- About 9.30pm on Saturday, November 6, 1999, two men forced their way into the McKellar home of elderly couple, Gregor and Irma Palasics.
- The couple were bound and savagely beaten before the men ransacked their home and stole cash and jewellery. Irma did not survive her injuries and died at the scene.
- Gregor and Irma were also victims of a burglary in 1997 and an aggravated burglary in 1998 when they lived in Red Hill.
- Police suspect that a possible link exists between the burglaries in 1997 and 1998 and the home invasion on November 6, 1999, which resulted in the murder of Irma Palasics.
- September 7, 2012: Reward increases to $500,000 as police hunt her killer.
- New forensic tests suggested a DNA link between the murder and a putt-putt business break-in prompts a fresh push for information in late 2014.
- ACT Policing Senior Constable Jarryd Dunbar said brand-new forensic tests connected one of the attackers to one of five young men who broke into Pitch and Putt at Phillip on May 16, 2010.
- Australian Federal Police chief scientist Simon Walsh used a new forensic search that picked up "familial DNA", which linked criminals to genetic material belonging to a relative, to trace blood belonging to one of the men found at the putt-putt facility to Mrs Palasics' murder scene.
- But police dismissed the connection between the two incidents less than a year later, leaving Mrs Palasics' family in limbo again.
- Pressure of police resources, insufficient funding and frequent staff changes in the homicide team were blamed for the lack of breakthroughs on the investigation.
- Police announce on September 20, 2023 they have arrested a 68-year-old man in Rowville, Melbourne and accused him of the vicious bashing murder of Canberra grandmother Irma Palasics.
- Police are still hunting for a second offender, and have urged him to come forward, saying it was "only a matter of time" before he, too, was in custody.
- After nearly 24 years of pain, questioning and uncertainty, the family of Irma Palasics have some closure about the brutal murder of their mother, sister and grandmother.
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The Canberra Times
The 24-year timeline of Irma Palasics cold case murder investigation
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