Cold case breakthrough as police charge man with the murder of woman more than 30 years after her brutal death
Colin McKane, 67, was arrested in Ararat, in Victoria's west, on Thursday.
He has been charged with murder and two counts of rape and will appear at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court this evening.
The charges follow the alleged deadly attack on Ms Mizzi, 24, from Castlemaine, in country Victoria, on March 29, 1994.
Her body was found by a passer-by in bushes at the rear of a property on St Kilda's Brighton Road about 11pm.
She was taken to hospital but died the following morning.
In announcing the breakthrough arrest, Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said criminals should take note that Victoria Police never lets a case rest.
'Today's arrest and charges highlight that it doesn't matter how many years have passed, detectives remain committed to holding those who are involved in violent crimes to account,' he said.
'It also shows that progress can be made on cases, even after decades have passed, and that we can begin the process of providing families with long-needed answers.
'If there are people out there who have information about a crime such as this, no matter how many years have passed, I can assure you that it's never too late to come forward.'
At the time, it was believed Ms Mizzi was allegedly fatally beaten with an object and sexually assaulted before being stripped and left to die.
She had travelled to the red light district from Castlemaine to earn money to support her children, who were at home being cared for by a friend.
Witnesses said Ms Mizzi was seen speaking with a Caucasian man in his 40s prior to the attack whose identity remains a mystery.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Nine teens arrested in connection with 'love triangle' murder of boy, 16
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BBC News
8 hours ago
- BBC News
Harry Roy Veevers: Why the body of a British tycoon has been in a Kenyan mortuary for 11 years
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He ordered that the corpse be released to the family for reburial at a place of their unsatisfactory ending that could lead to further disputes. Lawyers for both sides told the BBC they were considering their next steps."When you have a family split down the middle, how does the court say the remains should be released to the family, when both sides have been fighting since 2013?" said Francis Kinyua Kamundi, representing Mr Veevers' sons, Richard and Philip. From the start of his detailed 95-page ruling, the magistrate acknowledged the deeply entrenched feud between the family members."Although the death of a loved one often brings survivors closer through the inevitable grieving," he wrote, "The emotions associated with death can also tear survivors apart".This was definitely a case of the latter."What happened soon after his burial tore the family apart and marked the beginning of a legal drama," according to Mr one side of the case were the sons and on the other were Mr Veevers' second wife, Azra Parvin Din, along with their children were living in the UK, while their father and Ms Parvin Din, who had been together for more than 30 years, were living on the Kenyan family feud started after his death on Valentine's Day 2013, at his home in Mombasa where he had long settled and had an extensive property portfolio. The children then travelled to drama began the moment they was Saturday 16 February, a day before the to Richard Veevers' court testimony, Ms Parvin Din was agitated when questioned about the deceased. His brother Philip also told the court that she had initially refused his request to view his father's Parvin Din said he had died of a heart they finally saw their father the following day, Richard said he "noticed redness in the face and the lips were purple and pink", according to the magistrate's seemed to escalate over Ms Parvin Din and her daughters' reactions to the photos that Philip had taken of the body – including demands that he should delete them, the brothers the magistrate's ruling, he said Alexandra Veevers had testified that "she did not see any marks on her father's body… and that she only saw the face since the body was wrapped in a cloth… She stated that they asked for the videos and pictures but Richard and Philip refused to give them out and she didn't understand why they did not want to share the photos".Mr Veevers was buried shortly afterwards without a post-mortem or police was Ms Parvin Din's "decision that the deceased should be buried without post-mortem and did not consult anyone," the court ruling said. Nor did she inform the police about the death, stating that she was not aware that she had to report Islamic burial, done quickly according to tradition, further raised suspicions from his sons, who said their father was not Muslim and had been buried under a false name. According to the court documents, Richard Veevers "questioned why their father was being buried as a Muslim yet he was a Christian and he was told that if buried in an open cemetery, people would dig him up and steal gold from his body".Ms Parvin Din testified that Mr Veevers had converted to brothers also accused Ms Parvin Din and her daughters of poisoning their father, so that they could inherit his multimillion-dollar portfolio – which they vehemently denied. A further complication is that there does not appear to have been a by the circumstances surrounding his death, the sons filed an application for the exhumation of their father's body and a formal investigation into the cause of death.A court order for exhumation was granted on 28 April 2013. However, the body was not dug up until 31 January 2014 - more than nine months lawyer representing the sons has blamed the delay on the opposing side, citing repeated "frustrations" that stalled the the time the exhumation could happen, the body had significantly the final ruling this week, the magistrate said that "due to the level of its decomposition" at the time of exhumation, it was too hard to say what had led to his death."The cause of death of the deceased remains unknown and as such nobody can be called to answer to any charge," he the years, the case has passed through the hands of numerous magistrates and judges, all trying to weave through the haze of unanswered questions and delays, to find the elusive magistrate, Mr Odhiambo, noted that when it first began, he was just starting out his legal practice and would read about it in the newspapers, with "no idea that almost a decade later I would be presiding over the case".In January last year, the inquest had neared its end - after years of hearings, a magistrate ruled that Mr Veevers' death was not it was soon reopened after his sons successfully challenged the ruling at the High Court. Citing irregular procedures it referred the case back to a magistrates' court, allowing them to submit new Odhiambo highlighted other issues that plagued the "convoluted case," including conflicting forensic reports submitted by different pathologist had traced a "highly toxic substance", cyhalothrin, on both the body's remains and the soil where his body was exhumed. But the magistrate noted that this evidence had been called into question as samples had reached the UK four months after exhumation and they were not in the containers they had originally been packed in. Two other pathologists in the case did not find any traces of the toxic substance in their samples."The experts showed to us that there could be different interpretations about a subject [such] that the lay person is left wondering what to believe," Mr Odhiambo said a lot of things had happened soon after Mr Veevers' death, but it was not possible to determine whether the "acts of commission and omission" by different parties in the case could be tied to the cause of suggested that the parties ought to have handled the matter doctor who first attended to Mr Veevers should have advised Ms Parvin Din to report the death to the authorities and insisted on a post-mortem, he Salim Omar's failure to do so, he observed, had contributed to the suspicions surrounding the circumstances of the death. The doctor has since faced disciplinary action from the medical regulatory body for his handling of the for Ms Parvin Din, the magistrate said, nothing she had done or not done was enough to find her responsible for Mr Veevers' yet, despite the finality of the ruling, the end result is a body that has remained in a mortuary for more than 11 years is still suspended in legal uncertainty, caught between siblings with irreconcilable is not a choice either side would willingly sons have all along argued that their father was a British citizen and should be buried in the UK, while his second wife and her daughters have wanted him to be reburied in court acknowledged that determining Mr Veevers' final resting place was "nerve-racking" because of the absence of formal legislative provisions to guide burial disputes in was also a "tough" decision because Mr Veevers did not ascribe to a specific custom, and no will had been presented to show that he wished "to exit the world in a certain way".Nor was there any evidence to "show that he had a sour relationship with any of his close family members so as to exclude anyone from claiming his body".The magistrate stated that he would not wish to interfere with who would be given the body but urged them to seek legal redress from another forum. He also noted that the dispute over inheritance was still pending in another Veevers' long wait for "eternal peace" will not be over any time soon. You may also be interested in: BBC reveals horrific exploitation of children in Kenya sex trade'They aimed to kill' - BBC identifies security forces who shot Kenya anti-tax protestersBritish soldiers using sex workers in Kenya despite ban, inquiry finds Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
The Sun
8 hours ago
- The Sun
Horror as scorned man kills former wife's partner & mum outside hotel before shooting ex and turning gun on himself
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