Daughter Refuses to Believe Her Father Murdered Her Mother | Karen Ristevski Case Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Karen rustevsky just a reminder I'm not diagnosing about this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the crime and offer my analysis Karen Ann rustevsky was born on February 7 1969 in Wellington New Zealand when she was 17 years old she attended a house party and met a man named Boris rustevsky he was five years older than her and already had a son from another relationship Karen and Boris became romantically involved moved to Australia and married in 1996 they had a daughter named Sarah Karen Boris and Sarah lived in a five-bedroom house on Oakley Drive in the Avondale Heights neighborhood of Melbourne Australia Karen ran her own fashion boutique in the Water Gardens shopping center about 20 minutes from where she lived she may have had a good sense of fashion but she was spending money like it was going out of style between 2012 and 2016 the store lost over three hundred thousand dollars Karen and Boris had accumulated substantial credit card debt and owed seven hundred and fifteen thousand dollars on their mortgage now moving to the timeline of the crime on June 29 2016 when Sarah rustevsky departed her home in the morning her father Boris was watching TV and her mother Karen was in the study later that day Boris told Sarah that Karen had left the house and never returned Boris and his daughter went to dinner at his parents when family members asked Boris where Karen was he said that she was at her clothing store the next morning Karen had still not returned to the house Boris and Sarah went to the police and reported her missing here's what the police found during their investigation Boris told the police that on the day Karen went missing they had an argument about the sale of Karen's clothing store in one version of a story Karen went upstairs to cool off and a second version she left the house through the front door and in the third version she immediately departed through the garage Boris claimed that his wife had gone for a walk Boris left the house as well he drove his wife's black Mercedes SLK instead of using his own vehicle in the afternoon Boris drove for a ride-sharing company then had dinner with his parents and his daughter in the evening Boris never called family or friends to see if they knew where Karen was in the days after Karen disappeared someone in the family house searched topics on the internet like maps and tracking history on the day Karen went missing a surveillance camera at a railway Crossing about a half hour north of the family house captured a vehicle that looked like her black Mercedes the police analyzed cell phone data from the phones of both Karen and Boris they discovered that Boris started the trip in Karen's Mercedes at 10 45 AM both phones pinged near cell phone towers along the Calder freeway this road runs North toward Mount Macedon National Park at 1109 am boris's cell phone was deactivated the same thing happened to Karen's phone at 11 40 AM the police spied on Boris by planting recording devices and listening to his phone calls it was clear that he was on to them worse was quite cautious about making statements he acted as though the police were harassing him horse made public pleas for his wife to be found as if he had nothing to do with her disappearance the police suspected that Morris killed his wife Karen on June 29 sometime between 8 AM and 10 40 am but they did not have enough evidence to make an arrest on February 20 2017 about 12 30 PM two hikers were at the mount Macedon National Park this is about an hour north of Melbourne they smelled something out of the ordinary and investigated the hikers found Karen's body between two logs near Locke Road the level of decomposition was so severe that no determination could be made about her cause of death Karen's funeral was held on March 6 2017 Boris was a pallbearer just over nine months later on December 13 Boris was charged with murder the prosecution wanted to argue that Boris killed his wife intentionally but on March 12 2019 they sustained a setback the Court ruled that the conduct of Boris after his wife's death could not be used as evidence that he had an intent to murder the next day March 13 Boris pleaded guilty to manslaughter the maximum sentence for this crime was 20 years Boris never apologized or described how he carried out the murder the judge did not know how to rank the seriousness of the offense because there was no description of The Killing For example worse never indicated the level of violence that was used or the duration of the attack the judge was torn between ranking the offense in the middle range and the upper range of seriousness for manslaughter ultimately the judge sentenced Boris to nine years in prison Morris was eligible for parole after six years prosecutors appealed the sentence declaring it to be manifestly inadequate they believed there were a few aggravating circumstances which warranted a longer sentence for example the fact that Boris dumped the body and the serious breach of trust based on the long duration of marriage Karen expected to be safe in her own house with a husband who she had been married to for so long the prosecution was successful in December 2020 the prison term for Boris was increased to 13 years Boris rustevsky will be eligible for parole in 10 years now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one one mystery in this case is the motive why did Boris kill his wife the couple had been married a long time and many people thought the relationship was in great shape there was no History of Violence and Boris did not have a criminal record I think it's likely that financial problems played a part Boris mentioned an argument about money to the police the couple wasn't a lot of debt and Karen's business had been losing money for years there was one witness statement that revealed some difficulty in the marriage a couple of weeks before the murder a customer at Karen store overheard a phone conversation between Karen and her husband Karen used an expletive on the call after the call she talked about how she did not want to go home to her husband if this is the type of behavior which would typically proceed a murder there would be a lot of murders but it does demonstrate how the couple may have not been getting along too well item number two in addition to the mystery behind the motive there's another mystery in this case specifically why has Sarah supported her father Boris Sarah has never wavered in her support for her father she has defended him and declared