Body found at Macedon Regional Park
UPDATE: Homicide detectives have returned to Mt Macedon after a decomposed body was found wedged between two logs. | Body identified as missing mum
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BREAKING: Body identified as missing mum
- ANDREW RULE: It seems evil has visited idyllic Mt Macedon
- TIMELINE: Karen Ristevski case — the story so far
HOMICIDE detectives and SES crews have returned to Mt Macedon after a decomposed body was found in bushland where detectives looked for missing Melbourne mum Karen Ristevski.
Detectives taped off a crime scene at Loch Rd about 10.30am. Police said they did not know how long they’d be here today.
SES crews have also arrived on scene, ahead of a line search to look for any trace of evidence which could prove vital to investigators.
A walker stumbled across the decomposed remains of a woman jammed under a log.
The body was found at 12.30pm yesterday in the area where detectives looked for missing Melbourne mum Karen Ristevski.
A Ristevski family member was yesterday stunned at the news, which emerged 236 days after Ms Ristevski disappeared from Avondale Heights.
Body of missing Avondale Heights mum Karen Ristevski found
Detectives travelled to the Loch Rd, Mt Macedon, scene and forensic teams and searchers could be there for days examining it.
DNA will be used to try to confirm the victim’s identity. Coronial services arrived on site at 9.50pm and left with the remains in a stationwagon about 10.40pm
A woman who owns a block of land in Mt Macedon says she saw a white van parked on the side of Loch Rd in the middle of the day last August.
She said the unattended van looked out of place on the isolated dirt track. The woman, who did not want to be named, attended the crime scene today to tell detectives what she saw.
“It might not be anything, but you just never know,” she said. “I had this niggling in the back of my mind to do something.”
Resident Ian Flannery noticed a rancid smell in bushland off Loch Rd about six to eight months ago.
“Every time I’d come down with the dogs, one of the dogs would actually stop in this position most of the time,”
“But I would walk across here and wouldn’t see anything.”
Coronial services leaving the scene where remains found at mt macedon @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/3OLDEtFcFt
— Wes Hosking (@WesHosking) February 20, 2017
Gregg Kennedy, who was walking his dog in the isolated bushland this morning, said people were rarely seen in this area.
“You could come out here and nobody would find you, it’s very isolated,” he said.
“Some people come out here and get firewood, they’d get a boot full of firewood that’s lying around or something like that.”
“It might be a car a day.”
“It’s very quiet. Nothing usually happens.”
Mr Kennedy said the last time he’d been down this road was a few days ago to walk his dog.
He learned police had found a body in the area on the news yesterday afternoon.
“We always thought it could be that lady from Avondale Heights, she was always going to be up here somewhere,” he said.
“The police spent a lot of time up there (Macedon/Gisborne) they wouldn’t be there for nothing.”
It is unclear whether there was clothing at scene which could be matched to that of any missing person so that a more immediate tentative identification could be made.
The scene is 52km from the Avondale Heights home where Ms Ristevski was last seen on June 29 last year.
It’s understood a witness, who arrived at the scene, told police he saw a man with a shovel an unknown period before the discovery.
The scene at mt macedon where human remains found @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/l345DMumeV
— Wes Hosking (@WesHosking) February 20, 2017
The witness allegedly joked “What did you do to the body?” to the man but was met with an expressionless face.
Chris Ristevski, Karen’s nephew, was stunned when told by the Herald Sun of the potential breakthrough.
“I’m shocked, I haven’t heard anything about this so I’m still trying to take it all in,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything from the police.
“Obviously you fear the worst but we will just have to wait and see if it’s her. It would be a bit surprising because the police told us they were searching in the Diggers Rest area.”
Mr Ristevski said he had last spoken to Karen’s husband, Borce, about a week ago, and was unsure whether he was aware of today’s news.
“I’ll give him a call now to let him know,” said Chris, the son of Borce’s brother, Vasko.
The Herald Sun revealed last August that Mrs Ristevski’s mobile phone “pinged “ off transmission towers on the Calder Highway, near Gisborne, on the day she vanished.
MOBILE PHONE OF KAREN RISTEVSKI TRACKED TO NEAR GISBORNE
The spot where the body was found is several kilometres and a minimum four turns, partly on gravel roads, from the nearest Calder turn-off.
Its relative remoteness opens up the possibility that the area was known to whoever travelled there.
Dozens of police were at Loch Rd last night, examining every element of the scene before they could remove the body so it could be taken to a Coroner for a post-mortem examination.
Forensics experts were seen carrying shovels and an axe.
There are no recent outstanding missing persons cases from the Macedon area which have been released publicly.
No abandoned vehicle in which the person found on Monday could have travelled to the area was located near the corpse.
Huge crime scene at Mt Macedon where a woman's body has been discovered. #7NewsMelb pic.twitter.com/aRcwcTJwwT
— Laurel Irving (@laurelirving7) February 20, 2017
Former veteran homicide squad investigator Charlie Bezzina said investigators would be keeping an open mind. He said finding a body, identifying it and working out a cause of death was significant but did not guarantee a result.
“It’s not a lay-down misere because you’ve got a body,” Mr Bezzina said.
Loch Rd is used by bushwalkers, cyclists, horseriders and four-wheel-drive enthusiasts.
The Ristevski case has generated massive public interest since Ms Ristevski disappearance nearly nine months ago.
Mr Ristevski was later to tell the Herald Sun his wife walked out to “clear her head” after an argument.
The homicide squad missing persons unit used cadaver dogs as they scoured the area.
Police are about 20m down Loch Rd @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/ZlBIvBT9cJ
— Wes Hosking (@WesHosking) February 20, 2017
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