By Adam Cooper
Borce Ristevski was challenged by his daughter about where he drove to on the day his wife Karen went missing, a court has heard.
Before magistrate Suzanne Cameron began deliberating on whether to commit Mr Ristevski to trial, on murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter, prosecutor Matt Fisher said the accused man's actions in June and July 2016 pointed to evidence he had "murderous intent" and deliberately killed his wife.
Borce Ristevski and his daughter Sarah appeal for information after Karen Ristevski went missing in July 2016.Credit: Penny Stephens
Mr Ristevski, 54, is charged with murder and must wait a week before he learns whether he will front a jury, and if so on what charge, as Ms Cameron adjourned her decision on committing the accused man until next Thursday.
She must assess the evidence and submissions from Mr Ristevski's eight-day committal hearing and said she had several unrelated matters to hear over coming days.
Prosecutors allege Mr Ristevski killed his wife during an argument over finances at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016 and drove her body in her car to Mount Macedon Regional Park.
Her remains were found in February last year, eight months after her disappearance. The cause of death has not been determined.
Mr Fisher told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday that in the months after Ms Ristevski went missing, a police listening device overheard Sarah Ristevski challenge her father on where he drove her mother's car on the day she was last seen.
Mr Ristevski told Sarah that he went to get shisha that day, but hadn't told police because he didn't know if it was legal. When Sarah told her father his phone had "pinged" along the freeway, Mr Ristevski told her: "That's what they are trying to plant out there, Sarah."
"Well that doesn't make sense," she replied.
Mr Ristevski: "Nothing makes sense. They're making it up as they go."
Defence counsel David Hallowes, SC, has told Ms Cameron that if she committed Mr Ristevski to trial it should be on a change of manslaughter and that the murder charge should be dropped. There was no evidence of murderous intent, Mr Hallowes said.
Mr Ristevski will plead not guilty if sent to trial.
On Thursday, Mr Fisher said the magistrate should commit the accused man on murder if she took the prosecution case at its highest.
He said Mr Ristevski's conduct after his wife's death formed the heart of the prosecution case, as he did not reveal to police he drove her black Mercedes-Benz on the day she went missing until five days later.
Mr Ristevski didn't tell police he drove the car until July 4, 2016, to test the fuel gauge, get petrol and visit the couple's clothing store. The following day, July 5, he gave different details of where he drove, the court heard.
Karen Ristevski with her husband, Borce, and daughter, Sarah.
The accounts were a "significant deviation" from his early account of the day Ms Ristevski was last seen, that he stayed at home doing book work for the business, the prosecutor said.
"It's left out for a reason: that he used the car to get rid of the body," Mr Fisher said.
In the days after the disappearance, Mr Fisher said, someone at the Ristevski house searched an iPad for maps and advice on deleting phone tracking records. However, he conceded other family members arrived at the house around that time.
"That post-offence conduct is evidence that a reasonably-instructed jury could convict for murder," Mr Fisher said.
The pattern of denial, the prosecutor said, extended to February 20 last year, when the bureau chief from A Current Affair rang Mr Ristevski to inform him a female's body had been found. Mr Ristevski, the court heard, replied: "Well it's got nothing to do with me."
Ms Ristevski's cousin, Lisa Gray, told police Ms Ristevski said at a wedding in March 2016 she preferred her husband slept on the couch. This, Mr Fisher said, was a sign "all was not completely harmonious in their relationship".