Mary Anne Fagan.Photo:Victoria Police
Victoria Police
Police in Victoria, Australia are offering a $1 million reward for help with the suspicious death of a mother of five from 46 years ago.
The last known contact Fagan had was a phone call with her husband around 11:00 a.m.
After the school day concluded, her four older children — aged 15, 13, 12 and 6 — arrived home to their 17-month-old sibling crying alone in the home. Fagan’s car was in the driveway; all the doors in the house were locked, but the house side gate was open.
After the children broke a house window to get inside, they discovered their mother dead in a bedroom. She was “bound and gagged, and fatally stabbed a number of times,” police said.
Mary Anne Fagan.Victoria Police
The Victoria police shared that “a motive for her murder has never been established and a number of personal items taken from the home have never been recovered," adding, “Detectives believe that it is possible there are still people in the community who know what happened to Mary Anne and who was responsible.”
The Feb. 15, 2024 announcement for a $1 million reward follows the April 1978 $20,000 reward and the June 1978 $50,000 reward.
“Investigators are hopeful this new reward will encourage someone to come forward with information,” read the Victoria police press release.
“A significant investigation into Mary Anne’s death has been conducted over the past four decades to try and determine who was responsible for her murder and what the motive was,” Victoria Police Homicide Squad detective inspector Dean Thomas said in the statement.
“Police have spoken to dozens of people as part of this investigation, however there is always the possibility there is someone out there who is yet to speak to us,” Thomas said, explaining that any new information could provide the authorities with a chance to “follow up any possibility or new avenue of inquiry.”
“Mary Anne was a much-loved mother, wife and daughter and we know her family still feel her loss as keenly as they did 46 years ago,” said Thomas. “Each of her children has had to grow up without their mother and I know they have thought about that almost every day.”
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Police urge anyone with information about Mary Anne’s death to contact Crime Stoppers Victoria at 1800-333-000 or submit a confidential report online atwww.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
source: people.com
