A PLACE FOR
COLD CASES THEY MAY BE GONE, BUT COLD CASE HOMICIDE VICTIMS HAVE NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN. Families left behind often carry the burden of keeping their loved one’s memory alive long after the attention of the media and wider public has faded. And for them, there will be little comfort in their lives until they get an answer to the question which has plagued them for years, if not decades – “Why?” Officer in Charge of the Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Timothy Day said that for most families the questions of ‘Who?’, ‘What?’, ‘How?’, ‘Where?’ and ‘When?’ don’t matter as much; it’s the ‘Why?’ that keeps them up at night.
To try and get the answer these Victorian families deserve, Det Insp Day has launched a new Homicide Squad Cold Case Hub, hosted on the Victoria Police website, with the hope that a member of the public will provide the information needed to finally unmask a killer. One tragic case featured on the hub is the coldblooded murder of Jane Thurgood-Dove, in what police believe to be a case of mistaken identity. Ms Thurgood-Dove was gunned down in front of her three young children in the driveway of her Niddrie home in 1997.
She had returned home after picking up her children from school and preschool when a stolen, metallic blue Holden Commodore pulled up outside the front of her property and a gunman stepped out and shot her multiple times. The car was later found torched in a nearby street. Detectives have interviewed a number of persons of interest during the past two decades — two of whom have since passed away — however no-one has ever been charged with Ms Thurgood-Dove’s murder.
They want to know why their loved one was murdered. 01 6
POLICE LIFE | WINTER 2021
