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[Music] there was Wednesday the second of August 1989 41 year-old margarita Edwards
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started the day like any other making sure her three daughters were up and ready for school Marguerite was happily
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married to Ian Edwards a successful orthodontist with the surgery in Bonn Dodd they lived in a
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two-story house on Victoria Road velara in Sydney's eastern suburbs volara is an
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extremely affluent suburb five kilometers east of Sydney CBD a few miles known for its quiet tree-lined
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streets and extremely expensive housing after getting her daughter's organized the Margaret dropped them off at ask him
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school she then made her way to an aerobics class before doing some shopping at Bondi she then returned to
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her will are a home sometime after midday later that afternoon Margaret's three daughters were waiting school had
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finished and they were wondering where mumbles [Music] when Margaret didn't show up to the
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school that afternoon it was very unusual many of the other parents even commented saying don't worry your mum is
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never late she'll be here soon but she never arrived the girls next door neighbour Marcia Osbourne ended up
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giving them a lift home Marcia telling them obviously something important they'd come up and everything would be
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fine but the girls had a feeling something wasn't right when they got home they saw Margaret's car parked in
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the driveway they walked inside and called out for their mum but got no reply as they
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slowly made their way to the kitchen they saw a pool of blood on the floor blood on the bench blood on the fridge
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and that chairs had been knocked over [Music] realizing something was horribly wrong
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marceia grabbed the girls and said let's get out of here I'll ring the place police arrived soon after and found
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Margaret's body upstairs laying in her walk-in wardrobe connected to the main bedroom she had extensive head injuries
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and one of aliens neckties was wrapped around her neck another necktie had been used to Garko
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detectives in specialist crime scene police were immediately called in and a forensic examination was conducted no
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fingerprints were found however they did find a towel with bloodstains on it it was 1989 and DNA analysis had only
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started in New South Wales that year so there was no large database to compare the sample to and the nature of the
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testing was very different to what exists today however it was possible that it would come in useful in the
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future to compare to a suspect if one was ever identified it was clear from the forensic examination that the
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initial attack occurred downstairs after which Marguerite was taken upstairs to the bedroom she was struck to the head
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repeatedly with what the forensic pathologist believed was a small hammer or similar tool the injuries were
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extensive causing a fractured skull and brain damage but the cause of death was strangulation there was no sign of
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forced entry to the house did Marguerite know her killer and let them in when they retrace Margaret's steps they
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found that she attended an aerobics class between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. at the nearby suburb of Bondi
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she was then seen shopping also at bondi around midday so that raised the possibility of another theory Marguerite
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was known to leave the door open while she was bringing in the shopping was her killer waiting and simply walked in
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behind her two witnesses were identified early on both heard screams coming from
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the house one was a building surveyor who looked in the direction of the house when he heard the screams but when he
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didn't see anything he got in his car and drove off the second was a woman who was walking
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past the house with her child she heard screams about 1:30 p.m. but decided not to report it as she believed
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it to be just another domestic she kept walking completely ignoring what she had
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heard when in ask the police if he could have Margaret's jewelry back there was no jewelry to give him she regularly
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Ward diamond ring and a watch but the killer had taken it the ring alone was worth $20,000
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that looked like a robbery had gone wrong Marguerite had no enemies so was the only thing that seemed to
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make sense and made even more sense when police learned that extensive renovations had been carried out in the
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family home over the last few years ian wasn't able to offer much assistance with exactly who was hired as Marguerite
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handled all of that while he was at work so did one of the tradesmen liked what he saw inside the house and decided to
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come back it seemed to fit when you think about the forensic pathologist stating the weapon use looked to be a
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small hammer or similar tool police felt like they might be onto something there
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were no records kept of what tradesmen attended so police got to work questioning as many of them as they
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could builders carpenters painters toilers plumbers it all amounted to nothing though they never tracked down
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anyone who had completed work in the Edwards home as good as the theory looked it wasn't gaining any momentum
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[Music] police even spent days searching every hardware store they could find trying to
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find a hammer or similar tool that could have inflicted the injuries it was hoped
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that if they could identify the tool it would help narrow down the search for the tradesman but that also amounted to
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nothing they couldn't find anything that matched Ian made an emotional appeal to
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the media asking anybody with information to come forward photos of the stolen jewelry were also
