A $1 million reward is being offered to solve the cold case murder of a Melbourne mother 46 years ago.
Mary Anne Fagan was 41 when she was last seen alive about 10.30am on February 17, 1978, in the yard of her home in Armadale.
She had just driven four of her five children to school.
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The children — then aged 15, 13, 12 and 6 — came home to find the side gate open and could hear their 17-month-old sibling crying in the house however the house was locked and they could not get inside.
Fagan’s car was still in the driveway.
The children went to a phone box to call their father, who was away working. He had briefly spoken to his wife over the phone about 10am.
The children then returned home and broke a window to get inside the house.
They found their mother dead in the front bedroom. She had been bound, gagged and stabbed several times.
A motive for her murder has never been established and personal items taken from the home remain unrecovered.
“We know her family still feel her loss as keenly as they did 46 years ago,” Victoria Police Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said.
“Each of her children has had to grow up without their mother and I know they have thought about that almost every day.
“Mary Anne was brutally murdered for no apparent reason in the place she should have felt safest, and with her 17-month-old baby nearby.”
On Friday, Victoria Police announced a $1 million reward for information to catch and convict those responsible for her death.
A reward of $20,000 was previously offered in April 1978 and increased to $50,000 in June of the same year.
Detectives have spoken to dozens of people over the years but remain confident the cold case can be solved.
“Hopefully this public appeal provides the motivation for someone to contact police after all these years,” Thomas said.