Police will probe new leads in the brutal murder of Canberra grandmother Irma Palasics after they received a swathe of new information from members of the public in the past week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mrs Palasics died after two men broke into the McKellar home she shared with her husband Gregor and bound and violently bashed the pair on November 6, 1999.
Her killers have been on the run since.
But a cutting-edge forensic search method has uncovered a DNA link between the home invasion and a previous break-in at the couple's home, as well as a seemingly harmless prank at the Phillip Pitch and Putt more than a decade later.
The new evidence led police to launch last week a fresh campaign calling for clues in a bid to crack the unsolved case and bring the men to justice.
They released CCTV footage of the putt-putt break-in, as well as facefit images of a suspect and a witness, to encourage members of the public to report any clues.
Detective Senior Constable Jarryd Dunbar, who is officer in charge of the investigation, said police received 30 pieces of information related to the case from within the ACT and interstate in the past week.
"That's quite a significant response, I think it's up there with the initial response that occurred back in November 1999," he said.
"Some of that new information has generated new leads for us, so we'll certainly be sifting through that information in the coming weeks just to determine where that takes us and where we go from here.
"But certainly the plan is to see where that information takes us and hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have some results for the family and the wider Canberra community as well."
The fresh DNA evidence indicated one of five men, who are seen in CCTV footage to break in to the facility, is closely related to one of Mrs Palasics' killers.
Senior Constable Dunbar said police were now confident they were "moving towards" identifying the five men involved.
"Also in relation to the facefits, we've been provided with some suggestions of who those people might be and we'll be working through that information in the coming weeks and months to determine where that takes us in relation to bringing the investigation to a close," he said.
Senior Constable Dunbar said the new leads indicated police were "making progress in the right direction".
"Certainly over this last week we've come closer than what we were this time last week."
He encouraged anyone with information they still hadn't provided to police to come forward.
"Don't rely on the fact that someone else has given us that information, if you know something call us up and let us know," he said.
Information can be reported anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or directly to ACT Policing 6256 7777.
