The husband of a Wellington-born woman whose body was found in a Melbourne park is now considered the number one suspect in her death.
Karen Ristevski's badly decomposed body was found wedged between logs on a dirt track north-west of the city on Monday.
On the day of her disappearance, her husband Borce Ristevski told police his wife went for a walk to "clear her head" after they argued about money last June.
Ms Ristevski reportedly inherited a share of a NZ$385,000 estate left by her father before she went missing. Her father died in 2014.
It has been reported Mr Ristevski told detectives he took his wife's car for a drive on the day of her disappearance. He said there was a problem with the fuel gauge, which fixed itself when he went over a bump, so he took the car home.
Mr Ristevski's phone was also detected in Diggers Rest on the day of Ms Ristevski's disappearance. Her phone pinged on towers on Calder Highway and Gisborne. Calder Highway runs through Diggers Rest. Gisborne is about 17 minutes' drive from Diggers Rest. Mr Ristevski's phone was switched off for two hours on the day of his wife's disappearance.
Since Monday's grim discovery, several witnesses have also come forward.
A couple told police they saw a man with a shovel in the area. They joked with him about burying a body, while the man remained expressionless.
A local woman also reported seeing a white van parked on Loch Rd. Ms Ristevski's body was found close to a track that runs from Loch Rd in Mount Macedon Regional Park.
Ms Ristevski is originally from Stokes Valley near Wellington.
Her Wellington-based cousin Stephen Richardson believes an arrest, whether that be Mr Ristevski or not, won't be far away.
"We have our closure on that side of it, but of course now to get full closure we have to find out exactly what did happen to Karen and hopefully justice prevails for Karen at the end of the day," Stephen Richardson says.
Newshub.
