The identity of who brutally killed a Melbourne mum remains a mystery, but her two sons believe they know who was behind it and still want justice.
A second coronial inquest into the murder of Maria James at her Thornbury bookshop in 1980 declared an open finding and that an unknown person killed her.
But there were two key persons of interest, who have both since died.
The single mum was stabbed 68 times and found dead in her bedroom at the back of her bookshop after her ex-husband heard screams during a phone call on June 17, 1980.
No one was has ever been charged over the 38-year-old’s brutal murder.
Her two sons, Adam and Mark, said the Coroner’s findings about the circumstances of her death were a “disappointing blow”.
“We’ve been trying to get justice for many years and we were hopeful that we’d get some definitive answers … we haven’t – yet,” Mark James said.
"The findings handed down today have failed to name the person, or persons, responsible for taking our mum away from us in the cruellest way, which is incredibly disappointing,” he said.
“It’s clear to us, and to many others, that priest killed our mum, yet he appears to have gotten away with it.”
Her youngest son Adam said they would never stop trying to get justice for their mum.
“It’s been a long time to get justice for our mum,” he said.
Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English handed down her findings on Thursday after a lengthy inquest into the single mum’s death.
She was critical of how police at the time handled evidence, which included pillow slips and Mrs James’ clothing which disappeared and how some potential suspects were eliminated too quickly.
Six persons of interest were named at the inquest, including now dead Father Anthony Bongiorno, who the coroner found remained a person of interest.
“He had both the motive, proximity and opportunity,” Coroner English said of the now deceased priest.
His alibi was discredited and he was seen at the scene both before and immediately after Mrs James’s death, she said.
Her sons wanted another inquest after Adam revealed bombshell new evidence in 2013.
Mr James – who has cerebral palsy and Tourette’s Syndrome – told his mother Fr Bongiorno sexually abused him and on the day of her death she contacted the parish.
Another “significant” person of interest was Peter Keogh, who killed his ex-girlfriend Vicki Cleary in 1987.
The coroner found the investigators “did not properly consider” Keogh a suspect in the original investigation and key witnesses were not questioned.
The convicted killer also attacked a woman in 1970 and took his own life in 2001, the court was told.
The “greatest failure” in the investigation was the mishandling and disappearance of key evidence, according to the coroner.
There was no evidence police at the time looked for fingerprints on a knife block in the kitchen of Mrs James’s home, or the front door of the shop where the killer likely escaped from, the coroner said.
The brothers also said there should be ramifications for the shortcomings in the police investigation, which played a role in the brothers being “denied justice”.
They are considering launching a civil suit against police, their lawyer confirmed outside court.
The coroner recommended Victoria Police search for the lost clothes and pillow slips, which was the “minimum” they should do, implement a document process to record major decisions made in homicide investigations and review or amend its policy in relation to case management.
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