Police arrest Borce Ristevski 76 weeks after Karen’s disappearance

KAREN Ristevski vanished on a Wednesday morning. Exactly 76 weeks later her husband Borce was arrested for her murder. He must have known it was coming, writes Andrew Rule.

THE wheels of justice move slowly but are hard to dodge. Karen Ristevski vanished on a Wednesday morning. On another Wednesday morning, her husband Borce was arrested for her murder, exactly 76 weeks later.

He must have known it was coming, if not since the winter day last year that his wife went missing, then at least since her remains were found last summer.

Even if it was a shock when the police finally came for him with a warrant, it could hardly have been a surprise for the man whose own lawyer named him as prime suspect early in an investigation that so far spans 532 days.

INSIDE MISSING PERSONS COPS’ 532-DAY RISTEVSKI MARATHON

DEATH OF KAREN RISTEVSKI, THE CASE THAT GRIPPED VICTORIA

PATRICK CARLYON: NO ANSWERS INSIDE RISTEVSKI COURT HEARING

Borce Ristevski appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court for just four minutes — the proceedings over before a long queue of reporters had passed through court security chasing the latest episode of a story that has captured public attention.

Ristevski was silent and stony-faced but it was clear the last 18 months have taken a toll on the 53-year-old: the thick dark hair and beard are now clearly grey, the broad and watchful face haggard, eyes pouchy and red-rimmed. Still, he hardly fits any stereotype. If he’d swapped his grey T-shirt and jeans for a pinstripe suit, he could have passed for a careworn crime lawyer who’s seen too many sad stories with bad endings.

An artist’s impression of Borce Ristevski in court. Sketch: Jeff Hayes

Speaking of which, his lawyer Rob Stary went through the opening moves of what will some day become a keenly-watched trial. Stary said his client would be pleading not guilty — and agreed to a police application to take 12 weeks (rather than the usual 10) to hand over a brief of evidence to the defence.

Given that the next step in the legal process does not happen until the case comes up for mention on April 18, the Ristevski saga could take a long time to play out.

No stranger knows what happens in other people’s heads or other people’s beds, but from the public point of view, the Ristevski story began on June 29 last year at the couple’s comfortable house at Avondale Heights, an aspirational suburb on a hill overlooking the Maribyrnong River.

It is said the couple had an argument that morning — over money, Borce Ristevski said later. It is what happened next that a judge and jury must unravel with the help of detectives, lawyers and expert witnesses.

Borce has apparently never wavered from his first statement that Karen went for a walk “to clear her head”. The suggestion was she had left the property around 10am, presumably by the back gate, which opens into open parkland sloping to the river’s edge hundreds of metres away.

Her disappearance was not made public for some time. Then there was a media conference at which the family appealed for help to find their loved one. Borce supported the couple’s then 21-year-old daughter Sarah, who was obviously distraught at her mother’s disappearance.

Borce and Sarah at a public appeal for information on Karen. Picture: Sarah Matray

The search only briefly concentrated on the parkland and, to a noticeably lesser extent, the river. Police seemed more intrigued by the likelihood that Karen Ristevski had left Avondale Heights in a vehicle.

They had their reasons. Her mobile phone was shown to have “pinged” a telephone tower on the Calder Highway near Gisborne, northwest of Melbourne, hours after she vanished. It had also connected with another tower near Diggers Rest on the same highway.

Investigators switched the search to those areas. They dragged and drained farm dams and searched farm paddocks, buildings and bush around Diggers Rest and Toolern Vale but found nothing. They also searched parts of the Barmah Forest near Echuca, where the Ristevski family had holidayed in the past.

Meanwhile, Borce Ristevski’s brother Vasko claimed his sister-in-law had fled overseas on a fake passport.

He told the Herald Sun “a lot of husbands” kill their wives “but no way is Borce capable of that”.

“I don’t think she will come back; I reckon she’s gone for good,” he said.

Vasko wasn’t the only family member to break his silence. Borce Ristevski’s son from a previous relationship, Anthony Rickard, told the Herald Sun there was a dark family “secret” that had caused conflict and that his stepmother had planned to leave his father.

Borce Ristevski a pallbearer at Karen’s funeral. Picture: AAP/Joe Castro

Borce Ristevski remained tight-lipped during the investigation. Even when his lawyer, Rob Stary, publicly stated what everyone was thinking: his client was the only police suspect.

The eight-month stalemate ended in February 20 this year, when a Mt Macedon resident walking in bushland found a woman’s remains half-heartedly hidden behind a fallen tree truck just off Loch Rd. The remains were swiftly identified as Karen Ristevski’s.

At the funeral service at St John’s Uniting Church in Essendon the following month, Borce was one of the pallbearers, while their daughter Sarah led the procession carrying a framed photograph of her mother.

In June this year, almost a year since the disappearance, police released closed circuit footage of a black Mercedes-Benz SLK coupe — identical to Karen Ristevski’s car — travelling towards Mount Macedon on the morning of her disappearance.

Borce Ristevski outside his Avondale Heights home on July 31, 2016.

Mr Ristevski apparently told detectives he recalled having driven the 2004 coupe that day to test a faulty fuel gauge. He said the car hit a bump in the road and the problem fixed itself, so he turned around and went home.

By June, detectives had painstakingly eliminated owners of similar cars, checking whether they had driven them up the Calder Highway the day Mrs Ristevski disappeared. They did not find any.

Homicide investigators have a short list of motivations for murder. Money and a family dispute are high on it.

A court will eventually hear that the couple had been facing financial problems before Karen’s disappearance: lenders had put caveats over their $1.1 million family home and Mrs Ristevski’s fashion boutique Bella Bleu, which had two stores, had closed. Quite separate from that were the allegations levelled by her stepson Anthony Rickard.

Eventually, most relevant details will be put before a judge and jury. As a former detective commented: “The ox is slow but the earth is patient — and so is the Missing Persons squad.”

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