Hunt for killer

By Tania Martin
A REWARD of $100,000 is still on offer to the person who can bring an arson killer to justice.
Police have renewed their call for information from the public to find the man they say started five fires which killed three people and destroyed 42 homes in January 1997.
Arson Squad detectives are chasing new leads in the 11 year investigation after information came to light about a suspicious utility which was seen in the area at the time.
Detective Sergeant Rod Stormonth said a Crime Stoppers tip-off last week identified a Ford XD and investigators want to speak to the driver urgently.
A computerised face image was developed in 1997 of a man who was seen in the area at the time.
He is described as caucasian, about 30 years old with short cropped hair. Investigators are continuing to attempt to identify this man.
Five fires were lit in the Dandenong Ranges on 21 January 1997.
The first started at 10.20am in Montrose and by the time the last fire, which commenced around 12.35pm in Ferntree Gully, had ravage the area, a total of 42 homes were destroyed and another 45 were damaged.
Husband and wife Graham, 26, and Jennifer Lindroth, 24, were at their Seabreeze Avenue residence in Ferny Creek with their 50-year-old neighbour, Genevieve Erin, when the fire engulfed their home.
All three were found dead in the basement of the building.
Jennifer’s mother, Jacqui Bell, is hoping this new information will finally unearth the person responsible.
“I am hoping that someone can come forward so we can put this nightmare behind us,” she said.
Ms Bell is urging anyone who may have seen anything on that fateful day 11 years ago to come forward.
“Every day we live with that horror of knowing what an horrendous death Jenny and Graham endured,” she said.
“It would be good to finally have a bit of closure and justice.”
Ms Bell said on that day in 2007, Jenny and Graham where preparing to leave when they were confronted by a wall of flames.
“I was talking to her on the phone as they were getting ready to leave,” she said.
“The fire roared up the mountain and they never had the chance to get out.”
At the time police said that the locations and timing of these fires indicate that they were deliberately lit by one or more people.
Investigators have spoken to a number of people of interest over the past 11 years.
However, no charges have been laid.
Police are also appealing to people who have phoned Crime Stoppers in the past with information about the fires to call back.
A $100,000 reward announced in 2002 still stands for information leading to the arrest and subsequent conviction of any person responsible for the fires.
While Det Sgt Stormonth does not believe a series of suspicious fires in the Dandenong National Ranges this year are linked to the tragedy of 1997.
He said such incidents of fire cause concern for all local residents and fire fighters.
“No one wants to relive the events of 1997,” he said.