Borce Ristevski’s daughter breaks silence over mother Karen’s death

Borce Ristevski is currently serving a 13-year sentence behind bars for the manslaughter of his wife, despite having denied any involvement in her death for several years.

Karen Ristevski was 47 when she went missing in June 2016 and her remains were discovered by horticulturists almost eight months later, in the Mount Macedon Regional Park on February 20, 2017.

The fashion boutique owner went missing from the family’s Oakley Drive home in Avondale Heights, Melbourne. At the time Borce, who was the last person to see Karen alive, told police she left the home to clear her head after they’d argued, but, after failing to return the next day, he reported her missing. However he later admitted killing his wife and dumping her body.

Throughout the trial though, Borce’s daughter Sarah stood by him, even submitting a character witness in his defence, and now the 24-year-old has spoken out about her mother’s death for the first time in a bombshell interview with Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program.

In a teaser clip for an episode set to air this Sunday, Sarah can be seen speaking to reporter Liz Hayes about her mother’s death in June 2016.

“She’s on my mind all the time, I can’t get it out of my head,” Sarah can be heard saying. In the short clip Sarah also admits that she asked her father “if he had anything to do” with Karen’s death.

https://twitter.com/60Mins/status/1227147776913334273

Borce had denied any involvement in his wife’s disappearance or death for almost three years, however on the eve of his trial he shocked the country by changing his plea and pleading guilty to manslaughter, after the prosecution was forced to drop a charge of murder.

In April last year, Justice Christopher Beale sentenced Ristevski to nine years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of six years, noting that he had already served a period 0f 491 days by means of pre-sentence detention.

Handing down his sentencing reasons in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Justice Beale told Ristevski that the “discount for your plea of guilty will be less than you might otherwise expect” and commented that his “rank deceit” ended only a few weeks earlier when the defendant eventually entered his guilty plea.

“On the morning of 29 June, you and your wife, to whom you had been married for some 27 years, were at home. Your 21-year-old daughter Sarah spoke to both of you before she headed off to work. Sarah was never to see her mother alive again,” Justice Beale said.

“Within a couple of hours of Sarah’s departure you had killed your wife, disposed of her body… and started down a road of deceit you were to continue on for nearly three years. You have not revealed how or why you killed your wife. You may have turned off the road of deceit but have not take the high road… consistent with true remorse.”

However in December last year, the Court of Appeal ruled to increase his sentence to 13 years, with a non parole period of 10 years.

60 Minutes will air at 8.30pm on Sunday on Channel Nine.