A murder suspect dad, a missing TV hostess mum and a perfect VCE score: Alleged principal stabber’s tragic past

Against the dark backdrop of his model mother’s mysterious disappearance and his father’s murder suspicion, Kim Ramchen forged a path of redemption by achieving a perfect VCE score.

It put the then 17-year-old in the headlines for the right reasons, years after his family name was in the public spotlight over the high-profile disappearance of his TV model mother, Jacqui Ramchen.

Kim was only four when his mother vanished; his father, Slavik “Vic” Ramchen, was suspected of having had a hand in his wife’s disappearance, but died in 2002 from pancreatic cancer after the charges against him were withdrawn.

Jacqui Ramchen.

Kim dedicated the VCE result to his parents and said he hoped to go on and study science and engineering.

However, two decades later, the Ramchen name is back before the courts.

On Wednesday, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told how Kim, now a grown man and high school teacher, allegedly walked into his principal’s office and held a knife to his boss’ throat.

The 37-year-old had recently learnt his contract would not be extended at the end of the school term.

His lawyer said Kim had sought a meeting about renewing his role but was not successful, sparking a rage in which he attacked and injured principal Aaron Sykes.

The Ramchen family’s tragic tale began in 1992, when former model Jacqueline Ramchen vanished in suspicious circumstances.

Former The Price is Right model Jacqui Ramchen (right), who went missing on April 10, 1992, pictured during her game show days in the 1970s.Credit: TV Week

Jacqueline, then 43, was a host for the popular television game show, The Price is Right, and worked as a model.

Her husband and Kim’s father, Slavik, was charged with murder in 2002, even though Jacqueline’s body was never found.

The court heard Jacqueline told friends she could voluntarily “disappear without [a] trace and never be heard from again”.

The millionaire engineer denied any involvement in her disappearance and death, the case against him collapsing in 2002 because of insufficient evidence.

Former homicide squad detective Charlie Bezzina investigated Jacqueline Ramchen’s disappearance and remains convinced she was murdered.

He recalled in vivid detail receiving an unexpected phone call from Slavik, who was the veteran detective’s prime murder suspect in Jacqueline’s disappearance for more than a decade.

The Ramchen family home on Domain Road, South Yarra, was put on the market in 2002. Credit: Fairfax

Slavik had called the police officer to boast about how one of his children had won an international maths prize and scholarship for his studies. Bezzina remained baffled by the call.

“That’s how all the kids were pushed by Slavik to succeed,” he said.

“They were socially inept because they were never allowed to associate or integrate with any other children. They were virtually confined to the mansion in Domain Road [South Yarra].”

Soon after the bizarre phone call, Bezzina would charge Slavik with his wife’s murder.

At the time of his mother’s disappearance, Kim was only a young boy, and Bezzina said Slavik “poisoned” him and his two siblings against their mother, telling them and the police that she had run off with one of her lovers.

Bezzina said he would never forget picking up Jacqueline’s mother, Hennie Mertens, at Flinders Street Station soon after the case against Slavik fell apart. She tried to hand him an envelope full of money for his work on the case.

Retired homicide detective Charlie Bezzina.Credit: Justin McManus

When Bezzina refused, she broke down in tears, jumped out of the car and left the money on the seat.

“I then had no option. I obviously declared it, and then paid it into our charity and sent off her receipt,” he said. “The relationship with daughter and mother is unbreakable.”

Bezzina said that until her death, Hennie never lost hope that her daughter’s body would be found.

Slavik’s court case was told that the wealthy engineer was a “possessive and physically violent husband”, fuelled by motives of jealousy and financial worries.

The prosecution argued he feared his wife would get a share of his fortune, estimated at between $2 million and $3 million, if their marriage ended in divorce, so he decided to murder her instead.

Defence barrister Robert Richter argued the case was weak, with no body and the only evidence being opportunity and motive.

Kim Ramchen

“That is simply not enough,” he said.

In an affidavit penned by Slavik just before his death, he wrote he first assumed his wife was “absent temporarily”.

“An inspection later that evening, however, revealed that at least two suitcases, all my wife’s good clothes and her expensive jewellery were missing,” he wrote.

“Her passports (current and expired), as well as other personal documents, were also missing. My wife also had in her possession more than $4000 in cash. She left no note ... I know of no reason why my wife would seek to evade discovery.”

Bezzina said police searched for Jacqueline’s body for weeks, scouring Slavik’s Gisborne country estate, which backed onto a state forest.

The magistrate found that if the prosecution’s case was judged on the balance of probabilities, Jacqueline could be presumed dead, but not on the criminal standard requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt.

Kim supported his father, nursing him as he died.

In 2005, the Herald Sun reported that Kim had overcome the twin tragedies to achieve a perfect ENTER score of 99.95.

“Somehow I pulled it off in the end,” Kim, who attended Melbourne Grammar, said at the time.

Slavik Ramchen in 2001.Credit: Joe Armao

“I was surprised, I was confident I’d get a reasonably good score, but I didn’t think it would be this high.”

On Tuesday, Kim allegedly stabbed his school principal following an altercation at the Acacia campus about 3pm.

Sykes was taken to hospital after the violent incident, which forced some students to hide under desks.

Kim, a computer and digital studies teacher at the school, was arrested at the scene.

Keysborough College, where a principal was stabbed,Credit: Simon Schluter

Images of the teacher captured at the scene at Keysborough Secondary College, show him strapped to an ambulance stretcher, surrounded by police.

Year 8 student Kerim, 13, later said how he and his classmates hid under the desks, careful not to make a sound, moments after the end-of-day school bell.

“You know what you see in movies, in like America?” he said. “It’s just like one of those, but in real life, experiencing it.”

It was a sentiment shared by Bezzina, who noted the Ramchen family story had all the hallmarks of a gripping and tragic true-crime series.

“It’s always suppressed in the back of your mind,” he said. “A case like this never leaves you.”

With Lachlan Abbott

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