Australia Australia - Maria James, 38, Thornbury, Vic, 17 Jun 1980

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Trace: No sign of conspiracy in Maria James investigation, Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says
ABC RADIO MELBOURNE
UPDATED ABOUT 3 HOURS AGO (as at 19:33 AEST 14 September 2017)

'Victoria's police chief insists a DNA mix-up that derailed the investigation into the murder of Maria James was a mistake, not a cover-up, but acknowledges the matter is being forensically looked at.'

Read more at:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/victoria-police-investigating-trace-case-dna-mix-up/8944596

Related:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-...ctoria-police-dna-bungle-embarrassing/8703978
 
Updated Feb 28 2018
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-28/trace-cold-case-victims-waiting-on-court-decision/9488090
[h=1]The toll of a cold case: Family of murdered Maria James hopes court will clear the way for new inquest[/h] By Rachael Brown
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Seven families of cold case victims are in legal limbo, waiting for Victorian courts to clarify a legal grey area that will determine whether cases involving their dead relatives can be reinvestigated.

Single mother Maria James was stabbed to death at the back of her Thornbury bookshop in June 1980.

Last year, the ABC's true-crime podcast Trace revealed that on the day of her murder, she was set to confront the local parish priest, Father Anthony Bongiorno, who had been sexually abusing her youngest son.
The podcast also revealed this priest was wrongly eliminated as a suspect because the DNA sample Victoria Police thought was the killer's was actually from a different crime scene.

James's sons, Mark and Adam, thought these bombshells would be ample grounds for a new inquest.
"This is a matter of accountability and transparency," Mark James told 7.30.

"Some big questions need to be asked in a new inquest about the exhibits that were held in my mother's case. What happened to those exhibits?

​
"Also, some specific questions about witness testimony in relation to a Catholic priest named Fr Bongiorno."
Click to expand...
 
Victorian Supreme Court to decide the fate of Maria James, Graham Jensen cold cases
ABC News
BY RACHAEL BROWN FOR TRACE
UPDATED 30 MINUTES AGO [as at 21:50 AEDT 26 March 2018]

‘Under other circumstances, the families of Maria James and Graham Jensen would never have met.

But under the dome of the Victorian Supreme Court, Fay Spear gave Mark James a teary hug and encouragement in his search for who killed his mother.

Mark was just 13 years old when Maria James was stabbed to death in the back of her Melbourne bookshop in June 1980 — the same day as she was set to confront a local priest over the sexual abuse of her youngest son, Adam.

This has been going on for 38 years, it shouldn't be going on any longer," Mark James said.

The James' brothers thought a string of bombshells uncovered by the ABC's Trace podcast would be ample grounds for a new inquest.

They particularly want the Victorian coroner to look into whether the Catholic Church was involved in the murder of their mother, to cover up paedophilia.

"The answers to this case are out there, we know they're out there and we just need a new inquest to get to the bottom of it," Mr James said.

But the coroner is unsure if she can order a new inquest, because the James case falls under an old Act, when such decisions fell to the Supreme Court.’

‘Six other families are in a similar painful holding pattern.’
 
Court rules it does not have power to reopen Maria James, Graeme Jensen cold cases
ABC News
BY COURT REPORTER EMMA YOUNGER
UPDATED 32 MINUTES AGO [as at 17:52 AEST Friday 13 April 2018]

‘The families of two Melbourne cold case victims have suffered a setback in their fight to have the deaths reinvestigated by the coroner.

The sons of murdered mother Maria James want the inquest reopened into her stabbing death at a Thornbury bookstore in 1980, after the ABC's Trace podcast revealed new details about the case.

But the Victorian State Coroner Sara Hinchey told them she might not have the power to determine the matter, as their mother's initial inquest finding was dealt with under an old Coroners Court Act.

It moved Mark and Adam James to apply to the Supreme Court to rule on whether it retains the power to set aside findings made before 1999, as it did under the old legislation.

But Supreme Court Justice Richard Niall has ruled the court does not have jurisdiction to reopen the inquest into her death.

