After 19 years of marriage and abuse at the hands of her husband, Kath Bergamin from King Valley in Victoria found a way to leave.
The 37-year-old mother-of-three filed a restraining order against her husband John Bergamin and moved to the town of Wangaratta, along the Hume Highway, finding a job teaching disabled children.
Though her ex-husband knew where she lived – he visited under the guise of picking up the children – his hunting guns had been confiscated by police and Kath likely felt safer, living in a house with a flatmate, than she’d ever felt in her marriage.
On 18th August 2002, Kath was home alone watching a movie and drinking a cup of tea. She received a phone call around 7:30pm from a friend and that was the last conversation she would have with anyone but her killer.
A single intruder, or several – the police don’t yet know – entered her home, bound her with tape and kidnapped her.
Kath’s body has never been found. Her killer never identified.
Fifteen years later, and a fresh push to deliver justice is underway.
In the initial investigation, police quickly honed in on the estranged husband. John’s history of violence, and his frequent threats to kill Kath if she ever left, painted him as malicious enough to do the crime.
“She was a very scared lady. She had endured a very long and abusive relationship,”retired senior constable Mick Harvey, who was serving in the community at the time of Kath’s murder, told Channel Seven’s Sunday Night. “She was scared of John. She wasn’t allowed to do anything. She was kept at home.”
