Not strictly on topic (sorry!) but i found this a very interesting read for those wondering about the horrific ordeal the detectives must go through.
I've been thinking more about it since I met a man whose son is actually one of the top homicide squad detectives in Victoria and presided over the Jill Meagher case (and I imagine this case too).
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-faces-in-the-unsolved-murder-files-20091009-gqug.html
Among the many victims of prolonged and unsolved murder investigations there is often one group that gets little recognition - detectives who work on the cases.
The pressure is well-known among senior hands in the Homicide Squad, particularly since the death of Detective Sergeant Steve Leach.
Mr Leach was one of the state's most experienced homicide investigators and worked on the Ivan Milat murders, the disappearance of Samantha Knight and spent two years walking through massacre sites and talking to survivors of the Balkans war during a secondment to the European War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
While on sick leave, Mr Leach walked into a weapons storeroom and shot himself dead.
At his funeral, Father Jim Boland spoke of how seeing the effects of evil and cruelty of the worst kind for so long had a cost.
I get that they want to give people a second chance etc etc but honestly I think once you do something so awful as killing someone you lose the right to liberty and you shouldn't be allowed to enter the community again.
