Police have offered a $1 million reward for information about the murder of a Werribee mother in her home almost 30 years ago.
Maryanna Lanciana was found dead in her Kiely Avenue home on July 3, 1984.
A story in the Werribee Banner at the time reported that the 23-year-old mother had been shot once in the head at close range.
She was found dead in her bed by her husband who had spent the night at his parents’ house and returned home just before 1pm. Her 23-month-old son was asleep in the house at the time of her death. There were no signs of forced entry to the house.
Police believe Ms Lanciana was shot between 10pm on July 2 and 1pm the following day.
At the time, detectives were told that two friends visited her house about 8pm on July 2.
They said she was in high spirits and was making plans to celebrate her birthday on July 13.
Last week, the homicide squad’s Detective Inspector John Potter said police believed that Ms Lanciana’s killers were also involved in the deaths of security guard George Germanos in March 2001 and property developer Dimitrios Belias in September 1999.
Mr Belias was killed in an execution-style murder in a car park on St Kilda Road, Melbourne. Mr Germanos was shot and killed in an Armadale park.
Inspector Potter said while Ms Lanciana had had no known criminal associations, information uncovered during an investigation into Mr Belias and Mr Germanos’ deaths indicated that the same offenders were responsible for her death.
“While I can’t go into detail about the information held by investigators, we believe the same group of offenders are responsible and we are treating the three murders as linked,” he said.
“There are people out there who know what happened to Ms Lanciana and I am appealing to them to contact police or Crime Stoppers and tell us what they know.”
“While I understand that some people might be fearful about coming forward, we will protect them and can put measures in place for anyone concerned about their safety.
