Police have confirmed a body found at Mt Macedon is that of missing Melbourne mum Karen Ristevski who disappeared from her Avondale Heights home back on June 29, 2016.
The discovery was reportedly made by a bushwalker in the dense Victorian bushland 65km north of Melbourne and 52km from where Mrs Ristevski was last seen.
“Police can confirm the human remains found at Mount Macedon yesterday are that of missing Avondale Heights woman Karen Ristevski,” Victoria Police said on Tuesday afternoon.
Mrs Ristevski’s cousin Lisa Gray told Fairfax that the family were devastated over the news and described her as a “generous and loving person”.
She says the family will “do everything we can to assist police to help find the person responsible.”
“Karen was such a beautiful, kind, generous and loving person. I would like to thank the police, the SES and everyone else who has helped us through this time,” she added.
Her aunt Patricia Gray added that they are “happy we found her. Devastated that’s how she was discarded”.
“How a person such as Karen, so full of love, life and laughter, could be left, abandoned, discarded with no thought or emotion shown is unforgivable,” she said.
Mrs Ristevski was last seen on June 29 as she walked out of her home in Melbourne’s northwest at around 10am after an argument with her husband over money.
The last thing Ristevski reportedly told her husband, 52-year-old Borse Ristevski, was “I’m going to go and clear my head.”
Investigations are still ongoing as to what happened to the 47-year-old, and police are now expected to step up their search to find the person responsible.
Police are yet to identify any suspects in her death.
