A school teacher's alleged frenzied knife attack on a college principal has brought a decades-old, unsolved murder case back into the spotlight, revealing a tragic family history of violence and loss.
A Violent Attack at School Break-Up
Kim Ramchen, a 37-year-old teacher from Mulgrave, stands accused of a brutal assault on Keysborough Secondary College principal, Aaron Sykes. The incident occurred as school finished on Tuesday, with the Dandenong Magistrates' Court hearing on Wednesday that Ramchen 'snapped' upon learning his teaching contract would not be renewed.
Prosecutors allege he took out his frustrations on Mr Sykes, stabbing him in his office with two knives before a courageous colleague intervened and wrestled him away. This shocking act of violence has inadvertently reopened one of Victoria's most perplexing cold cases.
A Father Charged, But Never Convicted
The history is known all too well by former Victoria Police homicide detective, Charlie Bezzina. In 2002, Bezzina charged Kim Ramchen's father, Slavik Ramchen, with the murder of his wife, Jacqueline—the teacher's mother. Jacqueline, a former model for 'The Price is Right', vanished without a trace on April 10, 1992, aged just 42.
Mr Bezzina, speaking to the Daily Mail, stated unequivocally his belief that Slavik Ramchen "got away with murder." The case was thwarted when a magistrate dismissed it before it could reach a jury, citing insufficient evidence to secure a conviction. Slavik died from cancer six months later, having never spent a day in prison for the alleged crime.
"So we get your garden variety, domestic murder, that he got away with," Bezzina said. "And you know, unfortunately, it'll remain unsolved because the offender's dead."
A Family Fractured by Mystery
During Kim Ramchen's bail hearing, his older brother, lawyer Lev Ramchen, detailed the family's fractured past. He told the court he became legal guardian for Kim and their sister after their father's death, following the earlier disappearance of their mother when the boys were in primary school.
In a poignant and disturbing detail from 2002, a nine-year-old Lev told police: "I do not love my mother because I cannot love someone who is destroying my family." However, Lev later described his father as a caring, if strict, parent who was never physically violent towards his children.
Detective Bezzina firmly rejected Slavik's initial claim that his younger wife had abandoned the family to start a new life. "There are no two ways about it... she's clearly been murdered. She's been done away with," he asserted, pointing to Jacqueline's close daily relationship with her own mother and her two young children as evidence she would never have willingly left.
A Circumstantial Case Without a Body
The investigation was hamstrung from the start. With no body, no DNA evidence, and no murder weapon, Bezzina built a purely circumstantial case. He believed Slavik's motive was clear: the millionaire property developer stood to lose a significant portion of his wealth in a looming divorce.
Police undertook extensive searches, from the family's South Yarra mansion—including using ground-penetrating radar on a fresh concrete pour in the garage—to scouring dams and state forest near their Gisborne holiday home. Bezzina suspected Slavik, who had a history of assaulting his wife, may have buried her in the foundations of one of his construction sites, "encasing her forever in concrete."
Despite the detective's conviction, Magistrate Kim Parkinson ruled in a pre-trial hearing that a jury could not convict beyond reasonable doubt, noting claims that Jacqueline had once spoken of disappearing voluntarily.
A Legacy of Trauma and Violence
The echoes of this unresolved tragedy now resonate in the current case. Kim Ramchen, described as a straight-A student who achieved a perfect ENTER score of 99.95, is accused of a sudden, violent outburst.
For Charlie Bezzina, the news has brought back the frustration of an investigation he could not see through to justice. "I say, as a lay person, leave it for the jury to decide," he reflected. "Put him up and let the jury decide... the jury would have looked at it and thought 'something is not right here.'"
Kim Ramchen will return to court next month to face the charges relating to the alleged stabbing of Principal Aaron Sykes. Meanwhile, the mystery of what happened to Jacqueline Ramchen in 1992 remains officially unsolved, a ghost from the past revived by a violent act in the present.
