A witness has come forward to tell homicide detectives they saw a man standing next to murdered mother Karen Ristevski’s car, close to where her body was discovered.
The yet-to-be identified man was alone with the car in the Mt Macedon area in the time before the distressing discovery of her body.
The man was seen just 1.5km from where the 47-year-old’s remains were eventually found a long eight months after she vanished from the family home.
Police are stressing the importance of this new information, claiming the significance “cannot be overstated”.
The police have been appealing for witnesses since Mrs Ristevski was last seen on June 29 last year, releasing CCTV footage of a car that could have been hers last month.
Recently they have received multiple calls about sighting of the car, all from the Mt Macedon area.
Police will be returning to the area to search for more clues, focussing on the stretch of road they suspect the killer drove down to dump her body.
Detective Inspector Tim Day from the Missing Persons Squad told assembled journalists he didn’t doubt they would find Mrs Ristevski’s murderer.
“I have every confidence we will solve this case,” he said.
Although he declined to name how many suspects police were tracking, he has previously said her husband Borce was a suspect.
“Yes, he remains a suspect in relation to the death of Karen,” he said.
However, Karen’s brother-in-law defended his 52-year-old brother back in August.
He told the Herald Sun “a lot of husbands” kill their wives “but no way is Borce capable of that”.
