Jeff Yann appeals in video for help solving his mother Marea Yann’s brutal murder

Eighteen years after the murder of selfless community volunteer Marea Yann, her son has recorded an appeal to the public – and the killer.

The son of a selfless community volunteer bludgeoned to death in her home has made an impassioned appeal to the public to help solve the murder.

Jeff Yann has recorded a video message appealing directly to the community, and to his mother Marea’s killer, to come forward.

“My name is Jeff Yann. I’m the son of Marea Yann, a 69-year-old mother and grandmother of Healesville, who on the 29th of September 2003 was savagely bludgeoned to death while she sat in her lounge room watching television,” he says. “This cowardly act, this violent act performed on our mother, left a family shattered and the community in shock.”

Marea Yann, 69, was murdered in her home in Healesville in 2003.

Marea was a retired mother-of-three and widow who donated her time at an op shop in Healesville, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. A friend to the poor and downtrodden, she had no known enemies.

In 2008, her son-in-law, Joseph “James” Unumadu, faced trial for the murder but was found not guilty.

Marea’s children – Jeff, Ronda Chagoury and Pauline Yann – and her extended family have been stuck in a horrible limbo ever since.

“On behalf of my family I’d like to make a heartfelt appeal to individuals and to the community as a whole in gathering information to help solve this shocking crime,” Mr Yann said.

“To the community, for anybody that knows absolutely anything, however big or small or insignificant it may seem, please come forward. To the person who did this, please come forward.”

Detectives Tim Day and Caitlin Jones. Picture: Julian Kingma

Marea’s life story, and the story of the police investigation and prosecution that ultimately failed to convince a jury of Mr Unumadu’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, has never been told. At the time, amid a tsunami of coverage of gangsters killing each other, the murder of this defenceless grandmother was largely overlooked.

“Eighteen years later, not a lot of people know Mum’s story,” Mr Yann said. “(The Weekend Australian Magazine) will shed some light on our story and more importantly my mum’s story.”

The Weekend Australian has pieced together the crime and investigation through interviews with family members and police, and through documentation including transcripts from a coronial inquest and the trial. Hundreds of pages of previously unseen witness statements, included in the brief of evidence provided to the coroner, have also been obtained and examined.

One of the first police officers on the scene was a young up-and-coming detective senior constable. Tim Day had already seen all manner of evil in his time in the Victoria Police, but the horrific scene inside Marea’s bluestone cottage would have burrowed deep into the core of anyone.

Detective Inspector Day is now in charge of the Victoria Police homicide squad and he’s trying to deal with some unfinished business, ordering a re-examination of Marea’s murder.

Mr Yann’s daughter, Esther, has supported him as he seeks a much-needed resolution.

“Although this happened a long time ago, it has completely destroyed my family,” she said.

“My family is slowly giving up, with the murderer of my Nonna walking free.”