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released to the media in the hope that somebody would recognize them and they would turn up
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they were expensive unique pieces but this didn't get the police anywhere either as much as they liked the robbery
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theory they couldn't ignore the fact that the majority of murders are committed by somebody close to the
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victim everything suggests that Ian and Marguerite were in a loving marriage with no problems at all
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ian was quoted as saying to my knowledge my wife had no enemies we had a perfect
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relationship for the 20 years of our marriage and we were very much in love we have three children and we are very
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close and happy family Ian went on to describe marguerite is happy graceful always smiling always
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laughing and never angry saying their marriage was perfect police and ian had an alibi he was at work the whole day
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but it was when police started to look a bit closer they realized that maybe Ian's alibi wasn't as solid as it
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initially seemed Ian's orthodontic surgery was 2.2 kilometers away from the family home roughly 1.3 miles through
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their investigation they learned that Ian was supposed to go home and have lunch with Marguerite the day she was
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killed but he says he got too busy and had to cancel instead he sent his nurse here to
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buy him a sandwich the nurse was out for 25 minutes and Dane didn't have any patience during that time so there was a
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25 minute window that Ian didn't have an alibi for ian was a fit man who was named a
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regularly guy for a run during his lunch break police were able to confirm that his car never left the parking lot of
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his surgery could have run home killed Marguerite and made it back to his surgery in time two detectives completed
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the challenge running from me and surgery to his house and then back again factoring in the time it would have
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taken to commit the murder and the fact am was definitely back seeing a patient straight after lunch showing no signs
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had just been for a run police were able to rule it out they kept an open mind a.m. wasn't ruled out completely but the
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ID he physically had anything to do with it was extremely doubtful [Music] that pretty much left them back to
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square one the tradesmen theory had gotten them nowhere and dayand bidonville o'clock Lee that didn't stop
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the public's opinion though and felt the suspicious eyes on him everywhere he went
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his business partner 17 years suddenly ended their relationship and people in the area even held dinner parties to sit
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around and discuss theories about how an could have pulled it off police freely admitted the investigation
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had stalled and it was going cold it was nine months later in May 1990 that a $50,000 reward was offered for any
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information that led to the case being solved not only that the government took the step of offering a pardon to any
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person who may have assisted so long as they weren't directly involved in the killing police did get plenty of calls
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and tips and names to check out but none of it was useful the case continued to run cold and it looked destined to
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remain on the unsolved shelf but on the 23rd of August 1991 they got the break who they were looking for 35 year-old
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Christopher Anthony Lorenzo was in Long Bay jail in Sydney waiting to be sentenced on several armed robbery
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charges Lorenzo was born in Cape Town South Africa on the 2nd of July 1956 he had a history of drug use break-ins and
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armed robberies Lorenzo had gotten the word out he had information that would be of interest to homicide detectives
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they paid him a visit and became very interested in what he had to say when he told them he knew who killed the
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dentist's wife Emma Lara [Music] prison inmates generally don't give information to police out of the
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kindness of their hearts there is always a motive and Lorenzo was no different he
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wanted to be moved to a jail that was a bit easier to do time than Long Bay and he wanted police to have a word for the
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judges so he could get a reduced sentence for his armed robbery charges he was facing a 5-year sentence but he
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didn't want to do that long Lorenzo had made a handwritten statement for police detailing everything he knew
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about Marguerite's murder this was his story the day Marguerite was murdered Lorenzo was at a local pub having lunch
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and enjoying a few beers his friend David and ozark approached him and wanted to borrow his car it was
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actually Lorenzo's girlfriend's car but he agreed when in ozark returned the car
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a few hours later there was blood in it and blood on an Ozark himself Lorenzo asked him what the [ __ ] happened and as
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I told him he broke into a house but it went wrong a woman saw him and started screaming so he had the solitaire
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I know Zack pointed out a replica pistol in the boot and told the renzo degree on
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it but Lorenzo didn't get rid of the gun he decided to keep it for insurance [Music]
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while he was cleaning up the blood in the car he found an expensive-looking gold
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bracelet underneath one of the seats he decided to keep that too and he later gave it to his girlfriend police
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believed Lorenzo story had merit and all Zack was well known to them at the time
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of Marguerite's murder he wasn't long at a prison after doing time for a manslaughter charge but they needed to
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do some background work to try and verify the story Lorenzo said he could actually help them with that he could
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give police the replica pistol that Anna's Ark told him to get rid of in his words the gun has been right under your
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nose for years beyond hold up boys have got it it's a police exhibit when Lorenzo was arrested for the armed
