Police offer $1m reward to solve murder of Melbourne woman found dead by children 46 years ago
A $1m reward is being offered to solve the cold case murder of a Melbourne woman 46 years ago.
Mary Anne Fagan, a 41-year-old mother of five, was last seen alive about 10.30am on 17 February 1978, in the yard of her home in Armadale, in Melbourne’s south-east, after driving four of her children to school.
The children, aged 15, 13, 12 and six, realised something was amiss when they came home to find the side gate open and their 17-month-old sibling crying in the house.
Fagan’s car was still in the driveway and the doors to the house were locked.
The children called their father, who was away working and had briefly spoken to his wife over the phone about 10am, from a phone box. They then returned home and broke a window to get inside the house.
They found their mother dead in the front bedroom. She had been bound, gagged and stabbed several times.
The motive for her murder has never been established and personal items taken from the home remain unrecovered.
“We know her family still feel her loss as keenly as they did 46 years ago,” Victoria police homicide squad’s Det Insp Dean Thomas said in a statement.
“Each of her children has had to grow up without their mother and I know they have thought about that almost every day.
“Mary Anne was brutally murdered for no apparent reason in the place she should have felt safest, and with her 17-month-old baby nearby.”
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On Friday, Victoria police announced a $1m reward for information to catch and convict those responsible for her death.
A reward of $20,000 was previously offered in April 1978, and was increased to $50,000 in June of the same year.
Detectives have spoken to dozens of people over the years but remain confident the cold case can be solved.
“Hopefully this public appeal provides the motivation for someone to contact police after all these years,” Thomas said.