By MELISSA MEEHAN
After 40 years in the job, policeman still ponders unsolved killings…
TWO unsolved murders stick in the mind of Leading Senior Constable Dignis Kamoen’s when he looks back on his long career.
Forty years in a job is a long time.
But the deaths of Cuckoo restaurant owner Willie Koeppin and former local newspaper advertising manager Nanette Ellis will always stick in his mind – especially because their murderers have yet to be brought to justice.
Last week Ldg Sen Const Kamoen celebrated 40 years service in Victoria Police, and 33 years at Belgrave Police Station.
Formerly based at Ferntree Gully, Ldg Sen Const Kamoen moved to the Belgrave station in 1981 because he and his wife decided that night shifts weren’t for him.
“Belgrave was close, and didn’t have a night shift at the time, so it seemed like a good fit,” he said.
“Six months later, I was back on night shift.”
When asked why he stayed at Belgrave for so long – when others had come and gone to other stations.
“I was brought up here,” he said.
“I like the scenery and everything – it’s home.”
He said there were many memories of his time on the force, including two weeks in Queensland for a court case after he found a woman wanted for a shooting.
She was found by local police hiding in the hills.
“I got a trip to Queensland once,” he said.
“There was an armed robbery in Queensland, and there was a person shot dead – but we found her hiding out in Monbulk.
“So I was able to go up for two weeks for the hearings.”
But it wasn’t all interstate trips for him.
He recalls a cold and dreary night in the 1980s when a father and son had come into the station.
“It was obvious that the kid had broken into the place, he didn’t say that, but he said he had been in a property and seen a body wrapped in plastic,” he said.
“So we went to the property, and sure enough we found the body of a woman perfectly preserved in plastic – apparently the daughter couldn’t let go of her mother.
“All jobs weren’t like that – but that sticks in your memory as a bit weird and different.”
He has no plans to retire yet, so he has more time to create many other memories.