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robberies police searched his house and took a number of items including a replica pistol as Lorenzo's charges
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weren't finalized and he was still waiting to be sentenced the replica pistol was still locked away in police
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evidence the pistol was immediately sent to forensics to see if they could link it to the murder and they could
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Marguerite's head injuries were a match to the Reese sought on the replica pistol
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so the weapon used wasn't a small hammer or similar tool as previously thought not only that the pistol tested positive
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for blood they also managed the track down Lorenzo's girlfriend Josephine copani not only did she
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confirm Lorenzo story but she still had the bracelet that was a bracelet that Marguerite had custom-made nobody had
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realized that was missing until Lorenzo gave his story to police Josephine said it was Lorenzo who actually wore it
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around initially but he said it was too tight for him so he ended up giving it to her his story was that somebody had
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given it to him at a takeaway shop in Surry Hills a suburb not too far away from where Lara Lorenzo seemed the
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genuine and authentic and now there was some evidence to back up what he was saying it looked like he was telling the
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truth and the lure of a reduced sentence and a softer prison to do his time was enough
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for him to give up his friend David annals Ark became the prime suspect Lorenzo hadn't had any contact with a
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Noah's Ark for a little while so there was no suspicion when police put their plan into action they took Lorenzo out
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of a jail and placed him into a motel room at Bondi where they had installed both video and audio surveillance police
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were monitoring in the next room the plan was simple Lorenzo would lure his old buddy to the motel and get him
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talking about the murder of Margaret as much as they believe though renzo was willing to help they didn't completely
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trust him they couldn't handcuff him that would give the game away so what they did was
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put a plaster cast on his lake making it impossible for him to run or to drive just there's a bit of insurance
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so he wasn't tempted to try and escape [Music] an Ozark arrived as planned and Lorenzo
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got to work he was successful in getting an Ozark talking they went at it for three hours unfortunately not one second
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of the conversation had anything to do with the murder of Marguerite Edwards Lorenzo didn't bring it up at all and
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Daniel's Ark wasn't volunteering anything Lorenzo failed miserably he acknowledged
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his failure and apologized saying he was scared and he couldn't work out how to bring the murder up without making it
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obvious but the conversation didn't sit right with detectives it led them to become suspicious of what exactly his
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motive was they decided to go back and have a closer look at that handwritten statement he gave them there just so
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happened to be a world-renowned a.document profiler in Sydney at the time he was getting ready to fly back to
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the USA but detectives just caught him in time at the airport they handed him Lorenz a statement along with the
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background of the case a few weeks later detectives received a detailed 30 page report analyzing Lorenzo statement every
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word and every phrase was looked at as was the way the renzo story changed from the first to the second person the
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conclusion if Christopher Lorenzo wasn't the murderer he was at the very least present when the murder was committed
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police had a new number-one suspect Lorenzo had a unique blood type found in just 3% of the population and match the
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blood type found on the towel at the crime scene given that Lorenzo was cooperating with police on a murder
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investigation he had been moved to a special part of the jail or reserved for police informants the rats the snitches
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as they are commonly known he became a little too friendly with his cellmate whose identity is protected but he was
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given the nickname mr. Smith Lorenzo couldn't help but brag how he had put one over the police he obviously forgot
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what part of the jail he was in because mr. Smith notified the police and they quickly arranged for him to wear a wire
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on the 19th of June 1992 Smith's got him talking again Lorenzo claimed there were actually two
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other men present during the murder and they were all off their faces on heroin Lorenzo said the woman came home and
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John pointed the gun at her and she started screaming he grabbed her and started hitting her in the head with the
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butt of the pistol until she shut up see what sparked him off was her screaming because he told her to shut up he
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pointed the gun at her she screamed and she kept screaming the more he hit her the more she screamed Smith so he would
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have hit her in a frenzy yeah because she was screaming Smith so she was screaming and he's bashed her
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in the head Lorenzo and she wouldn't stop screaming Smith why did he hit her he could have
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put his hand over her mouth Lorenzo we had just had a shot of smack before going there and John just
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panicked and started hitting her in the head then she was taken upstairs to a bedroom she came to and started
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screaming again John hit her in the head a few more times she kept screaming so this other guy grabbed the toy and
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strangled her with it and left her lying in the Wardrobe Smith why did he strangle her Lorenzo
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because she could identify the other guy this next passage will give you an idea
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of who the other guy was Smith is dr. Edwards well-off Lorenzo when I did the tiling at their
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house I used their phone so I could check out the house they were loaded the tradesmen theory was right all along
