Police have announced their plans to charge a current prison inmate with the murder of Saso Ristevski, who was shot at his parents’ Lake Heights home in September 2011.
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In the latest twist in a five-year saga which has involved the deaths of a number of the region’s underworld figures, homicide detectives also dismissed the idea that a subsequent murder was payback for Ristevski’s death.
His murder had been linked with the October 2011 disappearance of Goran Nikolovski, who police believe to be murdered.
Strike Force Calligan was established by detectives from the NSW Homicide Squad and Illawarra police to investigate three deaths, including that of Berkeley man Darko Janceski, 32.
Speaking at a media conference after a series of police raids at houses in the Illawarra’s southern suburbs, Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw said investigators were now confident Nikolovski had no connection to Ristevski’s murder.
“We’re confident [the later deaths] were not as a result of a payback, yet that might have been the perception out there between the other organised crime figures involved in the murder, we say, of Nikolovski,” Det Insp Laidlaw said.
On Friday morning, highway police stopped a 37-year-old Warrawong man in a motor vehicle on Cowper Street after “extensive inquiries”.
He was taken to Oak Flats Police Station and charged with three counts of accessory before the fact to armed robbery with wounding. He was refused bail to appear in Wollongong court on Friday afternoon.
“The allegation is along the lines of that he knows of Ristevski in relation to their drug trade within the Illawarra area, and through those contacts he organised for three offenders to attend the residence of Mr Ristevski, where the offence was committed,” Det Insp Laidlaw said.
“It is our allegation that the purpose of the visit was to rob Ristevski of money at the time, however, during the interaction of the three persons and Ristevski, they’ve assaulted him a number of times across the head and also a fatal gun shot wound to the body area.”
He also said police would allege the Warrawong man had connections with Melbourne’s underworld.
After his arrest police executed two search warrants, one at his house in Warrawong and another at Barrack Heights.
Det Insp Laidlaw told reporters that Ristevski’s death was not a drug deal gone wrong, but was linked to “money we believe Ristevski had at that stage”.
He said police refuted any involvement of Nikolovski’s with Ristevski’s murder and were continuing to investigate his death.
“As a result of certain actions of certain people, Mr Nikolovski went missing, and we can state to the coroner that we believe he is now deceased and inquiries are continuing in that matter,” Det Insp Laidlaw said.
Mr Nikolovski’s silver Honda Accord was found burnt out at Macquarie Pass on November 1, 2011, and he has not been seen since or accessed his bank accounts.
Detectives believe he has been murdered but his body has never been found despite extensive searches of bushland in the Illawarra escarpment with the assistance of the Sydney Catchment Authority, National Parks and Wildlife Service and mines experts.
Police would still like to hear from anyone who saw Nikolovski after he left his home on the Monday night or has information about his disappearance.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
