How a seemingly unrelated crime may solve a decades-long cold case murder | 60 Minutes Australia

welcome back to apparently unrelated crimes 11 years apart one relatively harmless teenage prank the other a cowardly murder of a Canberra grandmother 72 year old Irma palaxis was killed in her own home in 1999. now 15 years on The Killers probably thought they got away with it but they haven't counted on a young dogged detective or some extraordinary new forensic science and be aware this story does contain some violence thank you ICT police have vowed to hunt down those responsible it was the the callous nature of the attack when you're talking about crimes that sits down there right at the lowest end for up to two hours the burglars repeatedly bashed the couple until Mrs polasics died there's not many crimes that go lower than hurting an old couple in their own home Point birthday s sorry what did he say thank you Australian federal police detective Jared Dunbar is the type of young copper that criminals should really worry about every day I'm trying to think of new ways that we can bring the investigation to a close new family and friends think you might be a bit obsessed I think so yeah armed with a criminology degree and The Cutting Edge science of DNA technology Jared is a time traveling detective on the frontier of forensic investigation he hopes to crack canberra's most notorious Cold Case 15 years on what they can't do is change what they did in 99 and they've left their DNA and we'll always have that so it's just a matter of time before the forensic science catches up well some other time Australia safe secure and prosperous attracted a wave of refugees from communist Europe among them Gregor and Irma pelaxics who settled in Canberra with their two daughters that's more that's my husband particularly strong their eldest Liz Makita remembers hard times they came here with absolutely nothing they worked worked worked to make it a better life for their children they had to work for everything Liz remembers her mother as a tough cookie hard but fair as her family became prosperous through their joinery business Irma started collecting expensive gold jewelry when they sold an investment property instead of putting the money in the bank they hid it in their home did you know that they were squirreling and hoarding money and valuables in the house it should have been in a safer in a bank not to the extent that they did we had no idea that they were doing it like that I know that Mum did keep money at home she liked to pay things with cash she didn't have any credit cards they just didn't believe in it but we just didn't realize that the money was such huge amounts but someone did know the elderly couple were not at home when thieves first broke into their garage in 1997 stealing a hundred thousand dollars we think they knew that there was something there but not necessarily exactly where it was how do you think they knew there was something there from what we understand Gregor and Irma obviously spent a lot of time down at the Hungarian Australian Club they were fairly generous people down there from what we understand they would often buy people drinks or food and they were quite open with their wealth despite the break-in the couple continued with their social life and their generosity down at the Hungarian Club apparently unaware that someone there may have been targeting them a year later in 1998 their home was robbed again time Irma stumbled across the two male Intruders [Music] she was assaulted by one of the males who punched her in the face and forced her to the ground on the ground he punched her a number of times in the face and she began to scream to muffle her screams and to to gain control over her he's placed his hand over her mouth and around her neck which caused Irma to fight back more and during that she's actually managed to pull the balaclava off the offender's head [Music] point he's threatened her telling her that he would be back before taking off through the backyard police are urging anybody who may have seen the men run from the Red Hill property to come forward afterwards Irma was too scared to show her face but she made an appeal on local Canberra news for anyone with information to come forward I said don't kill me don't kill me and I screaming Irma was only able to give police a partial description of the thief but they had some evidence hair samples from the balaclava Irma had pulled from his head confirmed the attacker had light brown hair and a beard Emma said he was between 165 and 170 centimeters tall after that your parents decided to move yes mum just didn't feel safe for the place anymore which is understandable and did you say to the Moon maybe they should stop this practice of distrusting the banks with their money we've always told them that you should you know put your money in a safe or value or in a bank or something but they didn't do it it doesn't look like it probably has changed much in 15 years no not much has changed the polexics hoped that moving here to acquired a suburb would prevent any more break-ins it didn't 13 months later in November 1999 a third intrusion this time the thieves knew who they were up against they came to the house prepared with with duct tape and cable ties so it's every possibility that they just felt that they