her sole custody of our son Benjamin — dog! I’ll never see the little fellow again,’’ he wrote in June 1998.
The inquest heard Ms Jacobs lived in fear of Preston and Tognolini.
Suspicion fell heavily on those two men, and others, Coroner Phil Byrne decided.
“The fingers of suspicion point squarely at Gerald Preston, Terrence Tognolini and his associates as implicated in the death of Ms Jacobs,’’ Mr Byrne found.
But there was not enough evidence to identify who shot Ms Jacobs, the coroner said.
The investigation seemed to flare again in 2012 when a possible new lead emerged in the form of a letter to police.
But still no charges have ever been laid.
Maybe the fresh information Acting Det-Insp Buick speaks of is the key to bringing someone to justice.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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