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Christopher Lorenzo had been to the Edwards home during their renovations he had completed toiling work there over
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a number of days in September 1998 about one year before the murder police were unaware of that before Lorenzo's taped
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conversation Lorenzo was trying to say there were other people involved so it was like a confession but he couldn't
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come out and directly say it was just him so he described it as someone else who attacked it the guy who was scared
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Marguerite could identify him was of course Lorenzo he was talking about himself
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Lorenzo then bragged how he stole Margaret's watch ring and bracelet Smith asked him if he had much trouble getting
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the ring off Lorenzo said no ma'am no but I mean she had blood all over her hands over her head what do you think I
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couldn't sleep for six months Smith did you have to turn her over or anything like that to get the rings Lorenzo no no
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no no she was just laying there with her hands were tied behind her back so it was easy
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so she was laying faced in yeah it was easy it wasn't hot then the renzo started talking about the bracelet they
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can never charged anybody with that it wasn't reported as missing from the scene of the crime
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I could have Solan at any time I was at that house you know what I mean when I was toiling it that's why there's been
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nothing ever on this bracelet Smith than us did anybody who went into the house cut themselves leave any blood behind
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anything that might have been mixed with her blood you said you cut your hand Lorenzo
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yeah Smith could you have dropped any blood inside the house Lorenzo only thing in the place was on the tail where
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was the tail used to walk down the [ __ ] handles and [ __ ] Lorenzo was so confident because he really believed in
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his alibi that he was at the pub having lunch at the time of the murder and he never left
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he didn't think police would ever be able to crack it just in case you had trouble picking that up my alibi is
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sweep it was three years ago no one's gonna even remember me in the pub but no one's gonna remember me not
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being in that pub so how long were you gone from the pub an hour something like that three-quarters of an hour coppers
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can't prove anything Lorenzo saw how well-off the AdWords looked and decided to go back and steal
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from them breaking in using a copied key he had from when he was toiling that's why there was no sign of forced entry
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but Marguerite came home while he was there instead of running away he decided the killer
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Lorenzo's attempt to pin a murder he had committed onto somebody else in order to
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have his jail time reduced backfired in a big way on the 7th of July 1992 Lorenzo was taken from Long Bay jail to
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a nearby police station where he was interviewed and charged with the murder of margarita woods he pleaded not guilty
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and his trial was held in the Supreme Court and commenced in September 1993 Lorenzo wasn't done with his old mate
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David an Ozark either ignoring the conversation that had been recorded he went back to his original story that he
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gave police that a Noah's Ark borrowed his car and he was just at the pub the whole time the recorded conversation
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being explained away is just bragging to his son they're trying to make himself look good this time he added an
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explanation for his blood being at the scene and that was that a Noah's Ark made him go to the house after the
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murder to wipe it down for fingerprints and it was while wiping the place down he cut himself the trial lasted four
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weeks they took the jury just over three hours to reach their verdict guilty Ian
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Edwards had this to say after the verdict came through we spent four weeks in there listening to how somebody
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bashed and strangled her to death we're glad that it's finished technically for us and that somebody has been convicted
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with the crime we don't hate the renzo in any way he did what he did and that was his mistake and he'll now have the
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rest of his life I think to think about it in jail he could have at least had the courage
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to maybe admit what he did and I think it would have been a lot easier on everybody concerned including himself
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what I was trying to do was tell the world what he did only he didn't have the courage to say he did it he used
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somebody else as the medium of relieving his own conscience the judge said to Lorenzo it was a cowardly and brutal
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attack a murder in her own home in broad daylight of a woman going about her own
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business who had done you no harm knowing that Marguerite would be able to identify him as the toiler from the year
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before he decided to kill her Lorenzo was sentenced on the 26th of November 1993 he received a sentence of 22 years
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and six months with a non-parole period of 17 years but Lorenzo had since been sentenced on the armed robbery charges
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and they didn't expire until October 1996 so his sentence for the murder didn't start until then meaning he would
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be eligible to be released in 2013 luckily instead of keeping his mouth shut in doing his five-year sentence for
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armed robbery Lorenzo decided to try and pin a murder on a friend to get out early in doing so
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he implicated himself and the case was able to be solved instead of five he would now be in jail for at least 22
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years on the 30th of November 2010 Lorenzo made a visit to the prison doctor complaining that he'd been
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feeling unwell for a while tests revealed he was suffering from advanced stages of leukemia he was
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transferred to Prince of Wales Hospital he died two months later on the 9th of January 2011 aged 54 two years and nine
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months before he was eligible for parole [Music] you