Sarah Ristevski still refuses to think about her father’s involvement in her mother’s death, almost a year after he was convicted of killing her in their family home and dumping her body in bushes.
The 24-year-old said her father, Borce, who shocked Australia with an 11th hour guilty plea to the manslaughter of her mother, Karen, still loves his wife and ‘misses her every day’.
Ristevski, 55, killed Karen at their home Avondale Heights, Melbourne, in June 2016, before dumping her body in bushland.
He feigned innocence, lied to the police, the public and his daughter, and even carried his wife’s coffin at her funeral, until admitting to manslaughter on the eve of his murder trial in 2019.
Borce Ristevski and his daughter Sarah in 2016 before he was convicted of killing his wife
In an interview with 60 Minutes which reportedly earned her a six figure pay packet, Miss Ristevski insisted she can ‘see the sadness [he feels] at the loss of my mum’.
‘We both have the same amount of sadness. He loved my mum… He misses her every day,’ she said while holding back tears.
The graphic designer still speaks with and visits her father in prison, and said they had discussed her interview – the first she’s offered since her mother’s death.
But she denied she was ‘under his spell’ and said the interview was an opportunity to speak her truth.
‘He tells me I’m my own person and that’s how he raised me. For the interview, he told me to just be truthful and be myself. That’s all he asked,’ she said.
Karen Ristevski’s 24-year-old daughter Sarah has spoken publicly for the first time about her mother’s brutal death
Miss Ristevski famously stood by her father even when he pleaded guilty to killing her mother after three gruelling years of denying any involvement.
He has never offered any further details about her death.
She opted against providing the court a victim impact statement for the loss of her mother and instead offered a glowing character reference for her father to ‘highlight the man she knows’.
Despite his confession, Miss Ristevski isn’t entirely convinced of his guilt.
‘I don’t like to talk about what happened. We don’t talk about it. We don’t think about it,’ she said.
‘Even though he’s pleaded guilty I find it hard to comprehend that he is guilty. I think if he were in my position he would support me.
‘He’s my father. I have one parent left… I loved him before, I love him now and I’ll love him in 11 years when he’s home.’
Miss Ristevski said she simply ‘can’t go there.’
‘When you’re in my position, I think when your mind’s all over the place – different things (like) how my mum died. It’s not on my … I just can’t go there.
‘My heart is saying, I can’t comprehend. I can’t think about why my mum died.’
Dress shop owner Karen disappeared from the family home in Avondale Heights, north-west Melbourne, on June 29, 2016. Pictured with Borce and Sarah
Ristevski was jailed last April for at least six years after admitting to the manslaughter of his wife of 27 years.
Police revealed they had tapped phone conversations during the investigation which formed part of a 22,000-page evidence brief.
When Sarah asked her father where her mum was on the day of her disappearance, he told her she had gone for a walk after an argument. She said she could tell he was worried.
‘I felt like we were just zombies, just not sleeping, not eating, we just paused in that day. It just felt like we were trapped in a nightmare,’ Sarah told the program on Sunday night.
In December, Karen’s family’s appeal over the sentence was successful and Ristevski’s jail term was extended to 13 years, ten without the chance for parole.
Miss Ristevski said despite her father serving a sentence, she feels like her life, too, has been put on hold.
‘My dad is serving the time but I am as well… The realisation that I’m kind of alone.’
Borce Ristevski, 55, killed his wife Karen (left) at their home Avondale Heights, Melbourne, in June 2016, before dumping her body in a regional park. Pictured with their daughter Sarah, who was 21 at the time
She eventually confessed that she did once ask her father if he had hurt her mother, but said he denied any involvement in her death.
‘He’s my dad, so nothing’s changed,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what to believe.’
Miss Ristevski tries her best to avoid thinking about her mother’s death at all.
‘I hate thinking about what’s happened. I’d rather think of the better times. I just think its tiring,’ she said. ‘I can’t move forward if I’m stuck in the past.’
Moments later, she rephrased her statement. ‘I’m not emotionally ready to be there,’ she confessed.
Borce Ristevski (pictured) was a pallbearer at the funeral of his wife Karen in March 2017
KAREN RISTEVSKI: HOW THE MYSTERY UNFOLDED
June 29, 2016
* Karen Ristevski last seen at her Melbourne home in Avondale Heights
* Her mobile phone pings off a tower in the Macedon Ranges
* A car similar to her black Mercedes SLK coupe spotted by CCTV cameras near Diggers Rest railway station
December 19, 2016
* Police search grassland, waterways, creeks and farms
February 20, 2017
* Karen Ristevski’s body found at Mount Macedon Regional Park
A hiker stumbled upon Karen’s body between two logs in the Mount Macedon National Park on February 20, 2017
March 6, 2017
* Funeral service held with husband Borce Ristevski a pallbearer, while daughter Sarah leads the procession
August 31, 2017
* Police recreate the journey of Ms Ristevski on the day she went missing in a black Mercedes, identical to hers
December 13, 2017
* Borce Ristevski charged with murder and faces court where a lawyer indicates a not-guilty plea. He is remanded in custody
April 18, 2018
* Ristevski returns to court where it’s revealed detectives tapped phone calls and planted listening devices as they investigated the alleged killing, compiling a 22,000-page evidence brief
* Ristevski is granted state-funded legal aid as he fights the allegations
Locked up: Borce Ristevski
March 12, 2019
* Prosecutors suffer a major setback.
A Supreme Court judge rules evidence about Ristevski’s conduct after Karen’s death could not be used as evidence of he had alleged ‘murderous intent’
March 13, 2019
* Ristevski’s charge is downgraded and he pleads guilty to Karen’s manslaughter death
April 18, 2019
* Ristevski is sentenced to a nine year jail term, with a six year non-parole period
May 13, 2019
* Prosecutors launch bid to increase Ristevski’s jail term, labeling his sentence ‘manifestly inadequate’.
The case heard by the Court of Appeal in November
Source: AAP, Daily Mail Australia