Mark James' lawyer Naty Guerrero-Diaz said it was a "huge disappointment" for the family.

"It's yet another setback in this 38-year saga," Ms Guerrero-Diaz said.

"We will continue to fight to have the inquest reopened.

"The family have said that they're never going to give up the fight to get answers to the questions that they have around who murdered their mum," she said.

Ms James' sons have now asked the Supreme Court to determine whether the Coroners Court has the power to set aside the findings and order a new inquest.’

Click on the headline (above) for more.
 
Gem.F said:
There's an Amazing podcast on this cold case, called 'Trace'. Highly recommend
Click to expand...
Welcome to Ws Gem.F!
Thanks for the heads up on the podcast.
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/trace/
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/trace/00-trace-preview/8660098
On a winter morning in June 1980, Maria James turned to her son Mark and looked him in the eyes.

"If anything happens to me," she said, "look after your brother."

Later that day she was found stabbed to death at the back of her suburban Melbourne bookshop, where she lived with her two boys.

Was it a scorned lover? A random stranger? Or was the murder tied up in the sins of the Catholic Church?

Presented by ABC investigative reporter, Rachael Brown, Trace sifts through evidence to see whether police missed anything at the time, revisits suspects, and finds a new one of its own.

The story is propelled by three men who've refused to give up hope Maria's killer will be found; her two sons, Mark and Adam James, and one of Australia's best-known detectives, Ron Iddles. Ron recently hung up his boots with a Bradmanesque strike rate, but this case — his first — well, he’s never really let it go.

"Someone knows who killed Maria James," says Iddles. "The answer’s always in the file."
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Have police found a trace of the killer in the Maria James cold case?
June 12 2018
The bloodied magazine
A bookdealer got in touch with Trace, saying he took a magazine from Maria James's bedroom in 1997, when the property was being cleaned out.

The magazine is a 1947 British fashion journal that he took for his wife, which he later realised had a stain on it that looked like blood.

Photo: The magazine taken from Maria's bedroom with a suspected blood stain on it. (ABC News: Jeremy Story-Carter)


If this magazine was near Maria during her murder, it's most likely her blood, but it might also contain specks from her killer.

So Trace took it to be tested at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

New to Trace?

Revisit the details of Maria James' unsolved murder and the two sons who have never had closure.


Unfortunately, either because of the magazine's age, or how it's been stored, the Institute's Dadna Hartman was unable to get a definitive result from DNA testing of the stain.

"We could see something there, but it's well below our reporting thresholds, which means I can't give you a DNA profile for this particular sample," Ms Hartman said.

"In future it might be an option to retest the exhibit when our methodology becomes more sensitive or something new comes along.
 
Deleted repeat.
 
Last edited:
https://www.theage.com.au/national/...-maria-james-1980-murder-20201207-p56la2.html

Cold case detectives believe it’s possible criminal charges could be laid over the murder of a Melbourne mother 40 years ago.

But the sons of Maria James are desperate for police to finish their investigation so a coroner can re-examine her 1980 murder and the brothers can get the closure they’ve sought for four decades.

Mrs James was 38 when she was repeatedly stabbed in her Thornbury second-hand bookshop on June 17, 1980 and her murder remains unsolved.
 
https://www.theage.com.au/national/...-maria-james-1980-murder-20201207-p56la2.html
c0e2b02af5910d79461046ea228d3d629d6ded33


Maria James stabbed to death in 1980.
''Since 2013 Adam James has reported that he was abused as a child by local priests Anthony Bongiorno and Thomas O’Keeffe, who are both now dead.''

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Ms James’ son Adam hopes Father Anthony Bongiorno, now dead, is investigated. Credit:ABC
“I’m really hoping the coroner will thoroughly look into the involvement of the two priests,” Mark James said.

“I’m hoping for an answer and some closure into the matter, finally. It’s been over 40 years we’ve been waiting.”

The case will next return to court in April for a directions hearing so a time can be set for an inquest and the scope and number of witnesses can be determined.''
 
This case has been going on forever. The two priests are dead. So who is alive that could be charged. I don't remember ever hearing of another suspect. MOO
 
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