needed to restrain her as quickly as they could because they knew that she wouldn't go down quietly they came up through here after breaking in through the bathroom window the two invaders went straight to the lounge where Gregor and Irma were watching TV in the lounge room in the kitchen area and down through there the couple of sitting on the sofa that's right it just started off as a straight assault straight away they had no chance to react so they offered no resistance no resistance Irma probably would have been screaming for what we understand according to Gregor but no resistance in terms of her physical resistance [Music] so Gregor was knocked down to the floor around here where the bowel assaulted him on the ground and made a number of Demands for money before he tied him up with some cable ties and some duct tape at one point Gregor actually managed to free himself from those bonds and the male returned and pulled a telephone cable from the wall and rebound his hands and then placed him on his stomach and meanwhile out in the corridor that's where Irma was laying then's right here she was laying on the ground down here and she'd been badly beaten badly beaten uh severe injuries around the face and the head and she was bound as well table ties and duct tape they broke Irma's nose then gagged her mouth with duct tape before ransacking her home for two hours during that time Irma was slowly choking to death the blood from her her broken nose had actually flowed down into her tracking and blocked it which meant that she wasn't able to with the duct tape over her mouth she wasn't able to regurgitate that blood that's a horrendous crimes it is that's that's a absolutely uh horrendous way to die it was just personal it is it is everyone has Grand grandparents everyone has as parents that are that are elderly and that's the last thing that you'd that's the last thing that you'd want to happen to them and it's the last way that you would want your mother or your grandmother to suffer oh I can still feel her Terror her pain and I'm sure they would have really tortured her to get out of her wherever she may have hidden anything because they wouldn't know otherwise would they until now police have never revealed this crime scene footage taken in the hours after Irma died foreign with you but I find that usually the couples don't give us this kind of access why are you doing that it's important that that people understand how brutal this was oftentimes we keep a lot of information to ourselves but this case is 15 years old and it's important that people out there understand exactly what these people went through inside this house after the murderers had gone Gregor freed himself he reconnected the phone and called triple o someone broke into your house yeah and did what you're doing this okay whereabouts is your wife at the moment in the corridor yeah there's blood everywhere is there yeah this is never before seen footage of Gregor after the third Breaking force of the trauma is obvious in his blackened heavily bruised face and afterwards the road should be my first we just done what is the money what is the money where's the money for here what is the money Drago died several years later never knowing who killed his wife for although the murderers had left behind their DNA profiles it was 1999 and it would be years before science would catch up the case went across into our Cold Case area so it was a case that had no identified offenders and was really waiting for forensic science to to bring us to a point where we can identify some new investigative leads welcome back 60 minutes and the Cold Case murder of Irma Pilates the Canberra grandmother was killed in Cold Blood in her own home in 1999 frustratingly her killers were never found and remained a cold case for over a decade but a teenage prank involving one of the Killer's Sons is about to change all that those huge number of cases stacked up here thousands of Investigations that are some are unsolved others are awaiting prosecution evidence of crimes up to half a century-old set in this Australia federal police warehouse and it's here where the Cold Case of Irma palexic's murder collected dust for 13 years until two years ago when detective Jared Dunbar resurrected it our systems are getting so much more sensitive so we're pulling DNA off things that never that previously you could never get DNA from so it's only becoming more sensitive after more than a decade we can reasonably assume that the killer was starting to feel fairly relaxed he thought he'd got away with it that he'd got away with murder but here in the forensic science lab it's an entirely different story because the long arm of the law is able to reach back into the past with old evidence and new science the Cold Case is warming up Australian federal police chief scientist Dr Simon Walsh has been enlisted by detective Dunbar to do the forensic biology [Music] a good investigators know that forensic scientists can help them achieve their outcomes these are the tape lifts that were taken from the balaclava in 1998. the first Quest is to prove the same person who assaulted Irma in 1998 came back again A year later for the robbery that ended in her murder with new science tape lifts taken from the balaclava the Nomo pulled off her attacker's head during the second rubbery