Rabu, 23 April 2014

Maria James cold case: New leads emerge for retired detective hoping to solve 34yo murder (ABC)

Maria James had been stabbed 68 times.ABC Maria James had been stabbed 68 times.

As Australia's most experienced murder investigator, it is fair to say Ron Iddles does not give up easily.

Despite leaving Victoria's homicide squad early this month, Mr Iddles is still working behind the scenes to solve the first murder he was ever assigned to - 34 years ago.

In 1980, when he was a 24-year-old detective senior constable, Mr Iddles was sent to a bookshop in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury.

The bookshop's owner, mother-of-two Maria James, had been killed while her two sons, 13-year-old Mark and 11-year-old Adam, were at school.

"I went into the front bedroom of the bookshop and the carpet was very badly stained with blood," Mr Iddles said.

Maria James had been stabbed 68 times, and police found blood at the scene which they believe belongs to her killer.

Despite a number of witnesses describing a man they had seen running from the bookshop, the investigation went cold.

In the weeks after the murder, the James family's parish priest, Father Anthony Bongiorno, was questioned by police but not as a suspect.

Fifteen years later, Father Bongiorno was charged with having indecently assaulted three boys in the early 1980s.

He died in 2002, at the age of 67, and is buried in an unmarked grave in Melbourne.

Last year a friend suggested to Mark James that there were doubts about Father Bongiorno and he should ask Adam if the priest had ever touched him.

"It was like a brick had been dropped on me when he said that Father Bongiorno, a couple days before the murder, had been touching him and he pointed down toward his private parts", Mark said.

"I just couldn't believe it. Thirty-three years had gone by and this hadn't come out.

"My brother is slightly mentally handicapped and he obviously didn't make the connection."

Maria James's son wants the priest's body exhumed so his DNA can be checked against the blood found in the bookshop.

Mark says the only person Adam had ever told was their mum.

"He said that mum was very upset and that mum told him that she was going to do something about it," he said.

"That's what he said. And I believe my mum confronted Father Bongiorno and I can only imagine what happened."

Iddles confident murder will soon be solved

In Australia, there are currently more than 1,300 unsolved murders, with 280 of them in Victoria.

In the past week, a new witness has come forward about the Maria James case and given police a statement.

Mr Iddles, who has investigated over 310 deaths in Victoria, says he has always had a simple philosophy.

"When you talk to someone who you charge with murder and you ask them, 'Have you told someone?', 99 per cent of the time it's yes," he said.

"So there are people out there who will know about some unsolved homicide.

"All I do is ask you to look at yourself."

Mr Iddles is confident that Mark and Adam James will one day soon get answers about their mother's murder.

"I've imagined Ron coming to see me. It's something that I'm dreaming about," Mark said.

He dreams of telling his brother that their mother's killer has been identified.

"He's thought about this for years and he wants an answer as well," he said.

"It would be a great moment to sit down with him and be able to tell him we know who did it. It's over, it's finished."


http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/22882401/maria-james-cold-case-new-leads-emerge-for-retired-detective-hoping-to-solve-34yo-murder/

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