news

Police looking for Karen Ristevski are searching the same area where Jill Meagher was murdered.

On April 18 2019, Borce Ristevski was sentenced to nine years in prison for the death of Karen Ristevski.

Melbourne woman Karen Ristevski has been missing since June 29, but a new search in the city’s northwest has made police confident they will untangle what happened to the missing 47-year-old mum.

On their second day of searching, police reportedly left Toolern Vale paddocks and bushlands carrying evidence bags, suggesting pivotal pieces of the baffling puzzle have finally been unearthed.

While a spokesman from the Victoria Police declined to comment on what was taken from the grasslands, they did confirm the two-day search had been completed.

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Stephen Dennis, the head of the missing persons unit, said the search was “the most significant we’ve conducted to date”.

“We are confident that we will find out what happened,” he said.

Detectives are also investigating whether one of Ms Ristevski’s relatives visited an abandoned property where the items were discovered.

The Herald Sun claims locals witnessed the woman’s brother-in-law Vasko Ristevski at an dilapidated restaurant near the search area, that burned down three years ago.

ADVERTISEMENT

Police were originally drawn to the area after Mrs Ristevski and husband Borce Ristevski‘s phones were traced to the region on the day she disappeared.

Authorities have also been searching the area around Black Hill Road in Gisborne South – the same place Jill Meagher was found buried in a shallow grave after she was raped and murdered by Adrian Bayley in 2012.

 Mrs Ristevski and husband Borce Ristevski's phones were traced to the region on the day she disappeared. (Image: Facebook)

Ms Ristevski was last seen at 10am on the last Wednesday in June, after an argument with her husband in their $1.1 million Avondale Heights home.

Together, the pair have a 21-year-old daughter, Sarah, and Mr Ristevski's 32-year-old son Anthony Rickard, who moved in with the family as a troubled 14-year-old teenager.

Numerous theories as to what happened to Ms Ristevski have been offered by relatives, including Vasko Ristevski's suggestion that "she’s run away".

When probed why or where the mother and boutique proprietor would go, Vasko Ristevski offered she has fled to China or the US on a false passport.

“A lot of husbands do that for some reason, but no way is Borce capable of [murdering his wife],” the brother of Mr Ristevski told the Herald Sun.