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- In short: Victoria Cafasso was stabbed to death in broad daylight on a scenic beach on Tasmania's east coast in 1995 and the case remains unsolved
- What's next? Police hope someone who saw a light-coloured Subaru station wagon in the area or the surfer who was seen driving it will come forward
Police have conducted new searches and released descriptions of a man and images of a car seen near the scene of the long-unsolved murder of a young Italian tourist.
Victoria Cafasso, 20, had been staying with family in Tasmania for barely a week when she was stabbed 17 times — in broad daylight — on Beaumaris Beach.
Fifty people visited that beach on the day of her death on October 11 — but no-one has come forward saying they saw or heard the crime.
No charges have ever been laid — and her father Giuseppe died only six weeks after the murder, never getting answers.
Earlier today, police released descriptions of a man and reconstructed images of a car seen near the scene.
Detective Acting Inspector Andrew Hanson said the renewed call for information came as the result of a recent digitisation of the investigation's evidence.
"During the process of the review and after speaking with the witnesses and conducting those enquiries, we discovered there was now a more strong link with a description of a man that was seen running across the beach at 11am on the day Victoria was found and a driver of a vehicle that was seen in the area at around that time," he said.
The reconstructed images and video show a "distinctive" car — a light-coloured Subaru station wagon — parked near the beach, which police said was "spotted at various locations in the Beaumaris area including at Freshwater Creek at the time of Victoria's murder".
Earlier today, police said witnesses had told officers that the driver of the vehicle at the time was a man who looked like a "surfer" aged in his 20s, about 182 centimetres (six feet) tall with a "slim build, but very fit".
Acting Inspector Hanson said both the car and the man seen running were points of investigation at the time, but that the potential link between them was now in more focus.
"There were obviously enquiries done at the time around this specific vehicle … but to date I'm not confident that we've identified the driver of this car," he said.
Acting Inspector Hanson said police believed the style of car was a popular choice around the time of the murder, but it was hoped the images would assist in jogging memories and assisting the investigation.
"We're hoping that maybe after its road use expired, this vehicle may have been sold or passed on and may have even been used on a farm or is sitting somewhere down the east coast," he said.
"The second aspect is to try and ask the local community there, or anybody that was involved around the time in 1995, if they actually have any knowledge of a person matching the description I've previously given who might have been using one of these cars."
'A number of properties' searched recently
Acting Inspector Hanson also confirmed that searches on the east coast and elsewhere in the state, including at properties, had been conducted in recent months.
"We've searched a number of properties throughout the course of the investigation, and obviously one of the focuses is to try and locate this vehicle," he said.
How the police handled the crime scene has been widely scrutinised, including in the 2005 coronial report handed down by Donald Jones.
While Mr Jones acknowledged the Tasmania Police Service had "devoted considerable time and resources" to the investigation, he said "some aspects" were "open to criticism especially in the early stages of the investigation".
These included the non-attendance at the scene by the state forensic pathologist, a delay in attendance of specialist crime scene examiners, the fact that only one suspect footprint at the scene was cast in plaster, and the scene not being documented on video.
Acting Inspector Hanson said, as with all unsolved matters, police were continually reviewing any information they received, and that they remained in irregular contact with Ms Cafasso's family.
"Victoria's family deserve closure, and our detectives continue to work to try and provide that," he said.
"This has obviously had a significant impact on Victoria's immediate family, and has done for quite some time.
"The important thing is that we know how to contact them … and if there are any significant developments, then we'll definitely be in touch with them."
Anyone with information related to the case is urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
A $500,000 reward is available for information that leads to a conviction.
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