in 1998 could prove that it was the same man so what we do now is time traveling in fact aren't we we're going back it gives us a chance now to um recover DNA any DNA that's present from that point back over 15 years ago and and see if we can isolate the profile it's here with this machine where the amazing Alchemy of modern forensics takes place the extraction robot gives detective Dunbar his first breakthrough from that DNA we were able to say that categorically and with the forensic link that whoever was there in 1998 that assaulted Irma also left their DNA at the crime scene in 1999. so something you suspected but couldn't prove in the passage of time in 15 years you now know we now know conclusively that the same people were there or at least the same person but the most intriguing scientific Triumph was yet to come Dr Walsh uses a brand new DNA search that links criminals with any other member of their family who commits a crime and leaves behind traces of their DNA this type of approach is is really the last resort where you're trying everything you can possibly try to help make an identification and help resolve an unresolved crime so the sins of the fathers they can be detected through the children yeah it's called familial DNA the idea is to establish if any relatives of The Killers have committed crimes and left their DNA behind so the trail leads here that's right to the pitching part that's right it's closed and run down now but four years ago this was a thriving Putt-Putt golf business in Canberra this CCTV footage was taken on the 16th of May 2010 when five young men broke into the business the minor break-in seems totally unconnected to the brutal murder of Irma but the blood from one of these men founded the scene was put into the ACT database so the day night that was left here links 11 years back to Irma's murder on the 6th of November 1999 and we can say from that DNA link that whoever was here in 2010 is a close family relative of one of the males or involved in her murder in 1999. so once you have the kid who left the blood you can check out his family tree and you will get to the murderer that's right that's amazing it is isn't it and that that's the sort of developments that we're making and that's why whoever was involved shouldn't shouldn't be resting easy that they'll get away with it forever in this case a familial link on a parent-child comparison came up as a strong link that means one of these five young men is the son of the murderer and it was here just across the road at the Slovenian Australian Association earlier in the night that police believe the group attended an 18th birthday party whoever was at that party will be able to identify who those persons are in the CCTV and so if you do know who that person is it's important that you contact us and provide that information detective Dunbar wants to make this clear there's a five hundred thousand dollar reward for information leading to the prosecution of Irma's murderers the important message here is that we're obviously trying to solve a murder in relation to the damage to the property here it's not something that would be actively pursuing so when you're telling the kids they can come forward that's right come forward there's half a million reasons why you should be picking up that phone or walking into a police station Jared Dunbar is confident he will crack this cold case and that in the end science will be the undoing of a murderer who thought he'd got away with it it's something that can be solved and will be solved that really attracted me to it do you need a lucky break or is it inevitable I think it's inevitable and certainly it hasn't been unsolved 15 years because it's easy but I certainly think that it's just a matter of a matter of time before we we get to that point where we're able to identify it's a goal well Liz and her family have learned to live with the uncertainty of not knowing who killed their mother 15 years on they hope for justice I don't want to be doing this but I have to do it for Mom's memory because she was a fighter she wouldn't have let them get away with anything she would have fought until her last breath and I've got a I've got to do the same thing so you you you feel a sense of Injustice to these people around there exactly exactly and that's all I'm after Revenge now they just don't do not deserve to breathe the air that that people breathe and if you have any information for police call Crime Stoppers on 1-800-300 hello I'm Amelia Adams thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for our brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 Minutes on 9now.com and the nine Now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

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Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Tom Steinfort, 60Mins, Amelia Adams, news, world news, news australia, investigative journalism, 60 minutes australia youtube, 60 minutes youtube, 60 minutes episodes, 60 minutes australia episodes, 60 minutes australia, 60 minutes, irma palasics, canberra murder, canberra crime, cold case, murder, 1999 cold case, 1999 murder, grandmother murdered, home invasion, forensic science, familial dna, dna investigation

Id: -6cdvOke2YY

Length: 19min 57sec (1197 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 20 2023