Husband charged with murder in 34-year-old cold case mystery

A man has been charged with murdering his wife, 34 years after he told police he found her dead on the top storey landing of their family home.

Melinda Freeman, 27, was beaten to death inside her Whittlesea home, which appeared to have been ransacked, on October 4, 1991.

At the time, her husband, Craig Freeman, told authorities he had been out with their baby son for several hours – at a card game in Kinglake – and returned about 11.30pm to find his home burgled and his wife dead.

Freeman, now 63 of Greensborough, was arrested by Victoria Police on Wednesday and charged with one count of murder.

He appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court via video link from custody, wearing a black and red jacket, where the court heard prosecutors needed more than four months to prepare a brief of evidence due to the “large volume of material” involved in the cold case.

“This is a charge of homicide which is the subject of a lengthy investigation,” a prosecutor said.

Freeman’s lawyer said his client had previously suffered a stroke and asked that he be medically examined while in custody.

“He’s not on medication at the moment for that, but it would be appropriate for him to be seen by a nurse at the earliest opportunity just to make sure he’s all right,” he said.

“It’s his first time that he’s ever been in custody.”

A coronial inquest into Freeman’s murder in 1997 was unable to identify who was responsible.

“We were hoping for just one or two words ... that’s all we wanted,” Melinda Freeman’s mother, Deanna Bird, said at the time.

Police had repeatedly appealed for public assistance to help with their investigation, offering a $1 million reward in 2022 for information that led to an arrest.

Freeman was remanded in custody to appear in court again in March next year.

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