By April March

THE grandson of elderly Canberra murder victim, Irma Palasics, has demanded that her killers come out of the shadows 20 years on from her brutal death.

November 6 marks two decades since Mrs Palasics was murdered in her McKellar home.

The case remains one of Canberra’s most vicious unsolved crimes.

John Mikita, 44, will mark the anniversary of his grandma’s death, pinning  information posters to telegraph poles across Canberra in the hope of bringing the perpetrators closer to justice.

“Someone, somewhere, knows something,” Mr Mikita said.

“Perhaps by now the attackers have a family of their own. If they have a conscience, a soul, a backbone… 20 years on, it’s time to come forward.

“We need closure, now.”

Irma and her husband Gregor came to Australia as Hungarian refugees in the 1950s with nothing but two small children and the clothes on their back. Over the years they worked hard to start a new life in Canberra, building their own home and raising a family.

On the night of November 6, 1999, Irma, 73, and Gregor, 74, were watching television when two men wearing balaclavas stormed their McKellar home.

They were bound, gagged and savagely beaten. Their attackers ransacked the Grover Crescent house and stole cash and jewellery.

Bloodied and battered, Mr Palasics freed himself once the offenders left, and called police. His wife died at the scene. 

Mr Palasics, severely injured, traumatised and grief-stricken, died within a year of the incident.

“It’s hard,” Mr Mikita said.

“The emotion is still there, even 20 years on. 

“I wake up every morning and see my grandma and grandpa’s face.

“I have a nice frame at home with a picture of them in it and I see them there, that’s the good side of it. The bad side of it is, every night before I go to bed I check every lock in the house, I check every window and door, I look under the cars in the garage. It’s hard to trust anybody; emotionally I’m still a bit of a mess. ” 

Police are still searching for those responsible.

They suspect two previous burglaries at the couple’s Red Hill home in 1997 and another in 1998, were linked to the fatal attack.

“My grandparents got so scared of living in Red Hill so they moved to McKellar and they turned the house into Fort Knox,” said Mr Mikita.

“They built three-metre fences all around the house, they became prisoners in their own home because of what happened.

“And then somehow these people, I suspect it’s the same people, found out where they had moved to, still thinking they had more to give and the events of November 6 started.”

Five years ago, new DNA technology linked Irma’s murder to one of five young men who broke into Pitch and Putt at Phillip in 2010. 

Police hoped the new forensic tests could lead them to the killer but they later dismissed the link.

Mr Mikita, determined to keep the case at the forefront of people’s minds, believes more can be done to find his grandma’s killers.

“I have heard that there’s not enough resources to look deeply into the DNA, ” he said.

“I feel like the family has been given the shrug off… not interested… can’t help you… in terms of the DNA phenotyping.

“We don’t have anything else to go on, so let’s use the DNA now and if it comes back with nothing then that’s the end, we can’t keep going on expecting something will come around the corner.”

A police spokesperson said the investigation remains open and active.

“We have not lost hope of bringing the offender(s) before a court,” the spokesperson said.

“On the 20th anniversary of the murder of Irma Palasics, ACT Policing recognises the continued distress her family and friends suffer.”

 Mr Mikita, who shared a close relationship with his grandma, said the crime has had a huge effect on his life.

“Canberra to me as a kid was utopia, nothing could go wrong. My parents would let us go ride our bikes on the street in the morning until night and nobody would care. So I grew up with this feeling that it’s a safe city and then it all came crumbling down pretty quickly.

“This is something that you never want to go through in your life.

“If the police come to knock at your door to tell you that one of your family members got killed in a car accident, to me there’s closure for you.

“But when police come to your door and wake you up and say that someone has murdered your grandma, I can’t put it into words what’s that like. I still think about it all the time.”

Mrs Palasics’ murder is one of six cold cases in the ACT.

There is a $500,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Mrs Palasics’ killers.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1800 333000, or via the Crime Stoppers website. Information can be provided anonymously.