him to be innocent this seems incomprehensible considering he pleaded guilty Sarah claimed that she did not suspect her father after her mother Karen disappeared although this is difficult to believe in a recorded telephone conversation with Boris Sarah asked him why he turned his phone off for two hours as he was driving on Calder freeway again this road leads to the area where Karen's body was found Boris acted as though he was being unfairly targeted by the police and did not really answer his daughter's question even after Boris pleaded guilty Sarah did not appear to believe that he was responsible at a pre-sentence plea hearing Sarah had nothing but good things to say about her father she called him caring protective charismatic sympathetic and loving she talked about how she and her father were completely Inseparable when she was growing up they would spend all their spare time together and family was everything to them everyone could see that their love was unexplainable during the time she spent with her parents Sarah never witnessed her father act in a violent manner toward her mother during an interview with the media Sarah tried to explain her attitude toward her father she indicated that she was not going to give up on someone especially her father Sarah did not like it when people claimed that Boris didn't love Karen and she insists that her father misses her mother every day on the day her mother disappeared Sarah saw both her parents in the morning everything seemed fine she believed that she would have sensed if something had been wrong in the house at other times during the interview Sarah did not seem as positive about her feelings she said that she still believed in her father's innocence but at another point during the interview she was not a certain for example she mentioned that she could not move forward and she was not emotionally ready if Boris was innocent this means that someone else committed the murder when Sarah was asked about how she would judge the Killer she responded that she did not want to think about it Sarah appeared to be struggling with the sentence increase that her father was awarded she realized that she was kind of alone in the world item number three the mystery behind Sarah's Behavior has led to so-called body language experts coming out of the woodwork to offer analyzes one expert who watched Sarah's interview with the media said quote breaks in airflow when speaking are considered as a break in the commitment of Life Force to the engagement the expert thought that Sarah was running from the conversation I have no idea what the so-called expert is talking about but one explanation for a break in airflow when speaking would be breathing breathing could cause that the expert wasn't done making dazzling observations to know that Sarah referenced her mother Karen using a pronoun and she referenced her father as Dad this somehow indicates distance from her mother well I suppose that's one Theory another theory would be that Sarah was speaking English a language known to contain pronouns so-called body language experts only add confusion to mysterious situations never clarity item number four what do I think happen in this case this is just a theory my opinion I believe that Boris killed Karen In the Heat of the Moment because they had an argument the police did not find any evidence of a crime in his house so he probably used a method like strangulation after committing the murder Boris immediately tried to escape the consequences of his behavior it's the first thing that occurred to him as far as the mystery behind Sarah's Behavior here's what might have happened in her situation growing up Sarah was very close to her parents and particularly close to her father she referred to her love for her father as unexplainable it was important for her to believe her parents would always be there to support her and to believe her parents marriage was wholesome and positive when Boris murdered Karen Sarah's world was turned upside down she lost half her support system in an instant in the form of death and was threatened immediately with losing the other half in the form of her father going to prison she simply could not handle this type of loss she was unable to change her perception of her father that quickly in her mind she could not change her understanding of him from good to bad if Boris was guilty that meant that Sarah's childhood was based on a lie and she was completely on her own there was just no way for Sarah to process that type of Devastation she was not ready to believe the truth because believing a lie reduced her pain there was no way Sarah could deny her mother was dead but there was a way to deny her father was guilty worse made this easy by proclaiming his innocence Sarah wanted to believe him she needed to retain the image she had of a perfect father essentially it sounds like Sarah was in denial believing in her father's innocence was like a drug she viewed it as necessary for survival this reaction is understandable and common denial is often talked about in the context of substance use but it occurs with grieving or sometimes in place of grieving over time especially if Sarah does not interact with her father too often she will probably change her mind on this topic I don't think Boris is particularly talented at manipulation he will be even less effective if distance is created between him and his daughter during that one interview I mentioned there were already signs that Sarah was struggling with the truth essentially by stalling the acceptance of the truth Sarah has spread the pain that she had to endure over a larger time frame she dealt with her mother dying at one time and will have to deal with her father being guilty at some point in the future now moving to my final thoughts one possible outcome in this case is that Sarah will push her father Boris for an answer about what he did to her mother he has refused to be honest but if confronted with the possibility of losing Sarah he may tell her the truth Sarah might be the only hope of finding out what exactly happened between Boris and Karen on the day of the murder unfortunately if Boris is manipulative he may be able to use the secret to string Sarah along for a while Boris killed her mother quickly with physical Force he may now try to kill Sarah slowly with emotional Force those are my thoughts on the case of Karen rastevsky please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 62,971

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Id: h-0h2wqGvCI

Length: 15min 6sec (906 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 30 2023