Woman extradited to Victoria over 2005 killing of Kew pensioner Elia Abdelmessih
A WOMAN has been returned to Victoria over the killing of a Kew pensioner who was bludgeoned to death with household items 10 years ago.
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A WOMAN has been returned to Victoria in connection to a decade-old murder investigation.
Katia Soumaya Pyliotis, 34, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court for the first time today following her extradition from South Australian on Friday.
She is charged with a single count of murder over the killing of pensioner Elia Abdelmessih in his Kew home on September 18, 2005.
A $100,000 reward was on offer for anyone that could help identify Mr Abdelmessih’s killer.
Police had always been on the hunt for an unidentified woman.
Mr Abdelmessih, 69, was bludgeoned to death with kitchen and household items.
An Egyptian-born pensioner, he lived alone after the death of wife Rita, who succumbed to a long illness about a year before he was murdered.
Mr Abdelmessih was described as a lonely old man who had often sought out strangers on the street for company and had a habit of bringing home vagrants he met on his daily shopping trips.
He regularly visited shops in High St, Kew, eating daily at the McDonald’s outlet and often visiting the Safeway supermarket in Walpole St.
It was believed the killer left behind a Thinsulate ski glove, found with a cut pointer finger among piles of items in the victim’s home.
Crime scene photographs showed Mr Abdelmessih’s badly beaten body lying in a pool of blood on the loungeroom floor.
The widower’s house was ransacked and robbed.
It is understood CCTV footage will form part of the prosecution case against Ms Pyliotis.
She is currently on remand at the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
Police have until August to prepare their brief of evidence in the case and Ms Pyliotis will return to court on September 12.