A $1 million reward is being offered in a bid to solve the cold case murder of a mother of five 46 years ago.
Mary Anne Fagan was 41 years old when she was last seen alive at around 10.30am on 17 February 1978, in the yard of her home in Armadale, south-east of Melbourne, after taking four of her children to the school.
The children, ages 15, 13, 12 and six, realized something was wrong when they came home to find the side door open and their 17-month-old brother crying in the house.
Mary Anne Fagan was 41 years old when she was last seen alive at around 10.30am on February 17, 1978, in the yard of her home in Armadale.
The children, ages 15, 13, 12 and six, realized something was wrong when they came home to find the side door open and their 17-month-old brother crying in the house.
Mrs Fagan’s car was still in the driveway and the doors to the house were locked.
The children called their father, who was working and had spoken briefly to his wife on the phone at around 10am, from a telephone booth before returning home and breaking a window to get inside.
They found their mother dead in the front bedroom. She had been tied up, gagged and stabbed several times.
The motive for his murder has never been established and personal items stolen from the house remain missing.
“We know his family still feels his loss as deeply as they did 46 years ago,” Victoria Police Homicide Team Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said in a statement.
‘Each of their children has had to grow up without their mother and I know they have thought about it almost every day.
‘Mary Anne was brutally murdered for no apparent reason in the place where she should have felt safest and with her 17-month-old baby nearby.’
On Friday, Victoria Police announced a $1 million reward for information to catch and convict those responsible for his 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 will provide the motivation for someone to contact the police after all these years,” Inspector Thomas said.