In a somewhat sensational turn of events, Borce Ristevski has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife, Karen Ristevski, on the eve of a Supreme Court murder trial.
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Ristevski, who has steadfastly maintained innocence throughout the two-and-a-half year investigation, suddenly admitted to killing his wife in June of 2016 before dumping her body in bushland north-west of Melbourne.
54-year-old Borce would have faced a lengthy Supreme Court trial had the case progressed that far, however after discussions between legal teams at a pre-trial hearing earlier today, prosecutors filed a lesser charge of manslaughter, to which Ristevski pleaded guilty to while on the stand.
The guilty plea acts as an admission that Ristevski killed his wife at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016.
Initially, Ristevski entered a missing persons report for Karen, claiming she had disappeared after going for a walk to clear her head following an argument between the two about money.
Karen’s body wasn’t found until nine months later, wedged between two logs near a dirt track in Mount Macedon. Authorities never established a cause of death due to the advanced state of decomposition.
Inconsistencies in Ristevski’s movements on the day of her alleged disappearance, including pings on both his and his wife’s phones, provided the backbone of the prosecution case that eventually lead to Borce’s arrest on December 13, 2017 – over 16 months after he initially reported Karen as missing.
Borce Ristevski is now scheduled to be sentenced on March 27th.
