In September, John Chardon, 72, was sentenced by the Brisbane Supreme Court to 15 years’ jail for the manslaughter of his 34-year-old wife Novy.

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The mother-of-two disappeared from Upper Coomera on February 6, 2013.

Her body has never been found.

More than six years after Novy’s killing, one of the lead homicide investigators on the case, Detective Senior Constable Warwick Brown, spoke exclusively to The Courier-Mail about what drove the team of detectives to crack the case, his hopes of finding Novy’s body and the bizarre twist in the investigation that led him to cross paths with infamous conman Peter Foster.

“I hope to find Novy’s body. Whether we do or not is another thing,” Det Snr Const. Brown said.

“Chardon has always drummed into the children that their mum left, packed her bags and left the night she disappeared and I find that extremely sad that they have had to grow up with the belief that their mum did that, when we know full well Novy never did.

“You talk to all her friends and they paint this totally different picture … and it is really sad that she was never there to defend herself to say: ‘Well, no I wasn’t like that’.

“As sad as it would be for her children, I think finding Novy’s body it would give them a bit of closure and for her parents too, if we could say: ‘Well, that’s where she is’.”

Det Snr Const. Brown also explained police have not ruled out the possibility another person helped Chardon dispose of Novy’s body, saying the line of inquiry was an active investigation where charges could still be laid.

He said being approached by Peter Foster, who claimed he had elicited a jailhouse confession from Chardon, was one of the most unusual aspects of the case.

“There was information Peter told us he could only have known because Chardon told him, because we certainly didn’t tell him those things …,” Det Snr Const. Brown said.

“I genuinely believe what Peter said was true but I personally don’t believe Novy was shot, I think she was probably strangled. I think there has been an incident in the bedroom and that explains the urine in the carpet.”

Chardon cleaned the carpet following Novy’s disappearance, telling the woman’s friend he did so because his wife’s room was a mess.
The lubricant tycoon has denied having any involvement in the woman’s death.

The police officer who has been in the job for the past 20 years said it was impossible not to become personally invested in a murder investigation.

“It’s been a long six years (since Novy went missing) and it is part and parcel what we do but it does become a personal thing. We deal with homicides all the time but this one has meant quite a bit to me personally because Novy was a really good person,” Det Snr Const. Brown said.

“This was a 34-year-old lady who had two young children and simply, for some pointless reason, was killed. So, there was always that in the background there, that we wanted to solve this for her children and her family.”

Chardon has appealed his manslaughter conviction and sentence.